The News Media as Networked Political Actors: How the Italian Media are Reclaiming Political Ground by Harnessing Online Participation

The impact of the new media on political participation has followed a peculiar route in Italy compared to most other Western democracies. The combination between a mass media system historically intertwined with politics and the dominance of television by the center-right create particular incentives for movement and oppositional political entrepreneurs to take advantage of online engagement tools and environments. While parties have generally been slow and reluctant to harness the full participatory potential of the new media, non-institutional actors such as social movements and the popular comedian-turned-anti-politician Beppe Grillo have been more innovative and successful in fostering online citizen engagement. Recently, however, a new wave of participatory efforts has been sparked by a different type of institutional actors—politically oriented newspapers and television personalities. Online citizen engagement now constitutes a valuable political resource for media outlets that have historically been involved in the political battlefield rather than practicing objectivity and neutrality. Through an analysis of various online participatory campaigns conducted by prominent Italian media players, this article sheds light on how the engagement opportunities offered by networked democracy impact on the adaptation strategies and political behaviors of the mainstream news media in a system characterized by political parallelism.