Course: SKOM12 Term: Spring 2019 Supervisors: Marja Åkerström Examiner Ilkin Mehrabov Examiner: Howard Nothhaft Some (just) like it hot: Apolitical politics in the Italian Cabinet LUCA RIZZI Lund University Department of strategic communication Master’s thesis i ii Abstract Some (just) like it hot: Apolitical politics in the Italian Cabinet The current Italian Cabinet was composed in 2018 by two populist parties who had never been a relevant participant in the Government before. Social media play a significant role in the communication of both parties, who use Facebook and Twitter to directly reach the citizens. Members of the parties with relevant positions in the Cabinet are delivering an extremely uncommon and often apolitical online communication, in regards of both the register and the contents of their messages, and this is causing a break with the institutional communication of past cabinets. This thesis aims at finding trends in the social media communication of the current Cabinet, and discussing the implications for the development of political communication in general. Keyword: populist communication, politics, social media communication, social media strategies, Italy iii iv Acknowledgments The first two persons that I need to thank are Marja Åkerström and Ilkin Mehrabov. Their constant willingness to help, their enthusiasm and their frankness made my work extremely more engaging and satisfying. I could not have asked for more. I would also like to thank Howard Nothhaft and my fellow students, who at a delicate moment of this program convinced me to continue with my studies. In this respect, thanks to everyone at Sydskånska Nationen in Lund, which has been my escape valve during these two years and especially during these last five months. Last and most importantly, thanks to Emanuela, Giovanni, Marco and Enrico. All I do, I am and will be, I owe it to them and to their support. Lund, May 2019 Luca Rizzi (Savio) v vi Table of contents 1. Introduction.................................................................................................................................p. 1 1.1. Politicians and social media.................................................................................................p. 1 1.2. Populist communication.......................................................................................................p. 2 2. Research Aim & Research Questions..........................................................................................p. 5 2.1. Research aim: effects of social media on political communication.....................................p. 5 2.2. Research Question................................................................................................................p. 6 3. Background..................................................................................................................................p. 7 3.1. M5S: A crisis-based movement...........................................................................................p. 7 3.2. Lega: from regionalism to nationalism................................................................................p. 8 3.3. Relevance of the Italian case................................................................................................p. 9 4. Theoretical Approach................................................................................................................p. 11 5. Literature Review......................................................................................................................p. 15 5.1. Mediatization......................................................................................................................p. 15 5.2. Political use of social media...............................................................................................p. 16 5.3. Populist Communication.....................................................................................................p. 17 5.4. Intimization.........................................................................................................................p. 18 5.5. Attention Economy.............................................................................................................p. 19 5.6. Two relevant results............................................................................................................p. 20 6. Methodology & Empirical Material...........................................................................................p. 23 6.1. Methodology.......................................................................................................................p. 23 6.2. Empirical Material..............................................................................................................p. 24 6.3. Data Collection Criteria......................................................................................................p. 26 6.4. Overall picture of the collected data...................................................................................p. 27 6.5. Translation disclaimer.........................................................................................................p. 28 vii 7. Analysis......................................................................................................................................p. 29 7.1. Categorizing the data: Strategies........................................................................................p. 29 7.2. Informality and Emotionalization: the Intimization strategy..............................................p. 31 7.2.1. Using Intimization to tackle accountability during crises........................................p. 32 7.3. You are what you do and you do what you are: the Personalization strategy....................p. 36 7.3.1. Demonizing opponents through Active Personalization.........................................p. 38 7.4. Honesty and common sense: the Anti-Intellectualism strategy.........................................p. 40 7.4.1. Anti-intellectualism in technical debates..................................................................p. 42 7.4.2. Making anti-intellectualism a daily practice.............................................................p. 45 7.5. Combining strategies: Anti-Intellectualist Personalization................................................p. 48 7.5.1. Personalizing technical critiques..............................................................................p. 48 7.5.2. Cherry-picking anti-intellectualism..........................................................................p. 52 7.6. Cutting out the middleman: from personal channels to news media..................................p. 55 7.6.1. The Conte Cabinet versus the Media........................................................................p. 57 7.7. Self-conflicting communication: changing stance over time.............................................p. 59 7.7.1. From active to passive personalization.....................................................................p. 59 7.7.2. Cherry-picking personalization................................................................................p. 62 7.7.3. Coherence of register versus coherence of content..................................................p. 64 8. Discussion..................................................................................................................................p. 67 8.1. Results: M5S versus Salvini...............................................................................................p. 67 8.2. Results: what does communication impoverishment mean................................................p. 67 8.3. Results: implications of the contribution of knowledge.....................................................p. 68 8.4. Future research recommendations......................................................................................p. 69 9. Conclusion..................................................................................................................................p. 71 10. References................................................................................................................................p. 73 11. Appendix..................................................................................................................................p. 85 viii 1. Introduction Italy is often taken as an example in talks on the rise of populism in Europe. The two parties that are usually mentioned in these talks are self-proclaimed "anti-party" Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S, "Five Star Movement") and far-right Lega Nord ("Northern League", LN). The two, even diverging greatly on almost all policies and electoral base, joined in a coalition to form the government after the elections of 2018, where they respectively obtained roughly the 32% and the 18% of votes (The Guardian, 2018). The coalition was formed as the only practicable combination of political forces that would have obtained a parliamentary majority, after several months of hung- parliament situation. The current government is commonly defined as the Gialloverde Government (yellow-green, from the color of the two parties) or as the Conte Cabinet, from the name of the non- political Prime Minister appointed jointly by the two parties, Giuseppe Conte. Less than one year after the elections, polls are currently showing opposite trends regarding the approval rates for the two parties and their leaders, who are currently