From scandal to news: how a Hybrid Media System refunctionalizes the Press — The Boccia-Sangiuliano case

Abstract

This article examines how the interplay between television and digital platforms reshapes political storytelling in distinctly spectacular terms. Drawing on the Boccia–Sangiuliano case study, we show that leader-centred narratives and the exposure of private life activate attention circuits capable of rapidly turning a personal episode into a high-salience public affair. Circulation trajectories originate (or re-circulate) on social media and flow into legacy outlets, reshaping news hierarchies and publication rhythms. Within this setting, scandal and gossip operate as narrative accelerators, fostering forms of adherence grounded in emotion and symbolic recognition rather than argument. On the professional side, we observe a shift in the journalistic role: mediation gives way to practices of curating and relaying trends, while editorial choices increasingly align with platform logics of visibility and engagement, often at the expense of prior verification and contextualization. We propose to interpret this trajectory as a refunctionalization of the press in the social-digital environment and discuss its implications for the quality of the public sphere.