Abstract
Transformed from a mass rite into a real instrument of government, sports became the most effective and popular representation of the new aesthetic and pedagogy of fascist Italy by the end of the 1920s. At that time, the fascist regime, having completely reformed all major sports institutions, subjecting them to the National Fascist Party (PNF), realized the need to create a new periodical able to both emphasize the political value of sport for fascism and underline its popular attitude and mission. This in particular was the editorial mission of the monthly review Lo Sport Fascista, founded in the spring of 1928 under the auspices of the chairman of CONI, Lando Ferretti, and the secretary general of PNF, Augusto Turati. As an official organ of the Italian sports movement and mouthpiece of its achievements, the magazine deserves special focus for at least three reasons: it helped to make some disciplines, such as football and cycling, extraordinarilypopular in Italy, thus creating the conditions for their real exploit in the 1930s; it was able to combine propaganda and information in a truly original and unique way within the editorial offer of that time; and it fostered the myth of the great champions, turning sporting celebrities into ambassadors of fascism worldwide. The goal of this paper is to show in detail these features of the magazine, underlining its identity as a popular product, through a twofold analysis, one that is both aesthetic and political.
Highlights
In Italy during the 1920s, Fascism aided in the development of an awareness of the importance of sports, on political, propagandistic, and socio-cultural levels.1 This process proceeded at a relatively rapid pace, from 1923 to 1928, thanks to work done, in particular, by Francesco Saverio Grazioli, chairman of the Royal Commission on Physical Education, Augusto Turati, general secretary of the National Fascist Party (PNF), and Leandro Arpinati, leader of the Fascist Party and podestà in Bologna during his term as chairman of the Italian National Football Federation (FIGC).2 In this six-year period, the Mussolini Cabinet was able to advance a general reform of public education — and of physical education in particular — with the achievement of the widest possible consensus among the ranks of the sportsmen
The fascist regime, having completely reformed all major sports institutions, subjecting them to the National Fascist Party (PNF), realized the need to create a new periodical able to both emphasize the political value of sport for fascism and underline its popular attitude and mission.This in particular was the editorial mission of the monthly review Lo Sport Fascista, founded in the spring of 1928 under the auspices of the chairman of CONI, Lando Ferretti, and the secretary general of PNF, Augusto Turati
This consisted of the overall reorganization of the main national sports institution, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) — which was definitively subjected to PNF control in 1927 — and the foundation of important mass organizations, such as the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND) and Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), as well as the launch of an elaborate plan for the construction of sports facilities
Summary
To cite this article: Enrico Landoni, ‘Propaganda and Information Serving the Italian Sports Movement: The Case of the Periodical Lo Sport Fascista (1928‒43)’, Journal of European Periodical Studies, 5.1 (Summer 2020), 43–54
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