News Consumption in Italy in an Era of Crisis and Innovation: The Decline of Print and TV News

Abstract

The article focuses on the contemporary crisis within Italian journalism against the backdrop of the hybrid media system and the global proliferation of disinformation strategies. Over the past five years, a new stage of information consumption has been evolving in Italy. This transformation is driven not only by the fact that social networks have become fundamental sources of news, even though they often present isolated, biased, or fake content, but also due to the decline in the use of traditional news channels. The contemporary crisis of Italian news media will be discussed through the presentation of relevant recent changes in Italians’ information habits. This aims to connect these shifts to the traditional peculiarities that still impact the modern equilibrium between production and consumption, thereby shaping a new scenario for journalism.