Abstract

The scandals that involved the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi in the summer of 2009 had a large coverage on the Italian as well as on the international press. This article gives account of the findings of a quantitative and qualitative media frame analysis, conducted on four Spanish and British newspapers. The purpose is to emphasize the narrations and the frames adopted by the foreign press. What emerged is a common attribution of a public/political value to these issues, declined with dramatizing elements such as the widespread moral decay and the risks for Italy's democracy. Explained are the narrative mechanisms of the frames through the textual analysis of the articles, and an overall view of how the foreign press told its readers about the scandal is given.