Right to Inform, Victims’ Rights and Right-Wing Politics: When the Interplay between Political and Journalistic Discourse in Gbv Reporting Reinforces Distortions and Discriminations.

The paper examines the relationship between journalistic discourse and political communication, focusing on how the principal national and local newspapers covered gender-based violence during the recent national election campaign in Italy (September 2022). The objective is to examine how the electoral context shapes the journalistic representation of gender-based violence. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether the electoral context leads to an increase or decrease in attention towards the issue and whether the interaction with the electoral frame facilitates a more accurate narrative of journalistic coverage or, conversely, acts as an amplifier of the distortions and prejudices that are commonly encountered in public, media and political discourse on gender-based violence. Comparing the journalistic and the political actors’ representation of GBV the paper aims to understand if and how these narratives influence each other. Data presented were collected within the framework of the PRIN research project, entitled "STEPSISTER - STEreotypes and PrejudiceS In preSs represenTation of gEndeR-violence" (Principal Investigator: Dr. Rosalba Belmonte, Tuscia University).