Ricerc@Sapienza

The 2018 Italian General Elections can be considered as one of the most relevant case studies in the contemporary political communication researches for many reasons. In particular, it’s crucial for the success of two populist parties (M5S and Lega) and for a new scenario characterized by political and social instability that is reflecting in the alliance between the winner parties and in the disappearance of the “classic” party system. Furthermore, regarding to the communicative and propaganda elements that have characterized this electoral campaign, there are strong elements both of innovation and “predominance” in terms of strategies and of political actors with respect to other competitors, as well as of “consolidation” with respect to previous elections. One of these is undoubtedly the use of strategies by some political parties, such as Lega Nord and M5S, via SNS that would be considered as an example of the new citizens approach towards politics, but also as an attempt to “break” with the previous political system and to have trust towards new political leaders such as Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio. In view of this, the chapter aims to analyze the general Tv political agenda during the first (February 5-February 11) and the fourth (February 26-March 3) weeks before the voting day, through a content analysis of the most important information products, namely the morning and evening Tv news editions of the seven main Italian Tv networks (Rai1, Rai2, Rai3, Rete4, Canale5, Italia Uno, La7), in comparison with the most discussed topics by politicians in the media “space” par excellence, which are the Italian evening Tv talk shows episodes (Bersaglio Mobile, Dalla vostra parte, DiMartedì, Domenica In, Domenica Live, Faccia a Faccia, Kronos-Il tempo della scelta, Linea Notte, Matrix, Mezz’ora in più, Non è l’arena, Otto e mezzo, Piazzapulita, Porta a Porta, Propaganda Live, Quinta Colonna, #cartabianca).