Public participation and consensual decision-making on the part of all stakeholders (e.g. political institutions and local communities) are presently two of the most shared leitmotifs in determining plants locations. Far from assuming deterministic perspectives, a key role is played by the media, whose narrative influence can drive the negotiation strategies between citizens and promoters towards different outcomes. No matter what tag is applied on local controversies and conflicts associated to these projects (i.e. NIMBY, BANANA, LULU, and so on and so forth) research studies that specifically focus on the active role of the media are still few, and this is especially the case in Italy. As a part of an on-going 5-year research study on the social impact of the incinerator currently under construction in Turin, Italy, this paper is mostly concerned with the 2008 Italian newspaper coverage of the waste emergency in Naples. Secondly, data from the mass media analysis are cross-tabulated with those coming from a longitudinal survey and various focus groups, giving empirical evidence of the effects of press coverage on public opinion towards technology. Some parts of the contents have been mentioned earlier in a brief editorial (Tipaldo 2012), but here are accompanied by a broader empirical documentation. The work demonstrates a highly emphatic and dramatized communication has been employed by Italian newspapers to describe the Naples' waste emergency as a new Chernobyl, the sole solution of which would be incineration with energy recovery. Alternate solutions to incineration were given short shrift and limited space in press coverage. By making the local emergency in Naples a sort of Hirschman's catalytic event nation-wide, the media strongly influenced public opinion from a short term perspective, inducing people (particularly those of low cultural profile) to agree with a waste-to-energy philosophy. Hence, the strong rise of positive attitudes towards the incineration plant in Turin between 2007 and 2008. With that coverage losing its intensity after the second half of 2008, a general sense of uncertainty, possibly due to a crowding-out effect, is detected among interviewees in the 2009 wave, whereas a sharp reversal of trend towards more critical positions is clearly evident from the latest 2011 data. Thus, in a medium-term perspective, forms of communication strongly affected by sensationalism, alarmism and oversimplification, beyond the relevant ethical implications, do not appear to give any ROI (Return On Investments) in delicate and controversial technoscientific issues, but may be counterproductive for everyone: end-users, institutions, industry stakeholders and media reputation.