ABSTRACT
Under the old Italian regime the mass media were a central site of the exercise and negotiation of political power. They were also, as they had been throughout most of the history of the unified state, a terrain of interaction between political and economic elites. In consequence, the tremendous loss of credibility and collapse of the traditional parties following the outbreak of Tangentopoli and related corruption scandals had a dramatic impact on the mass media at all levels. First, the removal from the scene of powerful individuals and political forces that had acted as masters and gatekeepers of the system as a whole left a great gap. Second, both established professional practices and the legal framework introduced in 1990-which legitimised the trends towards concentration in ownership of the previous decade-were called into question. Third, the crisis of traditional vehicles of representation resulted in the media themselves, and especially television, taking on a central role in furnishing new reference points, even though their having been closely bound up with the old order meant that they were not always well qualified to do this.
