Trivial country. Essays on media and politics in Italy (A)

The essays collected in this volume (ideally addressed to our European colleagues and fellow citizens) treat the relationship between media and politics in Italy through the analysis of some exemplary cases. The essays deal with a variety of subjects: television formats, the counter-informative effectiveness of blogs, political scandal and gossip on political leaders, the actual political dimension of journalism dealing with national or international events. Although the focus is the Italian context, the research perspective is international and our country is considered as exemplary of a trend involving the late Western democracies. In this sense, the Italian case is not intended as a curiosity or exception, but as a strong indicator of this trans-national trend, that not only alters the substance of democracy, but reduces its strength and puts this same substance at risk.