Polarization and Platformization of News in Italian Journalism: The Coverage of Migrant Worker Regularization

News Media Between Platforms And Polarization

While some common criteria can be identified in the content choices of news organizations (Gans, 1979; Harcup & O'Neill, 2016), the spread of digital media and, in particular, social media, has fundamentally changed journalistic practices and the speed of news production. The news industry has been forced to rethink editorial activities, including the ways in which the success or visibility of an article is measured. In recent years, the analysis of metrics (i.e., quantitative data on different aspects of audience behaviour) has become a valuable tool for news providers in several countries (Cherubini & Nielsen, 2016; Nelson & Tandoc, 2019), a phenomenon also strongly influenced by substantial changes in the business model of news organizations.

Central to the debate about the current transformation of journalism is the impact of digital platforms on the news industry. Since the beginning of the 21st century, most news organizations have created social media accounts and pages, often ‘making them part of the news experience’ (Al Rawi, 2016, p. 706) by integrating them with their main websites. The shift of readers towards social media has forced newspapers to look for new business models and identify editorial strategies to maximize the use of digital platforms. The platforms, in turn, have presented themselves as an opportunity for news organizations to reach potential new audiences and generate extra revenue (Meese & Hurcombe, 2020; Napoli & Caplan, 2017). Indeed, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have increased the engagement resources available to newspapers, thereby playing a crucial role ‘in connecting news outlets with increasingly social and participatory online audiences’ (García-Perdomo et al., 2018, p. 1180).