This is a comprehensive and concise analysis of the most important developments in Italian media and politics over the last twenty years. D'Arma effectively combines key insights from media research, political science, and historical research to capture both where the Italian situation is truly exceptional and where it is more broadly indicative of the changing relations between old media platforms, new digital technologies, and the deeply rooted political, economic, and cultural factors that shape how they develop. A welcome contribution to our understanding of Italy—and of media and politics more broadly.

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Alessandro D’Arma’s book on the complex interdependent relationship between media and politics in the Italian Second Republic shows an author in total command of his subject matter. D’Arma expertly analyses several key themes in contemporary Italian political communication, from the interventionist excesses of the Berlusconi years to Beppe Grillo’s skillful exploitation of social media for electoral purposes. Written in an engaging and lucid style, D’Arma’s book is a very welcome addition to the literature on politics and media in leading European nation states.

Raymond Kuhn, Queen Mary University of London

This meticulously researched book makes for essential reading on the subject of the relationship between politics and the media in contemporary Italy. Alessandro D’Arma’s detailed exploration of media policy and political journalism provides authoritative insight into the politics/media nexus in this fascinating and many ways quite singular country case. This book will be a standard point of reference for scholars of Italian media policy and political communication.

Peter Humphreys, University of Manchester