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The Italian adaptation of <em>Undercover Boss</em> and the Rai's public service remit
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Matteo Macaluso
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The Italian adaptation of <em>Undercover Boss</em> and the Rai's public service remit
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13
                    The Italian adaptation
                      of Undercover Boss
                     and the Rai’s public
                         service remit

                               Matteo Macaluso

Abstract
      This article concerns the Italian adaptation of multi-national reality tele-
vision series Undercover Boss (Boss in incognito in Italian translation). The show
(2014 – present) is aired in primetime on the Italian public service broadcast-
er, Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai), and shows one of the rare examples of la-
bor thematization in the mainstream Italian television. As such, it constitutes
an iconic title which makes important contributions to the socio-cultural role
of screen storytelling.
      This essay approaches the tv series as a source, and explores how Boss
in incognito, in a manner similar to the original format, is able to provide Ital-
ian viewers with a popular narrative not free from ideological implications.
Furthermore, it hypothesizes that the programme does not fully correspond
to the Rai’s public service obligations.


Keywords
Undercover Boss; Rai; reality television; adaptation; public service




Between, vol. XIII, n. 26 (novembre/November 2023)
issn: 2039-6597
doi: 10.13125/2039-6597/5755
Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit




               The Italian adaptation
                 of Undercover Boss
          and the Rai’s public service remit

                                   Matteo Macaluso



                                      Introduction
      Over the past years, the body of research examining the audiovisual
(cinema, television, video art, and other media products) representation
of labor has gathered momentum. Most generally, international scholars
have explored how, within our media world, audiovisual landscape seems
to establish a contrasting view or suggest that the lives of working people
deserve to be seen on the screens of our televisions or digital devices1.
      In contrast, recent Italian academic2 has highlighted, with particular
attention paid to televisual dimension, how the usual Italian media land-
scape commonly shows few images of working people and workplace
environments. Indeed, I’m unaware of any book published in several dec-
ades that deals explicitly with labor and Italian television, with the notable
exception of Rositi’s pioneer study3; particularly, the relationship between
Rai and labor topics remain to be studied and identified. Put otherwise,
there has been a distinct lack of academic work carried out on such pro-
grams and at first glance Italian television has addressed these issues only
in a fragmented or oblique fashion4.
      Subsequently, it seems apparent on reflection that the Italian adapta-
tion of Undercover Boss bears an obvious relevance and acquires a certain
importance in attempting to introduce a reflection on the differences in atti-
tudes between labor issues and contemporary television narration in Italy.


      1
          Cf. Mazierska 2013.
      2
          Cf. Carelli 2017.
      3
          Cf. Rositi 1970.
      4
          Cf. Cipriani 2000.


128
                              “Between, vol. XIII, n. 26 (novembre/November 2023)” on page 127



      Firstly, this involves thinking about reality shows on the one hand,
and public television on the other. Reality-style shows are not new to tele-
vision, but over the last few years there has been a measurable increase in
series of this kind, and reality tv has grown to occupy a huge presence in
the topography of broadcast and cable television around the world.
      According to Lemi Baruh and Ji Hoon Park5, reality television, by por-
traying our social world, offers a series of implications on the construction
and perception of social reality, in terms of ethics, politics, conditionings,
and so on. On the basis of these considerations, many scholars have inves-
tigated the ways in which class depictions on television have increased
in visibility and complexity since the advent of reality tv in the final dec-
ade of the twentieth century6. While the moniker “reality” to describe tv
programs of this kind deserves to be received with skepticism (the criti-
cism beg the question of how much of the hit series is “staged”, or if the
production edits and manipulates the footage to fit a fixed narrative), the
affinity some reality shows exhibit to other nonfiction forms, such as news
reporting and documentary film, invites us to question the connection be-
tween reality TV and other nonfiction media.“Reality television”, taking
up the matter of what is meant by this term, is a broad one, encompass-
ing a range of formats (formula, style, template) that are mainly hybrid in
nature, such as docusoaps, real crime and emergency programming, talk
shows, talent shows, video diaries, dramatic reconstructions, and “gamed-
ocs”. Such a generalised term is required to assess the breadth of aesthetics
and ideologies that may be represented by this diverse group of television
productions. Indeed, reality television can in turn be understood as a sub-
set of factual entertainment or unscripted formats7; the range of available
categorizations provides an insight into some of the changes that have oc-
curred within the television industry as new forms of programming have
expanded across the schedule.
      Nevertheless, I do not intend to extensively revisit here the question
of what reality television is. It is more useful to highlight how, as a tele-
vision show, UB delivers a range of nuances and values by using many
narrative and visual strategies also found in other reality tv series: confes-
sional daytime talk shows, docusoaps, documentary programming, make-
over shows, test of endurance shows, court shows, game shows, and so on.


    5
        Cf. Baruh and Hoon Park, 2010, 2020.
    6
        Relatively to reality tv and labor topics, see Skeggs and Wood 2012: 187-214.
    7
        Cf. Fiacco 2022.


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Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit



     First of all, this contribution is concerned with understanding Under-
cover Boss within the context of national cultural practice. As Ilana Gershon
states8, comparing the US version to the UK one, it is possible on the one
hand to focus on national differences through the same text, and to reveal
what kinds of tacit critiques of contemporary capitalism are possible on the
other, transcendending national boundaries. This also suggests that there
are some overriding factors, affecting many countries which can be identi-
fied by analyzing the narrative structure. In their chapter about the inter-
nationalization of TV show, Luca Antoniazzi and Luca Barra, referring to
Albert Moran’s notion, note that:

             Three intertwined levels of decision-making determine the nature
          of the end product: first, decisions about forms and styles, the poetics
          of television, involving sound, mise-en-scène, shooting, editing and
          all the choises that shape the show’s audiovisual aesthetic; second,
          intertextuality, relating to the codes and norms of both television
          production cultures and cultures of consumption (see for example
          changes in casting practices and, in turn, on the narratives of some
          adapted programmes); third, the broader national culture and society,
          often leading to controversial decisions on issues like religion, gender
          and language. (Antoniazzi and Barra 2022: 83)

      My lens, then, does not attempt to merely confirm this critical dis-
course, but also tries to extend and to question the inconsistency between
this programme and the institutional context (Rai) in which it is produced
and located in Italy.

                           The Italian macro-variants
     First produced for the U.K.’s Channel 4 in 2009, Undercover Boss today
operates as a global franchise with local variants and regional editions pro-
duced in more than thirty countries. It currently runs on CBS and multiple
cable channels (TLC, OWN etc.). In Italy, the show (2014 – present) is aired
in primetime on the second channel of the Italian public service broadcast-
er, Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai).
     The series’ global franchising exemplifies a current trend in global
media production, one where a customizable template-format is com-
bined with a local cast. Within this transnational production system «what

      8
           Cf. Gershon 2019.


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                            “Between, vol. XIII, n. 26 (novembre/November 2023)” on page 127



is exported is not the content itself but a recipe for creating a local version
of the internationally successful TV show» (Andrejevic 2004: 12).
      The premise of the “pitch” (the show’s episode-by-episode formula) is
quite simple. In each episode of UB, the CEO (or similar high-ranking exec-
utive officer) of a large corporation gets made over in disguise and poses as
an entry-level employee who has been assigned to train at a series of loca-
tions with other workers or lower-level supervisors, and goes undercover in
his/her own company. Working five jobs in five consecutive days, the boss
observes labor practices, receives feedback from workers (presumably, will
use these observations to improve the company), meets a series of employ-
ees who represent the struggling middle-classes and poor communities.
      After spending a few days performing a variety of jobs – or discov-
ering that they are unable to perform them – and listening as the work-
ers they meet describe the difficulties they face in their jobs or lives – the
CEOs return to their boardroom and confront each of the workers they
encountered during their undercover stint, revealing their true identity
and dispensing rewards – money, vacations, college funds, and so on – for
those who do their job well while criticizing those who do not. Touched by
their narratives of economic struggle, the boss, in a display of beneficence,
and after an informal conversation, bestows economic and professional re-
wards upon these employees.
      At the time of writing, all 48 episodes of Boss in incognito (produced
by Endemol Shine Italy) follow this basic structure. As we have mentioned
above, although the segmentation of its recurring formula, a closer look at
the adaptation reveals specific choices of the Italian production practice.
      Firstly, starting from the first series, a popular face on Italian televi-
sion or talent appears in each episode and serves as a host for the show:
Costantino Della Gherardesca (2014, 2015), Flavio Insinna (2016), Nicola
Savino (2017), Gabriele Corsi (2018-19 and 2019-20), Max Giusti (2022,
2023). The program typically begins with a television-style introduction by
the celebrity host, establishing the audience’s point-of-view as a compan-
ion of a corporate CEO who impersonates a reality show contestant. What
might be of particular interest is that, starting from its seventh season in
Spring 2022, due to the presence of the comedian Max Giusti, the same host
participate as character in another entry-level and undercover employee’s
role, helping the real Boss in discovering his workplace’s reality.
      During the course of all Italian series, nobody is made redundant and
no supervisors are present.
      It is (sadly) notable that, among the 47 CEOs involved in the show,
only seven are women (Chiara Nasi for CIRFOOD, Franca Semplici for


                                                                                       131
Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit



Magnani Sposa, Nenella Impiglia Curzi for Linea Marche, Giulia Adra-
gna for Premiati Oleifici Barbera, Francesca Ossani for Crik Crok, Carmela
Schettino for La Contadina, and Martina Oliviero for Oliviero).
      It is crucial, moreover, to highlight how the format adaptation is also
related to the social in the social context and connected to external events9.
In particular, I’m referring to the fifth edition’s season finale, which is set
in Accumoli and features four different CEOs (Bachisio Ledda, Eugenio
Preatoni, Guido Di Stefano and Federico Lombardo) in helping Gianfranco
Castelli (Salumificio Sano) after the 2018 earthquake in Central Italy.
      Nevertheless, it is the Covid pandemic that has had a major, direct
impact on audiovisual production throughout the world10, starting from
the first half of 2020. After the Boss in incognito’s production shut down in
2019, the subsequent season located the pandemic in relation to the show
and to its transformative impetus. The implicit justification for peering into
the private life of actual people in the sixth edition is a documentary about
work and unemployment during the pandemic time made by a television
crew.

 The Italian job. Employee’s standardized representation
      As we mentioned above, in attempting to explore Undercover Boss’
textual implications, much critical attention has been given to how the tv
series plays a pivotal role in transmitting the ideological frames of capi-
talism and neoliberism. This literature is guided by many of the theoret-
ical advances and suggestions developed under the rubric of “cultural
studies”.
      The portrait of the working world presented by the series is bereft of
organized labor, government safety or labor regulation, deflecting atten-
tion from these issues by highlighting only the drama aspects. Surveillance
reinforces rather than reforms corporate philosophy, goals, and capitalistic
agenda.
      Susan Schuyler11, through the context of Victorian melodrama, points
out how UB «makes use of the conventions of melodrama that have defined
American and British popular culture since the nineteenth century.» UB, in


      9
       Just to make an example, the second episode’s CEO (Giovanni Battista
Pizzimbone) has been arrested in 2022 for bankruptcy and insider trading.
    10
       Cf. Barra and Scaglioni 2021.
    11
       Cf. Schuyler 2015.


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                             “Between, vol. XIII, n. 26 (novembre/November 2023)” on page 127



each of its episodes, repeats a familiar melodramatic narrative: an individ-
ual (usually male, most often white) of social and economic privilege mas-
querades as a commoner in order to investigate the living conditions of the
underclasses. The television series, like its theatrical predecessors, uses the
familiarity of melodramatic conventions to depoliticize contemporaneous
socioeconomic issues. This analysis ultimates demonstrates the continuity
and elasticity of the melodramatic mode while concomitantly revealing a
pre-history of reality television. The show does this by delivering to view-
ers an array of dramatic devices and emotive, individual-centered scenar-
ios, in place of an analysis of the harsh economic conditions we see. As
they are represented in the narratives of UB, these conditions are matter
for a mix of emotional-personal disclosures by workers, achieved through
deceit and shenanigans.
      To other scholars12, UB reinforces “American Dream mythos” framed
within corporate capitalism. In this pattern, hard work reaps proportion-
ate rewards (capitalistic justice) dispensed to worthy individuals; CEO
persona (as agent of justice) dispenses rewards, usually in time/money;
laborers, productive and useful, rededicate themselves to their jobs (and
to employer).
      Similarly, this emotional investment is also predominant in Boss in
incognito, which completely adheres to the original concept. As one among
the many worker-focused reality TV shows, it presents for audiences an
inventory of the workplaces and the services, clerical, and manufacturing
jobs performed now in Italy: garbage collectors (Biancamano), warehouse
workers (LogiMed, Mail Express), fast food restaurant servers and cooks
(Fratelli La Bufala, Queen’s Chips Amsterdam), food processing and food
industry workers (Cerealitalia, Decottopia, Pastificio G. Di Martino, Pomì,
Salumificio Sano, Crik Crok, Megic Pizza, Birra Peroni, Oliviero) cruise line
workers (Moby Line), amusement park workers (Zoomarine), and so on.
      Alongside the variable of different tasks in different ways and envi-
ronments, the recurring formula revolves around the precarious condi-
tions and hard lives of the working class people. In the same way as the
original, the adaptation depicts individuals who work long hours in poor
labour practices for inadequate compensation, cannot afford comprehen-
sive health care or education for themselves or their families, and face a
range of other problems (caring for an invalid parent, struggling to pay
student debt, raising children as a single parent, battling a life-threatening


    12
         Cf. Brayton 2014, Hungerford 2020.


                                                                                        133
Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit



disease, or pursuing a dream of bettering themselves that lack of education
keeps out of reach). This narrative also points to the dubious consequences
for social class inequality and social mobility of a system where only the
wealthy middle class can afford to subsidise their access to the most desid-
erable types of work.
      Throughout of each episode, viewer hears a series of confessions by
workers about their lives, problems, personal failings, unhappiness, re-
vealing information about their health or the health of family members,
financial difficulties, personal tragedies, traumas and so on, all delivered
in the passive speech of the confessional and bereft of any demand for
the general reform of these conditions. Thus, the confessions delivered by
workers in the show are rooted in a television self-help culture, toward
self-sacrifice, and not practices of advocatory or labor organizing.
      The viewer is always privy to the knowledge that the workers seen
onscreen are talking with an undercover boss, and not with another reg-
ular worker. But the workers we see onscreen did not know they were
speaking with a boss when they videotaped; they believed they were talk-
ing with a new co-worker. These interactions are likely not recognized as
acts of solidarity, since the viewer knows that one of the workers onscreen
is not a worker at all.
      Camera work, editing and sound convey familiarity, authenticity, and
encourage voyeurism and the close observation of actual setting and hu-
man subjects. Video confessionals and voice-over’s guide interpretations
of the events unfolding on screens, and promise to take tv viewers closer
to the “truth”.
      In the series, the speech presented is not the testimony of individuals
demanding a voice in civil society. Instead, it is composed of a series of
confessions that are presented to viewers as each illustrative of one indi-
vidual worker’s experience. Within this confession-centered environment,
the first person is raised to the status of sole truth.

                    The family business element
              and the CEO’s family story emphasizing
     In the opening sequence, the CEO is portrayed at home, in the office,
with the family, as a genuinely concerned and empathetic boss. These mo-
ments of ‘voice-of-god’ narration, usually at the beginning of each episode,
frame the show as part of execs moving closer to employees, and capturing
their family entrepreneurial backstory.



134
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     Subsequently, viewers watch as the episode’s bosses have their ap-
pearance, behaviour and social status physically transformed as they try to
present themselves to their employees as one of their own.
     The Boyle and Kelly’s 2016 study13 has begun to demonstrate how
pervasive the entrepreneur presence into the mainstream of British popu-
lar culture is, while also highlighting that business and entrepreneurship
can provide material for entertainment-led factual productions.
     Likewise, examining the ways in which the world of business and en-
trepreneurship are represented in Boss in incognito, recent socio-economics
references14 are useful to recall that:

        Italian capitalism is essentially a family affair. Behind the largest
     industrial groups and banks, family firms have traditionally been the
     leading players. Family-owned and managed firms represent a key
     component of the Italian entrepreneurial fabric, not only numerically
     but also for their contribution to GDP and employment. In Italy, it is
     estimated there are around 784,000 family firms, accounting for more
     than 85% of the total number and contributing to approximately 70%
     of the employment, in line with the major European economies. […]
     Two main features set apart Italian family firms. First, less reliance on
     external managers: 66% of the Italian family firms are fully managed
     by family members compared to 26% in France and only 10% in the
     UK. (Amato and Patuelli 2023: 107)

      Family business significantly contributes to the Italian economy, and
it is possible to observe that these firms represent the backbone of Italy’s
business and entrepreneurship. Family business is a commercial organiza-
tion in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a
family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to
influence the vision of the business and the willingness to use this ability to
pursue distinctive goals. Thus, these enterprises are distinguished from oth-
er organizational forms by the overlap of family and work systems as mem-
bers of the controlling family significantly influence the strategic direction,
and in turn, performance, and survival of their enterprises. They are usually
more complex than similar non-family businesses. As all the businesses, for
longevity and prosperity, a family firm must achieve efficiency and effec-
tiveness focused business objectives but, in addition, family-oriented goals


    13
         Cf. Boyle and Kelly 2016.
    14
         Cf. Basco, Stough and Suwala 2021.


                                                                                        135
Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit



such as harmony, generational transition, and ownership issues must also
be managed.
     These considerations immediately lead to the opening segment of each
Boss in incognito’s episode, indissolubly linked to the CEO’s family. The
sequence often documents an upscale family appearance (homes, clothes,
leisure activities, values, interests, and everyday behaviours), which rein-
forces inequalities and dominant norms, and perpetuates the proliferation
of differences and distinctions.

                            The “Reward Sequence”
      These are, surprisingly, not the ubiquitous advice of corporate
      consultants worldwide: benefits reductions, downsizing, and
      massive lay-offs. Instead, Undercover Boss repurposes the well-
      known free-market script in an attempt to charge it with positive
      imagery. In the show, the extreme measures taken are an affec-
      tive investment in the average worker, heart-felt personal con-
      tact between CEO and employees, as well as financial rewards
      for hard work. (Aho 2016: 94)
      The plot structure and characterization recast the persona of the
distant, greedy CEO as a vulnerable, caring dispenser of just rewards
to deserving employees. The featured company must not only meet the
eligibility criteria and be willing to give up its time, but it must commit
to the “reward” portion of the show. That’s at the end of each episode,
where the undercover boss reveals themselves to the featured employees
with whom they worked and offers them financial rewards to help them
in their personal situations. The individual worker is plucked from their
daily surroundings and peers and brought to their employer’s head office
for the episode’s reveal. The boss discloses his real identity to each of
the workers he encountered while undercover and individual cases seem
resolved by the boss’ benevolent action as she or he dispenses rewards
or praise on the tiny cadre of deserving individuals encountered while
undercover. CEO is usually reduced to tears. The workers, post-reveal,
speak directly to camera, telling how they feel about the show’s outcome
or about their surprise at appearing in it. After a solid lesson in humili-
ty, realizing how difficult their underlings work, bosses arrange to meet
with the deserving employee on some pretense, reveal themselves to
have been the hapless trainee, and reward the worker with funds, schol-
arships, and so on.



136
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      Each employee “sob story”, establishes grounds for CEO to inter-
vene later as heroic and empathetic savior, relieving employee suffering;
dispenses individual rewards episodically based on severity of suffering;
doles out prescriptive solutions in the form of advice or charitable gifts
and promotions, scholarship, raise or bonus, assistance with medical bills,
college fund; monetary gifts buffer low pay scales; vacation compensate
for oppressive work schedules. Individual rewards presumably “cure”
systemic hardships of low pay, excessive workload, oppressive work
schedules.
      Often the undercover bosses get deeply emotionally involved and de-
sire to give even more than they had originally planned. They’ve connect-
ed with their employees on a new level and value the experience of doing
kind things for those associates in need.
      Ultimately, Boss in incognito, as emanation of the original format,
shows that workplace difficulties and problems in the force of production
are solvable without systemic reforms that could broaden employee’s ac-
cess to better conditions, and offers no sense that the conditions it depicts
deserve wide-reaching reform.
      Workers are depicted as taking action and making a difference through
their own initiative, but they can’t ease the problems and challenges they
confront without their company’s charity. Each worker’s involvement in
the series will bring rewards only for them as individuals, and these re-
wards are divorced from any collective experience of advocacy or a move-
ment towards labor solidarity. Similarly, in an era of flexible working and
individualisation, there is perhaps less likely to be solidarity based on
shared career paths, occupation and craft skills.

                 Conclusions and implications.
              Brand integration and public service
     Television studies in Italy are often concerned with understanding
the broader economic and institutional framework that has helped shape
the patterns of television production since its early years. It is generally
assumed that television, as an industry, in crucially shaped by an uneven
combination of economic, political, technological and institutional factors
that are often enacted in practice and policy through key individuals in
broadcasting organizations. At the core of this complex process are com-
peting discourses about the role and function of television in contempo-
rary society, which in the Italian context inevitably leads us to engage with



                                                                                      137
Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit



debates around public service and more market orientated visions of tele-
vision’s role in the lives of audiences.
      In light of the above, and whereas Rai continues to occupy a central
place within the Italian media landscape as a PSM organisation15, our point
is that the representation of work given by this international format, in a
sense, compromise Rai’s public service obligations. In this work we have
examined what is called a brand integration product, within the Italian pub-
lic service broadcaster. It is important to outline how media narratives and
cinematic depictions dictate societal ideas and trends, influencing people’s
beliefs and perceptions of the world. We have tried to demonstrate how
the labor portrayal that emerge from Boss in incognito undermines the pub-
lic service remit.
      It cannot go unnoticed that the “visibility aspect” constitutes an im-
portant one. From Birra Peroni and Moby Lines to Cinecittà World and Crik
Crok, the show has featured some Italian major brands and well-known
CEOs. The bosses who appear in the show may also benefit personally
and professionally. National and local mainstream news coverage of the
series may position the companies featured on-screen to cash in through
the advertising of their products or services and the enhancement of their
public relations image. The bosses may also accrue prestige within their
professional peer networks by appearing on the show, with the opportu-
nity to improve the competitiveness of his company. Many companies get
involved initially because of the amazing branding opportunity and the
widespread visibility of being televised nationally during prime time on a
major network.
      Moreover, this is a unique chance for the higher-ups to get candid and
unfiltered feedback from the people on the front lines in a way they never
could from behind their desks, using this opportunity more to gain insight
into the company’s operations and customer relations. The real outcome
and true benefit of participating, is the ability to give back and make a dif-
ference in the lives of employees, who are a company’s most valuable and
competitive advantage.
      Put otherwise, Boss in incognito, through its rhetoric surround, turns
Rai into brand ambassador and establishes a false dividing line between
narrative content and promotion, creating format adaptations from the
transnational scenario that conveys the values of commercial tv.



      15
           Cf. Połońska and Beckett 2019.


138
                              “Between, vol. XIII, n. 26 (novembre/November 2023)” on page 127



      A number of recent analysts16 have pointed to the way in which the
identity-building mandate of Rai, reflective of its public service mission,
endorsed the commercial dictate of the Italian media system starting
from the 1990’s. During the Berlusconian era, characterized by a duopo-
listic television system, Rai opted to counteract the increasing popularity
of commercial television by engaging with the same corporatized logic of
Mediaset. Thus, rather than strengthening its public service mission and
consolidating its potential for civic involvement, Rai stubbornly pursued
the same formats and platforms that were popularized by its commercial
counterpart: game shows, dance-ridden variety shows, hours-long sports
programs, and sensationalistic talk shows. Through Boss in incognito, Rai
continues to compromise its original charge, but also delimits its potential
as a viable institutional network.




    16
         Cf. D’Arma 2015, 2019, Padovani 2019, Pavani 2018, Vigevani 2018.


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Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit



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                                The author
     Matteo Macaluso

     Matteo Macaluso is a PhD student at Università degli studi di Mode-
na e Reggio Emilia (PhD Course in Work, Development and Innovation of
the Marco Biagi Department of Economics). His current strands of research



                                                                                       141
Matteo Macaluso, The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the Rai’s public service remit



explore the intersections among film iconography, labor history and visual
culture. He has worked for Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and has writ-
ten several essays for journals such as Segnocinema and Cinergie – Il Cinema
e le altre Arti.

      Email: matteo.macaluso@unimore.it


                                       The Article
      Date sent: 31/03/2023
      Date accepted: 31/07/2023
      Date published: 30/11/2023



                              How to cite this article
     Macaluso, Matteo, “The Italian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the
Rai’s public service remit”, Representations of Work in Literature and Visual
Culture, Eds. R. Calzoni - V. Serra, Between, XIII.26 (2023): 127-142, http://
www.Between-journal.it/




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