Media in Gianatla (Pacifica)

Media in Gianatla includes a variety of online, print and broadcast formats, the most popular being the online newspapers, which attracted 35.8% of the total Gianlucian population to subscribe to at least one newspaper in 2019. Gianlucian newspapers are said to have comparatively low subscription fees. On the opposite end of the spectrum are radio broadcasts, which are the least popular format in Gianatla. The rising interest in podcasts has increased their auditory recently however, as one can listen to the radio shows on demand on several audio streaming services such as Audit. This article also is also covering the entertainment media industry, which is one of the core industries within the Gianlucian economy.

Print media

Print media has a long history in today’s territory of Gianatla. Research by archaeologists from 2003 suggests, the first Atlantic alphabet was already in use for around 3000 years. The oldest remains of what was interpreted to be the first informative leaflets to the public found in Gianlucian territory were discovered in 2005 and were dated back to around 2300 years ago. Still the consensus between most historians remains, that widespread literacy was reached neither in Atlantis nor in the Gianlucian Kingdom until the introduction of the printing press in the region around the end of the 15th century.
From there on forward books and newspapers became more and more popular the more literate the general population has become. Eventually print media would become a tool for the government and its opposition to sway the public opinion to their liking, which peaked in the propaganda during the dictatorship of XXX between 1935 and 1954.
Nowadays print media is still considered important in Gianlucian culture, albeit its harder decline in market share since the 1990s and the rise of digital media formats.

Books

Gianatla praises itself as being the “home of non-fiction books”. The most popular topics are politics and science. There is also a significant market for satirist, fantasy and slice-of-life novels. New and planned publications are normally presented at the Südtor Book Fair taking place in May each year.
The five biggest book publishers (ordered alphabetically) are:

Harter Book Publishing (Westtor, est. 1974, politically centre-right)
Labo-Verlag (Atlantis, est. 1664, politically left)
Paran-Verlag – Atlantic Royal Book Publishing (Atlantis, est. 1871, politically conservative/loyal to the Atlantic court)
Rotfuchs-Verlag (Kuckstadt, est. 1887, no political alignment)
Tillmann-Verlag (Südtor, est. 1823, no political alignment)

E-books

In comparison to other countries in Pacifica, e-books remain rather unpopular in Gianatla. Just around 15% of the population has answered in a survey conducted in 2017, that they have an e-reader or plan to buy one in the future. Over 70% have said, they do not wish for the expansion of e-books as a replacement for normal books. A newer survey showed the opinion changing a little. At least in education and at work more people become open to the idea of e-books replacing their physical counterparts.

Newspapers and Magazines

According to data from 2019 35.8% of the Gianlucian population is subscribed to at least one newspaper, or even a whopping 48.2% if magazines are included. Most of these subscribed to the e-paper versions. Only older demographics still prefer a subscription to the physical versions of a newspaper or magazine.
Momentarily Gianatla is home to approximately 20 daily and 4 weekly newspapers, including the newspapers only produced and published regionally.

Name	Abbrv.	Headquarters	Frequency	Political Alignment	Notes
New Atlantic Horizon		Atlantis	weekly	liberal	published in Austral
The Atlantic Times		Atlantis	weekly	conservative	published in Austral
Atlantischer Kurier	Kurier	Atlantis	daily	centre-right, populist
Das Auge		Gianlucastadt	daily	conservative, populist
Der Kern		Kernstadt	daily	centrist
Der Kuckuck		Südtor	monthly	satire	magazine
Der Süden		Südtor	daily	centre-left
Die Aktuelle		Tragas	daily	centre-left
Die Woche		Südtor	weekly	left-liberal
Finanz International	FI	Atlantis	weekly	economically liberal	magazine
Gianlucaländer Tageszeitung	GTZ	Gianlucastadt	daily	centrist
Der Katzenbote	KB	Kuckstadt	daily	nationalist
Neue Welt	NW	Südtor	daily	socialist
ÖkoLogisch	ÖL	Kuckstadt	monthly	ecologist	magazine
Regionalblatt	RB	various cities	daily	centrist	published in 11 versions, for each Gianlucian region one
Westlandgazette	WLG	Westtor	daily	centre-right to liberal
Zonk		Nordtor	weekly	centre-right to liberal

Electronic media

Radio and television

The first radio channel in the Gianlucian Empire was founded in 1928 in Gianlucastadt, with the Atlantics following suit in 1929 with their first program being broadcast from a provisional radio mast between Cedrichausen and Atlantis. Since the 1930s the radio became a wide-spread additional medium for the masses, focusing on live-music and politically charged news. Like print media the dictatorship between 1935 and 1954 also exploited the radio for propagandistic reasons.
With the foundation of the Republic of Gianlucaland in 1954 by Queen Charlotte I a system was introduced, which dissolved all state-owned radio channels and replaced them by publically-owned stations, for which every inhabitant of Gianatla has to pay a fee of currently 15 Tacks (~18.35 TSP-$) per 3 months. Since 1962 private stations, which are financed by advertisements, are also allowed. The introduction of publically owned channels was supposed to ensure not only the neutrality of the channels, but also the quality of the contents. The same system of publically owned and privately owned stations was introduced to television later, when it has slowly risen to power in the 1960s. Here private TV channels were allowed operation since 1981. Colour-TV was introduced in May 1969 for the first time.

List of TV channels in Gianatla (not exhaustive)
Name	Abbrv.	Headquarters	Notes
Atlantische Welle	AW	Atlantis	publically financed
BUS TV		Gianlucastadt	publically financed
BUS TV Sport		Gianlucastadt	publically financed part of the BUS TV network
Doku24	D24	Südtor	part of the DRITTE Group
Dome Network	DOME	Atlantis	subscription service
Das Dritte	3. DRITTE	Südtor	part of the DRITTE Group
Gianlucische Nachrichten	GIN	Gianlucastadt	publically financed part of the BUS TV network
Honigkanal		Gianlucastadt	publically financed kid's channel
Rundfunkanstalt Freier Medien	RFM	Westtor	part of the RFM Group

Live streaming and video on demand

Nowadays radio stations as well as TV channels struggle to keep their audiences, as they are moving more to digital services. The development of the so-called Mediatheken, web pages by TV broadcasters and radio stations, where their contents can be consumed on demand, was inevitable the latest, when VoD service Risa and the audio streaming service Audit rose to power since the early 2010s. Another advantage for those online services was the active indirect advertisement by King and Leader Gianluca IV, as he created accounts not only on the aforementioned streaming platforms, but also on the video broadcasting service YouWatch and the live-streaming service Rollercaster, that he filled with contents as a private individual regularly, including ”Let’s Plays”. Those contents gained the young head of state a following on those and multiple other social networks of several millions of people, especially of the younger demographic.

Biggest media companies with HQ in Gianatla
Audit
Risa
Rollercaster
YouWatch

Podcasts

In recent years another type of media gained popularity within the populace. Podcasts, especially talking shows and the news, were accumulating an auditory of several millions of people. Most Gianlucian podcasts are hosted on Audit, but often gain listeners through other apps and platforms too. The Gianlucian government, including the King and Leader, also host several podcasts to either talk about private life, and thus removing the distance between the people and their representatives, or about politics in general, for educational as well as for campaigning purposes. Some see this development critical and as an updated form of propaganda, while many others appreciate this extra service for the inhabitants by the politicians.

Art and entertainment

The entertainment industry of Gianatla is one of the most significant in Pacifica. This significance is underlined by the annual Southern Gate Festival in Südtor, which awards the best Pacifican movies, series and music productions of the year. Currently the festival is sponsored by the Gianlucian ministry of culture, Audit and Risa.
The city of Südtor is also home to one of the biggest production sites for audiovisual media in Pacifica, the so-called Gianniwood. Opened in 1984 it offers an university of arts, a voice-acting school and dozens of studios, which open all opportunities to every talented and upcoming artist of the region.

Films and series

Next to Risa, which became the biggest production company in recent years due to the success of their streaming service and their Risa Originals, the Bildfabrik (Austral: Picture Factory) is the biggest competitor in the film and series segment on the Gianlucian market.
Most films and series in Gianatla have more of a serious and artistic value. This also applies to Gianlucian cartoons and animated series. Often marketed to a general audience they hold a higher entertainment value in comparison to classical films and series with common actors, but the plots and story arcs still try to appeal with much depth to adult and educated audiences. Films and series are normally dubbed in Gianatla, but there are some cinemas presenting the works in the original version with subtitles too.

Music

Gianlucian music is generally more energetic and faster paced. The most common genres are pop and indie (indie-pop/indie-rock) music. Recently electronic, metal and industrial music equally were on the rise, but experts are not convinced yet, that they will stay generally important in the local music scene.
Gianlucian music artists are not known for sticking to one language. On the contrary it is not unusual for an artist to alternate between singing in Alman, Atlantic, Austral and other languages. The currently biggest music labels in Gianatla are Neptunius Records (Atlantis, est. 1967) and Koethe Studios (Südtor, est. 2013).

Video games

The video game market is one of the most important in Gianatla’s economy with companies like Orion, which wrote huge success stories with their consoles like the Orion Swap introduced to the market in 2017, and several video game development studios in the forefront.
Gianlucian game development is most popular for the following genres:

Adventure (interactive, story-driven, e.g. the Life is Weird-series)
RPG (e.g. the Knights-series (medieval/fantasy-RPG)
Simulation (e.g. the Kutanê!-series (life-simulation game))
Strategy (predominantly economic strategy games, e.g. the Transport King-series)

Adult entertainment

Since the legalization of pornographic material in Gianatla during the first social democratic government in 1972, the industry behind it was developing into one of the biggest in Pacifica, even with the restrictions, which followed in subsequent amendments on the law. Experts see this reasoned in the comparatively lax laws on this subject in comparison to other Pacifican countries, which focus mainly on persecuting the producers and distributers of illegal material instead of the audience itself.
While the adult entertainment sector is significant in Gianatla, it does not really suffer of the problems seen in other countries, that have a similarly large pornography industry, thanks to a generally more positive attitude towards sex work in the society and politics of the country.