The Personalization of Italian Politics between Television and the Internet

Comparative electoral research has proven reluctant in systematically addressing the role played by television exposure as a driver of personalization in voting behaviour. Also, the relationship between the rise of Internet-based political communication and the personalization trend has been widely under-researched so far. This work represents an attempt to assess the extent to which political leaders have come to affect Italian voters' choice, as well as the role played by the exposure to different media in driving this development across time. The study involves a large-N longitudinal analysis of existing cross-sectional survey data collected by the Italian National Election Study (ITANES) over the period 2001-2013.