The word Coronavirus has now entered forcefully into everyone's lexicon after the direct interventions of the institutions, the services and journalistic reports, the great television insights and the appeals in dialect from the mayors to their communities via the web and radio-TV (a decision full of meanings which instead of generating, in some cases, useless hilarity should have been a further sign of the gravity of the moment). And the TV - as Antonio Dipollina wrote on March 17 in "la Repubblica" - ended up replacing the domestic hearth.
Tg1 now reaches eight million fixed viewers and the all-news channels of Sky, Mediaset and Rai double the audience. It all began on March 9 when the country began to gradually close itself off having understood the seriousness of the situation. In the period 8-16 March, average television audience, in prime time, rose by 20% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 30 million viewers. The live TV speech by the President of the Council of Ministers, Giuseppe Conte, at 21.30 on Monday 9 March it was followed by 22 million 600 thousand viewers with a 71,5% share. AND Without the Newspaper, the next day, he was able to headline "TV returns entirely to public service". And Saturday night, the "extraordinary" with Conte from "Facebook", "around 23.00 pm", despite the wait (which does not suit the sacredness of institutional communication on television, moreover in a period of emergency) was followed, in total, by 16 million 250 thousand viewers, registering a share of 60,1, XNUMX%.
While, throughout the Peninsula schools of all levels were closed, the discussions of teachers and parents have begun to identify alternative solutions to traditional teaching and to make the best use of the tools already available. A way to avoid aggravating the hardships of children and their families and students in their last year of high school, about to finish their schooling.
Aldo Grasso in his column "Italian Pavilion" on Corriere della Sera of 8 March proposed to rekindle "Telescuola", the old Rai television programme, created in 1958 with the support of the Ministry of Public Education, with the aim of allowing children residing in localities without secondary schools to complete the compulsory education cycle (the minister was Aldo Moro, who also wanted the introduction of civic education as subject taught in schools). And in the wake of the results obtained, two years later, in 1960, "It's never too late" arrived, the program curated and conducted by the teacher and pedagogist Alberto Manzi, which made about one and a half million "pupils" take the elementary school certificate. mostly adults.
In his speech, Aldo Grasso has proposed the rediscovery of pedagogical TV, taking advantage of the enormous educational material of Rai, to leave the internet to universities and high schools. And the response of those who work in the Viale Mazzini company, despite the difficulties, was not long in coming. In addition to enhancing pedagogical TV with RaiCultura, he has put it online the Special "School 2020" . "School at home" proposes "The introduction to online teaching" while "School doesn't stop" presents a series of teaching support tools. Real insights with lessons ranging from Art to Economics, from History to Music, from Philosophy to English, from Mathematics to Literature. And a special program is dedicated to kindergarten.
The Government itself has asked Rai with the Undersecretary of Health Sandra Zampa to "find a way to explain to children the emergency that Italy is facing. Entertaining is not enough,” said the senator in an interview with Corriere della Sera of March 19. Even the children - he underlined - are afraid, they have the right to know what this virus is and why they have to stay at home reassuring them that they will find school, their companions, the certainties of before ". And since last Saturday "Diario di casa" has been on air, a sort of "game of why", edited by Rai Ragazzi, on Rai1 at 14.00 pm, on Rai Yoyo at 16.10 pm and on RaiPlay. In the daily strip, conducted by Carolina Benvenga and Armando Traverso, pediatricians, psychologists and educators answer questions sent by children via social media.
And so these days at home many viewers have discovered another TV who, on the other hand, know young parents and grandparents well: for some time Rai Ragazzi has been devoting space and resources to the education and entertainment of the little ones. Those in preschool age, for example, can iLearn English with the cartoon characters of “Let's Go Pocoyo” and “Peppa Pig” which proposes the same episode first in English and then in Italian or with the interactive series "Disney English".
Luca Parmitano, on the other hand, explains the mysteries of space to the older children with “Space to ground”. And from Turin the historic program "Albero Azzurro" continues to be broadcast in the morning and in the afternoon, which offers educational entertainment with spaces dedicated to creativity and play and moments of leisure. The show will turn 30 in May. At the same time, in recent days, new cartoons dedicated to children have started on Rai Gulp and Rai2, including "Leo da Vinci" a teenager in Tuscany in the fifteenth century who was already a brilliant inventor who has his almost contemporary (Monna) Lisa as a friend. And this great commitment was also discovered by the "Spettacolo" editorial offices of the newspapers which, since the beginning of the emergency, have dedicated more and more space to this type of programming dedicated to children.
Rai has not limited itself to thinking about the little ones, but has also integrated the offer for adults. Since last week, Rai3 has been broadcasting a series of 20 episodes dedicated to the greats of literature, from Dante to Pasolini presented by Edoardo Camurri. And on the same network the "Grande Teatro di Eduardo" is proposed again with Massimo Ranieri and Maria Angela Melato in the series of comedies by Eduardo De Filippo produced at the Rai Center in Naples, which enjoyed enormous success on Rai1: "Filumena Marturano", "Napoli milionaria ”,”These ghosts” and “Saturday, Sunday and Monday”.
Rai's ability to overturn the schedules in record time to meet the changing television needs starting with the youngest "was even highlighted by Variety" as Michela Tamburrino wrote on The print of 11 March. The recognition of the important American magazine, considered as a sort of bible of the world of entertainment worldwide, should go to the thousands of technicians, employees, journalists and operators of information and entertainment, conductors, officials and executives who continue to do their duty in a moment of serious difficulty, despite the precariousness of the current management that should govern the Viale Mazzini company.
