Top Newspapers in Italy | Italian Culture

Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone, welcome back to ItalianPod101.com.

My name is Desy.

Mi chiamo Desy.

And in this video, we're going to talk about newspapers in Italy.

I giornali.

Giornale means newspaper and it comes from the word day, so giorno.

Giornale, in fact, kind of means daily.

Giornaliero means daily, properly, but giornale comes from giorno as well.

Another way to say newspapers is quotidiani or quotidiano, if it's just one.

Quotidiano also means daily and that's where it comes from, because they come out daily.

Quotidiani or giornali.

Of course, there are also settimanali, so weekly, or mensili, so monthly, every month.

What do they talk about?

They talk about news, so notizie, and also cultura, culture.

In fact, there are many categories, like for example, economics, economia e finanze,

financial markets, politica, politics, or as I said, cultures or entertainment, spettacolo,

spettacolo, or sport, sports, which would be sport in Italian, just r sound makes it Italian,

sport, ambiente, environment, ambiente.

And sometimes there's la rubrica di, so the column of, so some famous journalist or the

editor himself or herself who writes what they want to write about, right?

Something else that is part of the newspapers is la vignetta satirica, so the satirical comics.

It talks about politics, most likely with irony, and of course, you can find them on paper,

not only comics, but on newspaper in general, on paper, so su carta, on paper literally,

or also we say edizione stampata, so printed edition, edizione stampata,

because then there's also edizione digitale, so the digital edition,

the version that you can find online, edizione digitale.

There are portals, so portali, for news which make it easier and faster, especially to get to the

news. Most newspapers have both anyway. Now it's funny to notice how in Italian the editor

is called direttore, direttore, so literally the director, direttore, the one who chooses what

goes there and who can change pieces of journalists, but l'editore, because we also have that word

editore is actually the publisher, brings and distributes newspapers in the edicola, edicola.

Edicola is just one, edicole plural for newspaper kiosks. Now that you have a general understanding

of Italian newspapers, let's look at the most famous ones, or better let's say the ones with

tiratura maggiore, so with the bigger circulation. Tiratura is circulation, tirare literally means

to throw, so tiratura is where it reaches, right? Tiratura maggiore or più diffusa, most extended.

First one, corriere della sera, corriere della sera, actually il corriere della sera.

Corriere is literally the carrier, so the one that brings things today is used in transports

and logistics for example, but it can also bring news, so corriere della sera because it brings

news at night, sera being night. It doesn't get out at night nowadays, but it did in the beginning

and that's where its name comes from. It was founded in 1876 in Milano and its motto is

la libertà delle idee, ideas freedom, the freedom of ideas, la libertà delle idee.

So lo slogan del corriere della sera è la libertà delle idee, slogan, motto in Italian, same thing.

Number two, la repubblica, la repubblica, obviously it means the republic,

la repubblica. Its headquarters are in Rome, it was founded by Scalfari who was already editor

of another newspaper called the espresso, which I find really interesting as a name because it's

both the coffee and also express news, right? But anyway, back to la repubblica, it's important

because what was new about this newspaper is that the culture was central and not just like as a

figure of speech. In fact, it was in the central page on the first page, while usually newspapers

have the cultural section on the third page. In the beginning, it was just four pages,

all'inizio era di sole quattro pagine. In the beginning, it was of only four pages, all'inizio

era di solo quattro pagine. But it's funny to notice how Mr Mondadori was involved already in

the foundation of this newspaper and nowadays Mondadori is one of the biggest publishers for

books. Numero tre, la gazzetta dello sport, la gazzetta dello sport, so sports gazette, gazette

is gazzetta. This one is particularly famous because it's pink, in fact it says tutto il rosa

della vita, tutto il rosa della vita, all the pink about life, because it's pink as I said,

but it hasn't been pink since the beginning. Actually, it was from number 27, but even before

then it wasn't white, it was actually green and that's because it was cheaper than having it

white because paper needed to be washed, so if you had it green or yellowish or pink in this case,

it was cheaper than white. Why pink in particular? Because pink, that's what people say at least,

is the shirt of biking, which was the most followed sport at that time. In fact, founded

in 1896, it basically focused on bikes and horse racing. Ciclismo, ciclismo is biking and

ippica, ippica. I know it doesn't have anything to do with cavallo, but that's because Latin.

The funny thing is that some of the journalists are actually ex-athletes.

Alcuni giornalisti sono ex-athleti. So you can have honest and genuine feedbacks.

Numero 4. Il sole ventiquattro ore. Il sole, the sun, ventiquattro, 24 hours. Ventiquattro ore

becomes like all together when you say it, ventiquattro ore. This is basically a fusion

between two newspapers. There was il sole and 24 hours. They became just one, il sole,

ventiquattro ore, as I just said. And it's basically a newspaper for professionals because

it talks about stocks, you know, and financial things and taxes and everything that you need to

be updated on daily. And it has a particular color, this one as well. It's color salmone,

color salmone. Salmon color, like pinkish, yellowish, in between.

Number 5. Numero 5 è la stampa. La stampa, literally the print, founded in Turin, Torino,

Torino. In the beginning the name was la gazzetta piemontese, so Piedmont's Gazette.

Gazette is really used in this field. I think in the beginning it was just four pages like other

newspapers as well and then went to eight, then to ten. And nowadays it varies between

a hundred and two hundreds every day. It also has the category il gusto, the taste, the flavor.

So it talks about cuisine, about cucina, cooking, cucina. And like many other newspapers,

it has a podcast as well. Of course, all these newspapers and others as well can have their own

political views on things. And that's why it's always better to read even more than one newspaper,

especially if you also want to be informed about the local stuff. In fact, there are many other

newspapers which I didn't really talk about in depth, but just to give you some names that you

may want to check out. There is also il messaggero, il resto del carlino, funny name, I know.

Il fatto quotidiano, the daily fact, il fatto quotidiano, il gazzettino, and then going local

like il mattino or Torino Cronaca. Again, another one from Torino and so on. There are plenty of

them and I'm sure you can find your favorite one in order to improve your Italian as well.

E voi leggete i giornali? And you? Do you read newspapers? Voi leggete i giornali?

Personally, I don't really. If I have to check for news, I go on the internet and then I read

books. And I know this is a situation for a lot of people, but la carta stampata ha sempre il suo

fascino. La carta stampata ha sempre il suo fascino. Printed paper has always its own charm

or charm if you want to say it in French. La carta stampata ha sempre il suo fascino. Or at least

that's what we say. What do you think about it? Che cosa ne pensi? Let me know in the comments

and if you want to learn Italian in the fastest, easiest, and most fun way possible, remember to

I'll see you soon. Bye bye. Ciao ciao.

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