“Heritage and storytelling are keywords to semiotics. Umberto Eco himself, the Italian founding father of this discipline, has defined it as the study of the forms, the discourses and the practices of transmission and conservation through which it is possible to build the values of a culture.”

Therefore Anna Maria Lorusso, Vice President of the Italian Association for Semiotic Studies, introduced the research conducted by the semioticians Gabriele Marino and Bianca Terracciano for Pomilio Blumm. Through an innovative integration of quantitative and qualitative methods, the research project allowed to analyze the flow of digital storytelling on social networks linked to the concept of “Italian beauty” and to build a semantic mapping to display the users’ different perceptions.

Lorusso has also pointed out some methodological assumptions followed in the implementation of the study, noting that: “The sense, and therefore the values, are always given in terms of difference and opposition: it is important for us to grasp the evolution of the value systems that shapes these differences and these oppositions. And we usually do this by analyzing the stories and the narrative constructions through which these values are actuated, identifying roles, figures and passions.” “In this sense - continued Lorusso - storytelling is not a modern gimmick, but it is the way in which man organizes and captures the values.”