The Representation of Homophobia in Two Italian Daily Newspapers

Homophobia, a phenomenon firmly rooted in intolerance, refers to negative attitudes towards homosexual individuals. Being a social and cultural phenomenon, the media can act as a tool to highlight changes in attitudes to LGBTQI reality. The aim of this paper is to analyse representations of homophobia by comparing articles published in two Italian daily newspapers: " La Repubblica " and " L'Unità ". The articles published in 2002 and 2012 were chosen in order to investigate the differences and determine whether there have been changes in the portrayal of this phenomenon in the media. Attention focused on the thematic section and the publishing format, the gender of the journalist and the font style used by the author to describe events. In 2002 16 articles appeared in " La Repubblica " , while the figure jumped to 246 in 2012, an increase of more than 900%. Between 2002 and 2012 there was a 31% increase in local articles. " L'Unità " featured 17 articles in 2002, as compared to 95 in 2012, a rise of over 400%. The interval between the two years selected saw the number of national articles decrease by 12%. Overall however, the remarkable increase in the total number of articles emphasises the impact on public opinion, and the larger amount of space dedicated to this issue probably indicates a greater degree of open-mindedness in the political and legislative fields.