Institutional Media as Networked Political Actors: How 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 leader Silvio Berlusconi 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 through the internet now constitutes a valuable political resource for media outlets that have historically been involved in the political battlefield rather than practicing objectivity and neutrality to serve their readers’ informational needs. Through an analysis of the various online participatory campaigns conducted by prominent Italian media players, this paper aims at shedding light on how the engagement opportunities offered by networked democracy impact on the adaptation strategies and political behaviors of a particular type of institutional actors such as the mainstream news media.