A midsummer's night dream: political communication during the Italian 2022 electoral campaign

Abstract

By adopting a political communication perspective, this article describes the Italian electoral campaign of 2022. First, we reconstruct the coalition formation phase and discuss the issues at the center of the electoral campaign. Second, we describe the communicative macro-frames at the heart of the political strategies of Italian political actors and how these macro-frames are declined to campaign on more specific issues. Third, we delve into the hybrid communication strategies of Italian politicians. To do so, we integrate the analysis of legacy media, showing their enduring centrality, and that of social media. In conclusion, we remark that the 2022 election was marked by many novelties, such as the unusual national summer campaign, the massive use of Instagram, and the introduction of Tik Tok in the parties’ communication strategies. At the same time, elements of continuity were present, such as leaders’ reliance on traditional media and the high political instability forcing the Italian political system to intense and hurried electoral campaigns.