Media Hybridization and the Strategic Value of Political Incivility: Insights From Italian Journalists

Abstract

This study investigates political incivility in journalism through a discursive approach, conceptualizing journalism as continuously constituted through interpretative processes. Building on theories of hybrid journalism as an everyday condition embedded in journalistic practices rather than merely a technological phenomenon, the research examines how journalists discursively construct, interpret, and utilize political incivility. Through interviews with 32 political journalists, the study identifies three interconnected dimensions of hybridization that facilitate the spread of uncivil content in the Italian media landscape: media platforms and production processes, journalistic roles and practices, and content genres. Findings reveal that the cross-platform circulation of uncivil content amplifies its visibility, while economic pressures incentivize its use as a monetization strategy. Journalists experience tension between professional ideals and market demands, leading to role hybridization that combines traditional practices with entertainment-oriented ones. Five approaches to political incivility emerge: providing interpretive frames, spreading uncivil content, contextualizing it, fueling it, and avoiding it. The Italian context, characterized by strong political parallelism and polarization, offers a compelling case for understanding how incivility functions as a structural feature rather than a side effect of hybrid media systems. This study contributes to existing scholarship by demonstrating how multiple levels of hybridization mutually reinforce the proliferation of incivility, potentially undermining public trust in journalism and its democratic function.