Research note: The launch of the Euro in the Italian media - Representations of political and economic integration

This article has a double aim. Taking as a case study the Italian media coverage on the launch of the common European currency, it shows how the meaning of a public event is defined in different ways by different media (television channels and newspapers of different political orientation). The second aim of this article is to analyse how the media elaborate national understandings of the European Union while also redefining national identity and images of the nation by means of incorporating European/EU elements into them. The Italian media discourse offers an interesting case study as national policy, public attitudes and political discourse in that country have been consistently pro-EU in the past decades. However, this article seeks to steer clear from facile claims that public discourse in a given country is clearly pro- or anti-EU. Using the tools of qualitative discourse analysis, it casts light on the complexity and ambiguity of public discourse. The material analysed includes the coverage of the Euro launch by five newspapers and two television channels in the period between 30 December 2001 and 3 January 2002.