Influence of the Populist Dynamics of Political Communication on Public Opinion: Giorgia Meloni's Case Study

The populist dynamics of contemporary politics have significantly impacted the evolution of traditional leadership models. This paper seeks to analyze the recent Italian political context, using the communication strategies of the current President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, as a case study. The research focuses on the manipulation of public opinion through media within the political sphere, with a particular emphasis on President Meloni’s speech delivered in Bologna in November 2024 during the closing event of the center-right electoral campaign in the Emilia-Romagna Italian region. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this research examines the issue through the lens of Lasswell's communication model, which underscores the three fundamental components of communication: sender, message, and receiver. The primary objective is to show how contemporary Italian populist political communication influences public opinion by manipulating information on issues of public interest. Additionally, the analysis highlights how President Meloni leverages her status as a woman to draw attention to issues emphasized by gender studies researchers and theorists, thereby promoting a distorted conception of female leadership. Ultimately, this paper aims to illustrate how in the contemporary digital society, information serves as a critical tool for shaping public opinion by generalizing specific cases to perpetuate populist rhetoric.