G8: Real lives or Virtual Communities

The meeting of G8 in Genoa 2001 has represented, and continuous to represent, a very negative event for the Italian society. In July 2001 Genoa changed a lot: the space of the city became similar to a space of war. Genova was the theatre of violent scenes and cruel acts, the most important of which was the killing of Carlo Giuliani, a boy of 22 years old. The versions about this event are now still different. The Internet and some spaces of virtual communities have been very important to promote some images and some discourses in alternative to the versions of institutional mass media. In this analysis I consider a no global e-group (electronic group). The discourses and the messages of this group of people give the possibility to “read” the event from a very different point of view. The discussion is about the role of institutional mass media (give they real information?) and about the role that have new forms of media (media activism).