What's it like working for the Vatican Television Center?

April 10, 2010 2:34 AM

Where can I find out about what it's like to work for the Vatican Television Center (CTV), or for Italian TV in general?

I'm writing a novel where some of the characters work for an Italian TV station - possibly CTV - as film/sound crew, filming the Pope on tour. Unfortunately I know very little about TV filming in general, less about Italian TV filming and almost nothing about CTV!

What are some good resources I can use? I would also appreciate any personal knowledge you could share with me.

Thanks!

posted by daisyk to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Best answer: I can't help with CTV in particular, but I know it will be competing with RAI, the state-owned TV station; and Mediaset (Berlusconi's channel), Sky Italia, and Telecom Italia Media, which are the three main private stations in Italy.

If you speak Italian (if not, Google Translate is your friend), the Italian Wikipedia page for CTV has more information than the English, in particular, it says that CTV operates under RAI's Vatican branch, which has an Italian blog here (this link is the English translation).
posted by ellieBOA at 3:21 AM on April 10, 2010

Best answer: It may be interesting to think about how Berlusconi would affect someone working in Italian TV. If you look at the wiki page/section for Fininvest that may help, the same page has a section on Berlusconi's influence on the media, this is a topic to which countless newspaper articles have been dedicated. An interesting book on the topic is Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony, by Paul Ginsborg, a well respected Italian historian.
posted by ellieBOA at 2:02 PM on April 10, 2010

Response by poster: Thank you both. This has given me lots to think about.
posted by daisyk at 4:24 AM on April 11, 2010

Thank you both

Both me!
posted by ellieBOA at 8:14 AM on April 11, 2010

Response by poster: Oh yes! Clearly reading is not my strong point today! Thanks to both of ellieBOA :P
posted by daisyk at 9:58 AM on April 11, 2010