1922-2022: The Centenary of the March on Rome on Social Media

This article aims at investigating how social media interpreted the cen-tenary of the March on Rome. The attitude of social media users toward memory is conditioned by the pervasiveness of the media context in which they are active: the past is understood as an interpretative element of the present and re-proposed in the light of contemporary events. The re-search, which pertains to the field of digital memory studies, was carried out by examining a selection of sources from the main social media used by Italian users: Youtube, Facebook, X, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok. First of all, the article addresses the state of the art of scholarly literature and discusses the evolution of relations between people and the media fol-lowing the process of mediatisation of culture. After examining the specific features of the social media platforms taken into consideration, the article examines the comments on contents published on social media, with par-ticular attention given to the debate that arose on the occasion of the pro-fascist demonstrations in Predappio, the spread of memes during the cen-tenary, and the perception of the centenary among non-Italian users.

Keywords: March on Rome, Centenary, memory, social media, hate speech, digital memory studies

Deborah Paci, I cento anni della marcia su Roma nei social media in "MONDO CONTEMPORANEO" 2-3/2023, pp 304-335, DOI: 10.3280/MON2023-002012