Abstract

Taking Italy as a case study, this article discusses the relevance of issues and leaders within the coverage of the mainstream media during the 2013 Italian general election campaign. After introducing the literature and illustrating the methodology and the research design, this article presents the main findings concerning the issues covered by the media (focusing in particular on political scandals and taxes), and then it shows the different strategies adopted by the major candidates (Berlusconi, Bersani, Grillo and Monti) in order to manage the electoral agenda. The distinctive features of the campaign are the self-referentiality, the limited number of issues within the public debate and the negative frame through which the mainstream media covered the competition.