European Elections in Italian Media: Between Second Order Campaign and the Construction of European Public Sphere

The EU Integration for a long time has been considered as a supranational process that does not cause substantial changes in national political contexts. Moreover, the enlargement process has stressed cultural differences between member states and has highlighted difficulties in the construction of a shared public space; so that the existence of a European public sphere is still subject for debate. European Parliamentary elections are usually a pretext to discuss domestic issues and this is a common feature in most member states. EP election campaigns play a secondary role in terms of political strategies and journalistic practices. Studying newspapers, newscasts and the Web, this article aims to investigate the Italian 2009 EP election campaign, within the wider European context, discussing three main questions: a) Will data relating to the interest of news media, issues discussed by politicians and electoral turnout, allow us to include this campaign among the examples of second-elections? Or does the great lack of interest suggest that it should be counted among the campaigns of third-rate? b) Will news coverage confirm the lack of newsworthiness of Europe and the importance of domestic issues and national political actors? And related to this trend, do several medium specificities stand out (daily press, television and the Web)? c) Studying this campaign, does some evidence support the hypothesis of a slow, but constant "transnationalization" of national public opinion?