The Design of Politics: Understanding the Arrest of Cesare Battisti Through the New Media Factor

| At present, populism is best understood as a combination of contextual issues (demand side) and the availability of successful parties (supply side). This article queries the impact of the new media factor as a third component for the fortune of contemporary populism, with the aim of clarifying how the features of new media communication can reflect or enhance the characteristics proper of populism. In order to do this, three aspects of the new media factor will be taken into account, hence the mediatization of politics, the process of disintermediation, and visual storytelling. Specifically, the paper will analyze a controversial video posted on Facebook by the Minister of Justice Alfonso Bonafede in 2019, displaying the arrival at Ciampino Airport of the exterrorist Cesare Battisti. The latter will be used to explicit a coincidence of visual elements on digital media that can help political leaders better engage with their online audience, focusing on the assumptions that images can improve and facilitate the learning process, create identitarian spaces, and facilitate emotional involvement with the audience.