This document provides an overview of a MA thesis that analyzes EU issues coverage in Italian media from 2008-2014, covering national and European Parliament elections. The thesis contains two hypotheses: 1) Coverage of EU issues in Italian newspapers increasingly shaped the 2014 EP elections compared to 2009. 2) EU matters have become increasingly significant in both national and EP elections in Italy, partially contradicting the Second-Order Elections model. The thesis methodology examines coverage in 5 Italian newspapers, and contains two case studies analyzing coverage patterns and salient EU themes. The document outlines the Italian political context during the period and provides background on studies of EU issue salience in elections.

1. The EU Issues on Italian Media
EU Coverage from 2008 National Elections to 2014 European Parliament
Elections
Maastricht University
MA in European Studies
Supervisor:
Dr. Laczó Ferenc
Andrea Tadiotto
I6098852
MA thesis
31-8-2016

2. I declare that this piece of writing is my own work; all use of other work and thoughts have
been properly referenced

3. Table of Content
1 Introduction 1
2 Literature review 5
3 Theoretical Framework 11
4 The Italian Context 15
4.1 2008 – 2009 Political Context 16
4.2 2013 – 2014 Political Context 17
5 Methodology 19
5.1 European Parliament Elections 21
5.2 National and European Elections 23
6 Analysis 24
6.1 Case Study 1 - European Parliament Elections 24
6.2 Case study 2 - National and European elections 31
7 Discussion 37
8 Conclusion 41
9 Appendix 43
10 Bibliography 44

4. ABSTRACT
This thesis analyses the quality press coverage on EU themes in Italy. It covers electoral
campaigns both of European Parliament elections (2009 and 2014), and national elections
(2008 and 2013). The results show that the elections campaigns are increasingly shaped by
Europe matters and the 2014 European Parliament elections are the most embedded with EU
issues compared to former ones. Moreover, similar European themes characterises the 2013
national elections. This consents to conclude that the latter two elections are determined by
similar EU matters, contrarily to what expected by the Second-Order Elections (SOE) model.
One the contrary, the EU debate during the electoral campaign of the 2008 national elections
and the 2009 European elections appears dissimilar. This thesis argues that narrative changes
occur due to the economic and political crisis, which affected the Italian polity. This provoked a
gradual rise of EU-frames with a negative tone, and the possibility for parties, also those which
have been traditionally Europhile, to be vocal in condemning the European governance.
Overall, the new EU narrative and public awareness, which could have set a limit to the
European democratic deficit, actually shows that EU founding values are harmed by the rise of
Eurosceptic inclinations.
KEY WORDS
Media Coverage; European Parliament; Second-Order Elections; Democratic Deficit; Italy;
Honeymoon Effect; Euroscepticism.

5. 1 Introduction
European Union (EU) dynamics are embedded in a long-period process of continuous
evolution that only lately has begun to show substantial public participation (de Vreese et al.,
2016). European integration process responds to domestic, international and global changes
in several fields, such as politics, economics and international relations. Among all, European
electoral dynamics reflect changes of the political competition and public attitude. Thus, the
European contestation presents visible modifications since the first election has been held,
and even more since the process of EU integration has deepened with the Maastricht Treaty
and subsequent amendments (Marsh & Mikhailov, 2010). Although domestic issues still
shape most prominently the electoral competition, EU themes may gradually enter the public
debate. Recent literature, in fact, emphasises the growing influence exerted by EU issues on
voters' attitude (Hix & Marsh, 2007; Hobolt & Wittrock, 2011; Schuck et al., 2011; Carruba
& Timpone, 2005). However, its results are still uncertain since voters' behaviour is
composite and difficult to be defined with certainty (Schmitt & Teperoglou, 2015; de Vries,
2007; de Vries et al, 2011; Schlesinger, 1999).
This thesis questions whether EU information gains influence on Italian mass media
and in the public debate, in order to examine the evolution of the European dynamics from
2008 to 2014. The study focuses specifically on the electoral campaigns to assess whether the
EU narrative can contribute to shape political debate and, consequently, voters' preferences
beliefs.
Supranational changes and domestic reshaping affect the political narrative, as well as
the evolution of the European debate. Thus, this study offers a wide analysis of the Italian
case about the EU coverage on Italian quality press in conjunction with national and
European Parliament (EP) elections contestations. The analysis covers the most salient part of
the electoral campaigns, i.e. the last five months running up to the elections, of five Italian
newspapers, namely Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, Il Giornale and Il
Messaggero. This approach leads to two different hypotheses that are tested through two case
studies, which focus on coverage regularity and salient EU themes.
The first claim offered here is that public opinion in Italy is becoming more attentive
with respect to EU themes (de Vreese et al., 2016; Belluati & Serricchio, 2013). Therefore,
Case Study 1 compares 2009 and 2014 European Parliament elections, assuming that Italian
newspapers increasingly cover EU issues. This would demonstrate that Europe has amplified
its relevance in the political debate during EP contestations.

6. Second, this thesis expects that EU matters have gradually gained relevance in the
Italian public debate as far as to be significant also during national electoral competitions
(Belluati & Serricchio, 2013). Case Study 2 combines the results from the first part of the
analysis with the EU coverage on the 2008 and 2013 Italian national elections and assumes
that Europe1
increasingly plays a crucial role also in the domestic electoral contestation. All
in all, the second hypothesis implies that both competitions are gradually shaped by similar
EU themes, thus, the EP elections appear less secondary in comparison with the national
elections. Therefore, this partially controverts the Second-Order Elections (SOE) model,
which assesses little relevance to European themes and expects domestic issues to shape both
contestations.
The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that, nowadays, crucial changes on the
political information supply consent to analyse Europe as relevant in the electoral
contestation. However, it does not aim at defining their actual impact on public perception.
Thus, the analysis does not seek to controvert all around the SOE model, i.e. examining
voters' behaviour and party position on EU stance, which might be addressed by further
researches. It attempts to provide insights that EU issues are a "significant part of the
everyday news-consuming habits of the European audience" (as expected, but not yet proved,
by Schlesinger, 1999, p. 276) in order to contradict the model which describes the EU debate
and coverage as perpetually secondary.
Studies on the EP elections recently revised the original SOE model (Reif & Schmitt,
1980) and applied a 'Europe matters' approach aiming to demonstrate the relevance of EU
dimension in the electoral outcome (Hix and Marsh, 2007; Hobolt et al., 2009). Hence, this
thesis applies the 'Europe matters' approach to the field of information (de Vreese et al.,
2006; Belluati & Serricchio, 2013; de Vreese et al., 2016) and conducts an in-depth analysis
on quality press coverage in the case of Italy throughout four subsequent elections.
The 2014 EP elections appear to be the crossroad episode, in which Italian parties
took on the debate on themes that engage Europe and party leaders (Schmitt & Teperoglou,
2015; Segatti et al., 2015; van der Brug et al., 2016). The literature has, recently, emphasised
how Europe is seeking to enhance EP elections attractiveness and curb the democratic deficit.
For instance, the nomination of leading candidates to the post of President of the European
Commission has been adopted as a practice to encourage turnout (van der Brug et al., 2016).
Additionally, the general enlargement of EP's powers has progressively incentivised public
1
The term Europe is employed in lieu of EU. Hereafter EU, Europe and European will convey similar concepts
in reference to the EU Institutions, the EP elections or EU themes.

7. interest, hand in hand with the visibility acquired by the EU in the external action thanks to
the significant role played by the High Representative (HR) (Schmitt & Teperoglou, 2015).
Public awareness towards the role of the EU encourages citizens to build their own European
partisanship and enhance the democratic level of the EU polity (de Vries et al, 2011; Hobolt
& Wittrock, 2011). Nevertheless, this thesis acknowledges that the evolution of political
communication does not solve tout court the lack of accountability of the EU institutions
(Føllesdal & Hix, 2006).
This thesis offers an analysis only on mass media communication in Italy because it
may be able to convey clear evidence that EU communication is actually evolving. Hence, it
aims to enlarge the knowledge on the case of Italy in recent years, which has shown first
signs of change mainly with respect to the 2013 national elections (Bellucci & Segatti, 2013;
Belluati & Serricchio, 2013). Furthermore, the fact that the 2014 EP election in Italy has been
the most 'European' among southern Member States (Schmitt & Teperoglou, 2015) enhances
the relevance of this thesis. It, in fact, aims at filling the gap of knowledge about EU themes
coverage and Italian public narrative with a perspective view.
Additionally, the management of the economic crisis equates Southern Member States
(Andreadis et al., 2014). In Italy such instable context, in fact, conditions both national
elections in 2013 (Belluati & Serricchio, 2013) and EP elections in 2014 (Segatti et al.,
2015). Therefore, the Italian situation provides a clear example of Southern Member States
that suffers the effects of the economic recession and austerity measures. Nevertheless, this
thesis prevents any generalisation due to the specific focus on Italian media coverage, which
might differ from other countries' one. Further studies may pursue to enquire the evolution of
a common European public sphere.
The thesis will proceed by presenting the literature review and the theoretical
framework. Chapter four will provide an overview within the Italian context during the
observed time period. The methodology will be introduced in Chapter five. The analysis
presents two case studies, both concentrating on the EU themes on the Italian electoral
dynamics. The first investigates media coverage between 2009 and 2014 EP elections.
Whereas, the second compares national and electoral contestation and shows differences
between them and provides an overview on the whole period, from 2008 to 2014. The
discussion follows emphasising the study's results. Finally, the thesis’ findings are
summarized in the conclusion.