Abstract
After the virus of SARS-CoV-2 appeared in China, Italy was the first country to experience the spread of the infection among Western nations. Two different governments, led, respectively, by Giuseppe Conte and Mario Draghi, have been in office during the first 2 years of the pandemic. This essay focuses on the different communicative and narrative strategies adopted by the two Italian government leaders to manage the crisis. Notably, it tries to interpret them in the light of two polar attitudes. On the one hand, the search for a consensus to legitimize and support the crisis management policies. On the other hand, the search for a consensus aimed at building leadership. Finally, it tries to identify the many causal variables accountable for these different attitudes.
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Notes
- 1.
Adnkronos, La tv fa il consenso politico, detta l’agenda e parla a tutti. I social seguono, 28 May 2021. https://www.adnkronos.com/la-tv-fa-il-consenso-politico-detta-lagenda-e-parla-a-tutti-i-social-seguono_5neVYAHZCtsKl6e9Oi3UXO?refresh_ce.
- 2.
Youtrend, Quanto parlano i politici italiani in Tv?, 26 January 2021.
https://www.youtrend.it/2021/01/26/quanto-parlano-i-politici-italiani-in-tv/.
- 3.
Virgilio Notizie, Coronavirus in tv: la maratona del premier Conte ospite ovunque, 24 February 2020. https://notizie.virgilio.it/coronavirus-in-tv-la-maratona-del-premier-conte-ospite-ovunque-1213099.
- 4.
Online archive of the Chamber of Deputies’ Press review.
- 5.
Ibidem.
- 6.
Conversation of the author with the deputy director of Huffington Post Italy Alessandro De Angelis, June 2020; Enrico Dalcastagné, Riempire il vuoto. I silenzi di Draghi alla prova del tempo, ZetaLuiss.it, March 1 2021, https://zetaluiss.it/2021/03/01/i-silenzi-di-draghi-alla-prova-del-tempo/.
- 7.
Anonymous source.
- 8.
Maurizio Serra—Youtrend, I politici presenti in tv nel primo trimester 2021, 27 April, 2021.
https://www.youtrend.it/2021/04/27/i-politici-piu-presenti-in-tv-nel-primo-trimestre-2021/.
- 9.
“Web reputation” is measured through an indicator that uses quantitative and qualitative data like citations and positive opinions drawn from web 1.0 and web 2.0.
- 10.
Reputationscience, I primi 100 giorni del Governo Draghi. Nonostante il “silenzio,” cresce la web reputation del premier, 24 May, 2021. https://www.reputationscience.it/analisi-i-primi-100-giorni-del-governo-draghi-nonostante-il-silenzio-cresce-la-web-reputation-del-premier/.
- 11.
Reputationscience, Cresce la web reputation del premier. Tra maggio e settembre + 85%, sentiment positive nel 75% dei casi, 26 Octobre, 2021. https://www.reputationscience.it/analisi-cresce-la-web-reputation-del-premier-tra-maggio-e-settembre-85-sentiment-positivo-nel-75-dei-casi/.
- 12.
C. Verdelli, Il capitale della fiducia per ricostruire l’Italia, in «Corriere della Sera», 16 February 2021.
- 13.
Author’s conversation with the deputy director of Huffington Post Italy Alessandro De Angelis and the correspondent to the newspaper La Stampa, Fabio Martini.
- 14.
Retroscenismo comes from the term retroscena, backstage, which, in the Italian language, indicates what happens behind the political scenes. It has become an actual journalistic genre in the last few years.
- 15.
Open, Dopo Casalino a palazzo Chigi arriva Paola Ansuini: chi è la donna della comunicazione “essenziale” di Mario Draghi, https://www.open.online/2021/02/17/chi-e-paola-ansuini-portavoce-mario-draghi/.
- 16.
Anonymous source.
- 17.
Openpolis, Perché l’abuso dei decreti legge può diventare un problema, 6 July 2021. https://www.openpolis.it/perche-labuso-dei-decreti-legge-puo-diventare-un-problema/.
- 18.
Ibidem.
- 19.
C. Bertini, Interview with Sabino Cassese, in “La Stampa,” 30 May, 2021; A. De Angelis, Il metodo di Draghi per cambiare la politica, in “HuffPost,” 28 May 2021. https://www.huffingtonpost.it/entry/il-metodo-di-draghi-per-cambiare-la-politica_it_60b0eba6e4b0c5658f930779.
- 20.
The speech Draghi given on March 12, 2021, at the vaccination center of Fiumicino, and the 10 speeches introducing the press conference concerning the management of the pandemic he pronounced from March 19 to November 25, 2021, whose transcripts are available on the government site (www.governo.it), were divided into propositions by the author and submitted to quantitative and qualitative analysis. In a previous work realized by the author, the same kind of analysis was applied to the press conference’ introductory speech given by Giuseppe Conte between January and June 2020 (Ventura, 2021, https://www.rivisteweb.it/issn/1594-6061/issue/8181).
- 21.
See the previous note.
- 22.
The corpus comprises Draghi’s answers transcriptions available on the government site www.governo.it, concerning seven press conferences from 26 March to 7 October 2021.
- 23.
A. De Angelis, Draghi non fa più Draghi e subisce la mediazione, in “HuffPost,” 5 January 2022. https://www.huffingtonpost.it/entry/draghi-non-fa-piu-draghi-e-subisce-la-mediazione_it_61d5e1b0e4b061afe3ae0822
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Ventura, S. (2022). The Italian Government’s Pandemic Communication from Giuseppe Conte to Mario Draghi: Between “Leadership Building” and “Crisis Resolution”. In: Maarek, P.J. (eds) Manufacturing Government Communication on Covid-19 . Springer Studies in Media and Political Communication. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09230-5_13
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