Il referendum sulla cittadinanza. Il dibattito pubblico tra social e legacy media

Referendum campaigns provide a valuable lens for examining the relationship between citizens, media, and trust in political institutions. The Italian referendum of 8-9 June 2025 not only confirmed long-term trends of abstention and political disengagement, but also raised a salient question on citizenship since one of the proposals was about repealing a part of Law 91/1992. Addressing this issue offered an opportunity to reframe public debate on migration beyond dominant securitarian and humanitarian frames. This study draws on a ten-week monitoring period to analyze the interplay between traditional and digital media agendas during the referendum campaign. It addresses three questions: (1) How did media coverage evolve over time? (2) Which actors and themes most shaped agenda-building processes? (3) What communication strategies were employed by the referendum’s promoters, and with what effects? Empirically, the research combines four datasets: daily monitoring of prime-time news bulletins on four national broadcasters; front pages of ten newspapers; weekly samples of the top 100 most engaged posts on X and Bluesky for each of three queries; and Instagram content from the main promoters’ accounts. Findings confirm the centrality of political actors in hybrid media systems, as well as the personalization and mediatization of politics. A thematic shift emerged from substantive referendum issues to party-political disputes, with right-wing actors advancing a coherent abstention-focused narrative, while left-wing promoters struggled to impose their frames. Nevertheless, pro-referendum activists achieved notable visibility on Instagram by successfully employing a counterframing narrative of the “easy-citizenship” using direct testimonies from Italians with a migration background. By integrating frame theory, agenda-setting, and hybrid media research, this study highlights both the potential and the limits of social media in amplifying alternative frames within highly mediatized political campaigns, offering insights into the dynamics of agenda-building in contemporary democracies.