A virus in the hybrid media system: how the Conte government communicated the coronavirus crisis

On 30 January 2020, two Chinese tourists tested positive for Covid-19 and were immediately admitted to the Istituto Spallanzani in Rome, a centre of excellence for the treatment of infectious diseases. Newspapers, TV journalists and online information platforms had already begun to focus on the new virus several weeks previously. The news emerging from the Chinese city of Wuhan had, from the start, provoked a great deal of concern in scientific and health communities both at home and abroad, thus making information about the spread of the new virus highly newsworthy. However, even after the discovery that these two Chinese tourists had been infected, the ‘virus’ issue was for several weeks just one among a number of issues raised in the mass media and in the public statements the main political actors made to the press or via social media. However, things took a completely different turn from 22 February when for the first time the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, convened a joint press conference involving, besides himself, a representative of the Comitato tecnico scientifico (Techincal and scientific committee, Cts), the minister of Health and the head of the Civil Protection agency. During the press conference, a first decree law was announced, making clear the Government’s intention to take legislative measures designed to begin to manage the emergency caused by the spread of the Covid-19 virus. It was necessary, in fact, to facilitate the return, whether or not they had tested positive, of Italian citizens who found themselves in the areas most heavily affected by the virus – such as the province of Hubei in which the city of Wuhan is located – and to respond to the initial small outbreaks at home, especially in the city of Vo’ in Veneto and in Codogno in Lombardy (see the article by Toth in this special issue for more details). The press conference marked the beginning of what we shall call ‘Phase 0ʹ of the response to the pandemic in Italy: the preparatory phase which culminated in the decision of the second Conte government to impose a national lockdown that was to remain in force for 58 days, from 7 March until 3 May 2020. After this period of full lockdown, here referred to as Phase 1, there were a further two phases, that is, Phase 2, marking an initial relaxation of the restrictions imposed in Phase 1, and a Phase 3, in which almost all of the restrictions were completely lifted. Phase 4 began with the decision to resume face-to-face teaching in all schools, accompanied by the passage of a number of related health policy measures. This phase was succeeded by another one