The Europeanization of Mediterranean journalistic practices and the Italianization of Brussels: Dynamics of the interaction between EU institutions and national journalistic cultures

The aim of this article is to analyse the dynamics of change and persistence that affect the Mediterranean journalistic culture when it has to deal with EU institutions. Data were collected by interviewing Italian correspondents in Brussels and by observing their daily work. Results show how their professional culture has adapted to the specificities of the EU news beat. Evidence was found of the emergence of a Euro-centric news perspective, of the adoption of new newsgathering routines and of a tendency to produce less opinionated and more fact-centred news items.The new ‘Europeanized’ practices, however, do not completely substitute the traditional routines. Italian correspondents actively try to treat the EU within conventional routines, fixed in their own journalistic culture, and to construct the news focusing on the conflictive dimension of the events reported.