Visible Scientists, Media Coverage and National Identity: Nobel Laureates in the Italian Daily Press

This chapter analyzes media coverage of the Nobel Prizes, focusing especially on the coverage in the Italian daily press of the Nobel Prize for physics received by Guglielmo Marconi in 1909. It thus offers an opportunity to explore general features and trends in the coverage of science by the press, as well as its treatment of Nobel Prizes in the sciences. Media treatment of Marconi’s Nobel Prize highlights two key elements of science coverage in the Italian daily press: the media’s dependence on highly prominent individuals, and the connection between science and broader social, political and cultural frames. A ‘national identity and pride’ frame, in particular, often emerges in media stories about Nobel laureates in the early twentieth century