Can Youth with a Migrant Background Speak? Representation, Citizenship and Voice in Italian TV and Press Journalism

Abstract

Through two case studies on TV and press journalism in Italy in 2012 we explore the representation of youth with a migrant background and of the jus soli issue in the country. We show that, in 2012, thanks also to the debate on jus soli, youth with a migrant background has found a greater representation than in the past in some Italian journalism, especially in State television newscasts and centre and left-wing newspapers. However, in most cases, this coverage presents young people of migrant background either as fundamentally different from or as completely identical to autochthonous youth. Moreover, the young are presented almost always in their individual, biographic dimensions, and the voice on specific political issues remains the monopoly of the autochthonous.