Reporting on excellence: how major Italian newspapers cover university rankings

Global university rankings (GURs) have become a prominent feature of contemporary higher education, yet little is known about how they are represented and discussed in the media. This paper examines the media coverage of GURs in three major Italian newspapers (Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, and Il Sole 24 Ore) between 2004 and 2023. Combining longitudinal content analysis with regression models, the study investigates patterns of media attention across different rankings and assesses whether journalistic coverage reflects critiques raised in the academic literature. The findings show that media coverage is highly selective: attention to the QS ranking has increased over time, while coverage of THE and ARWU has declined. Critical engagement remains limited, with only a small share of articles raising concerns, primarily related to methodological issues, while broader impacts such as institutional isomorphism or stratification are largely absent. The results suggest that the observed patterns of media visibility may be interpreted in light of an interaction between the characteristics of ranking outputs, institutional communication practices, and journalistic routines, contributing to rankings being treated as routine reference points in public discourse.