Racism and Immigration in Social Advertising promoted by Italian government and Non-governmental Institution

We present the results of a research into television and radio campaigns on issues of racism and immigration, launched in 2008-2009. We intend to verify whether the political context and the nature of the advertising institution (governmental, governmental and NGO or NGO only) might influence the representation of the foreigner and the kind of relationship (symmetrical or asymmetrical) between Italians and immigrants. We analyze a governmental campaign, a campaign launched by the government and a NGO and one promoted only by NGOs. We analyze the characters, the relationship between Italians and foreigners, the social roles assigned to immigrants and some suprasegmental features of speech, including the percentage of phonation time, articulation rate, speech rate and fluency. Data from our study underline that the nature of the advertising institution and the political context significantly influence the social status of foreigners and the type of relationship between immigrants and Italians.