Abstract

In the last Italian general elections, the major coalitions were made up by parties which were taking significantly different positions on various issues, particularly about the war in Ukraine. Departing from this observation and adopting a comparative perspective, the article aims to investigate the connection between the attention devoted by the Italian media to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the positions on the matter taken by political leaders and parties. Namely, after coding the positioning of each party with respect to the policies to be adopted as a result of the conflict (sending arms to Ukraine, sanctions on the Russian Federation), we will try to scrutinize any changes with respect to these positions, comparing three sub-periods: pre-election period, election campaign, post-election period. As to the data, we will analyze the media coverage devoted by the main Italian broadcasting news to the topic of war and party positions. Thanks to this design, an attempt will be made to ascertain: a) to what extent the positioning of political actors is affected by the type of coverage devoted by the news to the Ukrainian conflict; b) to what degree this positioning changes in connection with the imperatives of political competition, with specific reference to the last election campaign: that is, we will try to understand to what extent each party tends to conceal or blunt its stance regarding the conflict when it should happen to be at odds with the position of the electoral alliance in which it participates.