Fuori dalle issues. Poteri e politiche simboliche della paura nell’analisi dei “classici”

This article is aimed to examine some of the most important “classic” theories about the symbolic construction of social feelings such as fear and insecurity, and therefore about the process through which those discourses become politically ac- tive as cultural forms. The framework is made of two central aspects: the relation- ship power/society and the re-launch of the concept of ideology; the characteristic of the emotional themes as non-topics within the public debate. As for the first point, a theoretical fracture raises, generated by the assignment to the media of a higher-level power, stronger than the political one, because culturally dominant. Regarding the second point, an idea seems to be shared: the existence of a strategy owing to which themes related to insecurity and fear do not access into the space of the public discussion (so that they can be named non-issues).