Abstract

T his paper analyses how the growing use of social media among political actors (and the decrease in journalists' mediating function) changes the process of political information and its negotiations. The research focuses on the first 100 days of Matteo Renzi's administration, analyzing how Italian newspapers, TV news services and press agencies used Prime Minister's tweets in their coverage of national political situation. The research specifically considers: a) Twitter's role as a newsmaker; b) the factors affecting the life-cycle of Renzi's tweets; c) the different reactions (in term of visibility and impact) to his Twitter activity across mediasphere and twittersphere;d) the changes during the period of electoral campaign which affected both the media's attitude to Renzi's tweets and Renzi's twitting style itself.