Framing Public Policies in a European Context: The Italian Case From a Comparative View

Very little attention has been paid to the communication of public policies both in political science and in communication research. This paper is aimed as first contribution in filling this gap highlighting the media attention to the role played by Europe in influencing national public policies. The paper presents evidence from an empirical research, which analysed the journalistic coverage of public policies provided by five newspapers for each case-study (Italy, France and Spain). Three dimensions are focused: 1. the journalistic attitude of comparing the national debate on a public policy with the measures decided - or the positions debated - on the same policy in other European countries; 2. the attention paid to the European institutions both with regard to their position on that policy and to their visibility; 3. the presence of negative references to the European institutions and to the role played by the EU.