Abstract

The work proposes a study of media narratives concerning local politics during election campaigns. The study focuses on the case of the 2021 municipal elections for the City of Naples and starts from the hypothesis that the relationship between political actors and media outlets constitutes a dual connection, wherein the former use the latter as a sounding board, and the latter confer centrality to politicians in agenda-setting. The empirical part of the study follows a mixed methods design to examine the self-presentation strategies of mayoral candidates and analyze their corresponding media coverage. The objective is to provide an in-depth description of the political-press relationship to identify and understand the advantages obtainable by the actors involved in this relationship.