Abstract
In critical geopolitics recently, not only political discourses of politicians but also their influences on the people and various media that support the popular geopolitical imaginations are the subjects of study. As an example of the current of such studies, I focus on the spectacular activity of the Lega Nord which is one of the parties in Italy and analyze the newspaper coverage about it in terms of quality and quantity. The Lega made remarkable progress in national elections in the early 1990 and sought secession of the "civil North" from the "corrupt South" in 1996. It is the symbol politics that characterizes the politics of the Lega. Particularly the symbol politics on secession of the "Padania" which represents the Northern Italy according the Lega, was striking. I focus on newspaper coverage about the ritual for "Padania independent" which was performed in 13-15 September 1996. This got many people to hold demonstrations for or against the secession. Was this event of the Lega "successful" or a "failure"? Newspapers which I analyze are Il Gazzettino (Venice), La Stampa (Turin), Il Mattino (Naples) and La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno (Bari). I clarify what differences of reports there were. Because regional newspapers are predominant in Italy, I think that they are fruitful for my purpose of examining geographical differences of newspaper coverage. Especially, there might be remarkable differences between reports of the North and those of the South or between reports of Padania and those of Italy.
