Abstract

Signifi cant changes happened in the last decade in the area of Italian political communication. Americanization is an insuffi cient and ineffective interpretive key. While pollsters continue to be central, the traditional advertising agencies and the new professionals of news management are emerging. Election campaigns seem less effective at changing voter orientation. Word centered activities, slogans and metaphor-building are on the rise. From an instrumental approach focused on the adoption of marketing techniques (from surveys to advertising) to a ritual, symbolic one. A fascinating challenge that must be tackled by opening up the discipline to linguistics, rhetoric and cognitive psychology, with great attention especially to the recent acquisitions of the neurosciences.