Partiti, leadership e consenso agli albori del social networking (2005-2010): il caso italiano

Over the last few years, political communication has faced drastic changes in the media landscape. This paper examines, through the Italian case, the parallel evolution of media landscape and political communication, focusing on how parties and politicians have tried to improve their methods of “voter contact”, by redesigning leadership, creating “virtual communities”, and attempting to mobilize supporters in order to get and maintain voters’approval. The Italian case is interesting because of its extreme conditions: while a media tycoon has been the most influential political leader since nearly twenty years, the political movement born around Beppe Grillo’s blog gets ready to run in General Elections.