In this paper, we analyze the content and ideological effects of the cable news channel called N1 (a notable news source in the countries of former Yugoslavia in recent years). In the introduction, we present the basic ownership structure of the channel and the media company that produces it since 2014. Using the case study method, we perform an ideological analysis of the media representations of the electoral victory of Giorgia Meloni in the Italian elections of 2022. We perform the ideological analysis on the basis of the theory of ideology by the Slovenian theoretician Rastko Močnik. Next, we make a theoretical break by using Močnik‘s theses on the ruling ideology of neoliberalism to explore the broader context of the collapse and transformation of nation-states and their media institutions in the age of transnational capital. We find that identity politics represent the ruling ideology of neoliberalism. The case studies of N1’s in-depth reporting are then re-examined as examples of ruling identitarian practices. In the concluding remarks, we claim that, although it seems that the neoliberal media apparatus is as strong in the periphery as it is in the center, the true measure of its dominance lies in the measure of the dominance of the ruling ideology that it reproduces.
