ABSTRACT
During the 1910s, attention for cinema did not shrink: if anything, it became more focused and more widespread. Newspapers still had an interest in film. During the Italo-Turkish War, fought between September 1911 and October 1912, newspapers dedicated their front pages to images taken from newsreels, which depicted soldiers’ families and were intended to be shown to the combatants in order to keep their contact with the homeland alive. Newspapers also made room for public debates, like the discussion about the role of movies in national culture, hosted by Florentine Il Nuovo Giornale (The New Daily) between 20 November and 8 December 1913. Other disputes regarded the alleged conflict between cinema and theatre—a topic raised, among others, by Il Giornale d’Italia (The Newspaper of Italy) in February and March 1914—and the question of cinema’s effects on morality, hosted by Il Giornale d’Italia in 1917. 1 Finally, newspapers opened new sections specifically devoted to cinema, such as the weekly column ‘Al cinematografo’ (‘At the Cinema’) in Turin’s La Gazzetta del popolo (The Peoples’ Gazette) from 11 November 1913 to 7 April 1914.
