The author's second novel, presented at the Montecatini Terme Town Hall, tells "a story within a story," says the author, aiming to provoke reflection on the influence (and always have) of the press, and the media in general, on popular opinion. Once again, "Anne," the protagonist chosen for this narrative, a journalist and communications expert, finds herself immersed in the midst of the pandemic we've all been through, a period that still worries us today, this time from America, where she leaves "romantically" in the first novel and partly in the second. She lives it fully, during these two difficult years, working in journalism and beyond, she discusses it, she recounts it, to highlight the power of the information world, still and always very strong in a country's political and social agenda. Let's just say, decisive. The impact of information—whether shouted, false, disorienting, deterrent, misleading, or in any case often untrue—has been and continues to be dominant. It has created chaos. A theme taken up by Mayor Luca Baroncini, who in his introductory speech extolled its value and importance. Free, secular, and truthful information is a precious asset, as are those who, every day with seriousness, professionalism, and civic and ethical duty, disseminate news to give citizens the opportunity—the Right (or rather, the Right)—to Knowledge. The manifesto was approved in Brussels, after years of battle by the Radicals and Marco Pannella, who "magically" connected this work with Matteo Angioli. "Because without knowledge, there is ignorance and fear. But knowledge presupposes truth. Always. The question: is this path really viable? Will it ever be possible to recover the quality of the press and, above all, of true, serious information that makes everyone more aware and not at the mercy of the wind, of click-bait headlines, or of the powerful of the day who pushes on fronts that are more useful to them?" Many questions and reflections arose during the presentation. "What kind of messages have we been swallowing, more or less unconsciously, in recent months? If pluralism and independence are the two key concepts around which a proper analysis of the health of journalism and communication can be developed, we can safely say that the emerging picture is far from reassuring."“
With very rare exceptions, the Italian press—meaning the entire media system—has conformed to an anxiety-inducing, and in some cases even terrifying, vision of the pandemic.
The narrative has favored an almost exclusively pessimistic view of what happened; the resulting account is largely unambiguous, the accredited sources are almost always the same, critical voices are isolated if not silenced, and events are interpreted to foster a catastrophic description of facts and events, which tends to accompany and placate people's deepest fears. "We all have the right to know the truth, no one excluded. Because only in this way can we truly form opinions and pursue paths of thought and action that are most similar to our own. Without the truth, without knowledge of the fact itself, of the exact situation it covers, in terms of gravity and weight, we are in the hands of the 'merchants' of Chaos. And a Merchant, we know, knows how to sell himself to the highest bidder," concludes Gramigna.
