The European Union on the Italian Mainstream Media: A Restraint or a Megaphone for Euroscepticism?

The aim of this article is to understand whether the growth of the Euroscepticism, along with the effects of the economic crisis, have affected the public debate on the EU in Italy. To do this, the salience of Europe and European issues was studied by analysing the coverage of mainstream media. Italy is an interesting case for studying the reasons that led the country from a situation of (relative) Europhilia to a new situation of more open criticism or opposition to the EU. The results address the question of which attitude towards the EU the media played during the crisis and they clarify when the media have worked as a restraint on Eurosceptic messages or as a megaphone. In order to achieve these goals, four media outlets were selected: Tg1, Tg3, Tg5 and La7, for TV News; Il Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, La Stampa and Il Giornale, for daily press. These outlets were analysed during two different periods: on the one hand we looked at the 2014 EU elections campaign (50 days), while on the other hand, we looked at a routine period of 50 days, randomly selected from June to November 2015. Focusing on these two different periods allows to assess to what extent the growth of Euroscepticism is a typical feature related to the election campaign or, instead, if it is a structural change in the media attitude towards EU. The results show that the Italian media have covered European issues in a more positive way when compared to Italian political issues. The visibility of Eurosceptic messages mainly still depends on the political orientation of media outlets.