The Programme for International Student Assessment and Google: An analysis of online news in Italy

Media reporting of results from the survey conducted by the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have led to far-reaching reforms in many countries. The study on which this article reports analysed how media has responded to the survey results in the national context of Italy. Governments have been suggested to either accept, refuse or renegotiate survey results. Our research elaborated on how information on PISA results were conveyed by searches on the internet search engine Google. A review of 353 contributions published on 127 different online news portals in the period between 2006 and 2018 was analysed, with focus specifically on political communication. An exploratory documentary analysis, using quantitative and qualitative analyses, was conducted for identifying the most recurrent themes. News from four online news portals that recorded the highest number of contributions is analysed in depth, namely: Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 Ore, La Repubblica, and Orizzonte Scuola. Our analysis suggests that the message about PISA results transmitted by the media was neither rejected nor renegotiated in news, nor by those who contribute to political debates. Nor can the message be understood as accepted since a well-informed active process of public debate in the media and among the political decision makers has not taken place.