Books

The 'Supermoon' and the News: Inside the News Factory

The television newsroom as a laboratory in Andrea Rustichelli's book: between power, format, 'newsworthiness' and the risk of increasingly standardised information

by Andrea Biondi

5 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

There's a red moon rising in the sky and an editorial team setting off. Not to understand, but not to fall behind. In 'Supermoon. Nella cucina di un telegiornale', Andrea Rustichelli, journalist and anchorman of Tg3, constructs a story that is both novel and essay, with a precise key: to observe the news machine from the inside and question its method.

It is not a memoir in disguise, nor is it an environmental novel: rather, it is a critical device, which uses the narrative form to interrogate the method of information.

The context is that of a television newsroom - Altro Tiggì - observed from the inside, in its daily mechanisms: meetings, hierarchies, construction of the summary, tension between editorial line and journalistic practice. The narrative pretext is the arrival of an astronomical event, the 'Red Moon', which immediately becomes a media event. But more than the event itself, its management is of interest.

In Altro Tiggì, a well-packaged, recognisable, even authoritative - but also predictable - newscast, figures move around who are both characters and functions: Belardelli, a critical journalist refractory to homologation; Bagassoni, the director who embodies editorial power and the primacy of the product. More than a personal conflict, it is a dialectic between two ideas of journalism.

The narrative pretext - the Red Moon - serves to show what transpires very clearly: the conditioned reflex of the media. When a theme emerges, the system compacts, amplifies it, consumes it. 'News' becomes what everyone talks about. And the risk comes to be that of a saturation that empties the contents, makes them interchangeable.

The point brought into focus is crucial: the information crisis - according to the book's thesis - is not just a question of platforms or technology, but of method. "With respect to the crisis, therefore, it is probably more the how (i.e. the method) than the where (i.e. the medium) that needs to be questioned".

At the heart of the argument is 'newsworthiness', i.e. the faculty to select and prioritise facts. In the world narrated by 'Supermoon', this faculty often appears to be driven more by hype than by public interest. Preference is given to what has images, what lends itself to quick storytelling, what generates reactions. Less spectacular but more structural themes are neglected.

The description of the editorial work is, in this sense, one of the most successful elements. Tight deadlines, hierarchical chain, rapid writing, dependence on agencies and communiqués: the journalist risks becoming an executor. A dynamic that the book does not denounce in moralistic tones, but reconstructs in its everyday steps.

There is no lack of reflection on the broader context: the pressure of social media, the seriality of content, the entry of artificial intelligence as a production tool. All elements that contribute to reinforcing a logic that is already present.

Yet, within this framework, a tension remains. Belardelli insists on a different idea: a journalism capable of creating critical distance, of speaking to citizens and not followers, of restoring complexity. It is a position that the book does not mythologise, but uses as a counterpoint.

Within this framework, 'Supermoon' is not so much a book about the behind-the-scenes of television news, but about its function. The real subject is the way the news takes shape. And the result is a text that, rather than offering answers, focuses on an essential question: what does it mean to inform today.

Andrea BiondiVicecaposervizio
Luogo: Milano
Lingue parlate: Italiano, Inglese, Francese
Argomenti: Finanza, Media, Telecomunicazioni, Economia dell'entertainment, Innovazione
Scheda autore
Trust project