As immigration turns into the scapegoat of political and social tensions all over the world and politicians that seem to be talking about migration flows communicate instead their conception of the world and where it should head, this study investigates the refugee crisis of 2015 as represented in the two global television channels RT and BBCW. Widely studied for the depiction the press gives of the refugees, for the first time the refugee crisis is analyzed as an arena where competing understandings of international relations are constructed, in a media ecology where a myriad of actors have a chance to foreground their truth and where wars are fought, and possibly won, through the weapons of values, culture and the attraction they exercise (Nye Jr. 1990, 2013). Borrowing the concept of strategic narratives from international relations (Miskimmon et al. 2013) and applying it to textual analysis, the study employs framing analysis to operationalize it and explores a sample of 144 news items (74 from RT and 70 from BBCW) broadcast in August and September 2015 to retrace the narratives of the two channels. It finds out that, although conflicting with each other, both RT’s and BBCW’s narratives are strategic and aim at constructing a past, present and future of international relations that can influence what we expect, consider acceptable or conceivable on the international theater. The channels’ narratives are about the destiny of Europe and countries, depicting a reality that still responds to old Cold War dividing lines. An analysis of the actors allowed to speak and represented as acting confirms that in RT and BBCW political elites and the nations they represent have a greater chance, compared to other actors, to define international politics and shape shared understandings of how international relations works and where it is heading.

Although the 'affective turn' in social sciences lead to a new understanding of the effects of emotions on society, the role of emotions in media remains scarcely researched. Purpose of this study is to shed light on emotions in global television news and the ways in which gendered and racialized power relations may shape, and may be shaped by, emotional practices and discourses. Precisely because emotions play a significant function in discourses of political conflict, focus here is the coverage of political dissent, specifically the coverage of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in the two global television channels CNN International and Al-Jazeera English. The study thus builds on literature on emotions and political struggles, and literature on emotions in the media, to apply the questions posed therein to the medium global television. Analyzing broadcast items, this study employs a mixed method approach that combines a quantitative content analysis with a qualitative analysis of broadcast items grounded in Teun A. van Dijk’s tradition of critical discourse analysis, within an analytical framework that privileges emotions. The findings reveal an unequal distribution of voice in the coverage of both channels, which in connection with emotion practices and discourses, establishes a marginalization of voice along the lines of race, class, and gender. Accordingly, the study gives an account of the representation of voice, race, and emotions in the coverage of the Unite the Right rally, and establishes the importance of studying emotions in media in relation to these concepts.

Negli ultimi dieci anni la Federazione Russa si è lanciata nel mercato globale della produzione di contenuti televisivi, migliorando la qualità dei propri prodotti e distinguendosi per i generi e le storie raccontate. Studiarne il sistema televisivo contemporaneo, con la peculiarità dei remake “made in Russia”, permette di comprenderne il funzionamento e l’evoluzione passata e futura, in un’ottica di economia globale. Capire come e perché sui palinsesti nazionali circolano ancora oggi prodotti che sono una copia di serie televisive originali occidentali (ben lontani dal concetto di scripted format) è alla base dell’analisi del sistema televisivo economico e produttivo. Questi remake sono presenti fin dai primi anni Duemila e, seppur con lievi differenze, sono tuttora presenti, prodotti e trasmessi, nonostante la loro versione originale sia comodamente fruibile sia attraverso la televisione lineare, sia attraverso le piattaforme OTT. Per quale motivo, quindi, non risultano ridondanti? Per quale motivo il pubblico russo ne sente la necessità? Esistono degli iter produttivi standardizzati che ne facilitino la produzione e la categorizzazione? Queste le domande alla base dello studio dei percorsi produttivi che le serie televisive occidentali intraprendono una volta che valicano i confini della Federazione Russa, in un meccanismo che rappresenta un unicum nel sistema televisivo economico globale. / In the last ten years Russian Federation has entered the global market of tv-content production, improving the quality of its products and standing out for the genres and stories told. Studying its contemporary television system, with the peculiarity of its remakes “made in Russia”, helps us understanding its functioning and evolution (past and future), in a global economy perspective. Understanding how and why on national show schedules still circulate products that are a copy of Western original television series (distant from the concept of ‘scripted format’) represents the basis of the analysis of the economic and productive system. These remakes are already present at the beginning of the new Millennium and, even if with slight differences, are still present and broadcast, nevertheless their original version can be found and watched both through DTT television and OTT platforms. From what reason, then, aren’t they redundant? Why Russian audience needs them? Are there any standardized productive paths that simplify their production and organization? These are the questions at the foundation of the study of productive paths that Western television series take once they cross Russian Federation borders, in a mechanism that represents an unprecedented example in the global economic television system.