Digital Media, Contentious Politics and Party Systems in Italy and Spain

In this contribution, we discuss the role of the digital public sphere in social and political mobilisations in Italy and Spain since the beginning of 2000. Both countries experienced the emergence of successful parties relying heavily on digital media, linked to previous social mobilisations and protest milieu. We highlight the changing role of digital media and their shifting function from facilitating protest cycles with limited impact on party politics to becoming a tool for challenging the established political actors. Our main questions concern the extent to which digital media allowed social movements to express grievances that were later incorporated into the electoral programmes of new political parties.