The Italian Case: Breaking the Pyramid Down

from Pxhere (https://bit.ly/2LX9H0r)

In my previous piece, (Adoption Communities and the Social Media Pyramid), I was telling you about Virtual Adoption Communities and their formation, constitution and position, in the social media pyramid established by Prof. Randy Hlavac [1].  In the following paragraphs, we are going to look at the whole IAC - Italian Adoption Community - the "Italian Case" - based on my personal experience.  

As in Hlavac's, the IAC's social media pyramid has 6 levels that can be analysed through function, population and focus. Among the IAC, Facebook is the most popular medium; but it's not the only one. In my interpretation, here is the breakdown by level:

• the first level belongs to "Social Networks" / Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Quora and  (rarely) Twitter
• the second level consists of "News Aggregators" / National Newspapers, e-journals, and e-magazines
• the third level contains "Passion Connections" / Film and Literature (Netflix and Amazon)
• the fourth level houses "Video Connections" / TV Channels, YouTube, Vimeo and Instagram (recently TikTok)
• the fifth level covers "Thought Leaders" / Academia, ResearchGate, blogs, and newsletters and video communication resources (Zoom and Google Meet Google Duo)
• the sixth level is made up of "Virtual communities" / Forums and Content (Instant messaging and Video communication resources - WhatsApp and FB Groups and FB Messenger, Zoom and Jitsi)

The "Italian Case" stands out for its opinionated fragmentation and individualistic approach - both set the ground for collaborative difficulties among peers. The whole IAC is sectioned in clouds, schools, groups, teams and family units; inside which members, leaders, influencers, and experts gravitate. Adoptees are notoriously not considered at a professional level when it comes to adoption. The advent of the social network changed the game allowing the censored experience of  adoptees' and other's to see the light. 

Social Media Pyramid interpretation

According to my own personal experience, I divided the pyramid into three bulks which define the character of the (on-going) conversation about adoption in:

1^ Bulk / Level 1-4 - Public 

2^ Bulk / Level 5 - Professional

3^ Bulk / Level 6 - Heavy

The first bulk houses public content, both personal and commercial, by individuals or small collectives (adoptees, adoptive parents, adoption practitioners, coordinators and other entrepreneurs). Here is where articles, arts, literature and oral testimonies are shared across mass media - newspapers cinema and television, i.e TV2000 Channel - and social media - websites, blogs and apps primarily Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Quora (rarely). The posts embed various forms - text, audio, image. 

The second bulk hosts the professional conversation shared among colleagues-only or on academic platforms (such as Academia and ResearchGate - rarely on LinkedIn). Research studies and other publications are presented by experts and scholars in the fields of psychology, sociology, ethnography, law and the interactions among them. Within this level, we can also find renowned consultants and other entrepreneurs who develop their practice and market their findings on webinars and workshops thanks to audio conferencing platforms (mostly Meet, Zoom and Jitsi). 

The third bulk holds heavy conversation by people in virtual communities and private virtual communities. The third bunk is literally both a 'fishing pod' for all adoption services and professionals and the core of the whole IAC. Like any virtual community, those pertaining to adoption are ruled by influencers and leaders who produce and share content to influence - guide and mentor - fellow adoptees and adoptive parents on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and Instagram. Amid the whole community, there are also various placement agencies gathering education material and joining forces with psychologists and therapists. Together, they combine groups for aspiring adoptive parents (on training) and have them mingling with 'veterans' [2], while 'recruiting' adoptees to join the conversation and sharing their 'positive' experience. In the end, this bulk also accommodates scholars and academics. Just a few of them actually interact with the communities as keynotes for conferences and seminaries or survey adoptive families and adoptees during fieldwork.

Over the years, I have noticed that because of the topic's link to parenting and humanitarianism, there has always been a particular national difficulty in finding competence and progressive approaches. In sum, it is hard to find experts in adoption with:

1) affordable practice

2) trusted reputation

3) experiential sensitivity

Upon the arrival of the year 2020, the IAC has significantly changed significantly. Because of the Covid-19 sanitary emergency response, the endured experience of social distance has avoided the issue by getting everybody to engage on socials and to escalate interactions from local to regional and national. The rise of social interaction has encouraged the use of streaming features, such as direct on Facebook and Instagram (now also TikTok), to express opinions and of streaming studios, like StreamYard combined to YouTube, to interview national and international actors. Until that point the discussion about adoption was private, tied to physical presence and not open to confrontation. Today, for the first time, the discourse is moving across communities, exploring the parties' many perspectives, to fight censorship - WE ARE OUT THERE, AND IAC's PEOPLE ARE LOOKING!

To conclude, the experience of social distancing has opened the door to a virtual engagement for the whole IAC - Italian Adoption Community: a colossal accomplishment for adoption in Italy,  and especially for adoptees who are currently more than able and entitled to actively engage. 

Arp / Speaks AtCLoud - Alessia Petrolito / More on ResearchGate

© AdoptCloud 2020. Creative Commons 
(Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License)

Reference:

[1] The analysis was inspired by the Social Media Marketing Specialization Course offered by Northwestern University through Coursera; particularly to Randy Hlavac's course What is social? Which featured a few chapters of his"Social IMC: Social Strategies with Bottom-Line ROI" (2014) book. 

[2] By which I mean adoptive families survivors.