Public service media are essential businesses. Cinzia Padovani, Associate Professor at the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois Universit, tells us what we can learn from Italy.

"In Italy, one of the significant lessons we are learning in this pandemic era is the importance of our crown jewels: our public services, which are crucial in all areas of our economy and society. Besides our excellent public health care system and public education (including higher education), we have our public service media, RAI Radio Televisione Italiana, which has provided information, entertainment and even some comfort in these tragic times."

Founded in 1954, RAI commands an audience over 35% of TV households in Italy. RAI operates free-to-air, as well as subscription channels. Its TV channels compete against two main competitors: Mediaset, owned by Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister and leader of the opposition party Forza Italia; and La7, previously owned by the telecommunication giant Telecom Italia and in the hands of Cairo Communications since 2013.

"From television to radio, over the air and online, the public media system has been our companion since the lockdown began in early March. During this emergency, the predictable flow of shows, especially in the case of over-the-air television and radio have brought a sense of daily structure to what might otherwise have been an incessant and sometime confusing flow of information coming through our individual news feeds."

RAI has also instituted a Fake News Task Force to support individual newsrooms dealing with the spread of false information about the virus that has fueled various conspiracy theories. In times of mistrust and fear PSM are so important because they can be trusted. "This national and global tragedy has shown us that we need to reassert our priorities and that public media, like other public services, are essential to our lives."