Gender, Media and Culture Wars

The exploration of culture wars encompasses a diverse array of disciplines, spanning from historiography to political science, and from hegemony studies to globalisation studies. This chapter delves into this extensive literature, aiming to contextualise the emergence of culture wars. We delineate three distinct dimensions of this context: firstly, the theoretical backdrop, which encompasses a range of theoretical frameworks including cultural studies, sociology, political theory, and political science, with a particular focus on concepts such as cultural hegemony, ideology, cleavage, and identity politics. Secondly, the geographical context, which pertains to the evolution of public and political discourse on gender issues in Italy, from the inception of the Republic to the contemporary era, traversing the lengthy tenure of Berlusconi. Lastly, the communicative-media context is explored, characterised by transformative processes in discourse and public debate such as platformisation, fragmentation, polarisation, information disorders, and emotionalisation.