In this paper we analyzed the differences in representation and creation of Berlusconi's identity in the two Italian largest circulation weekly magazines. As a representative time period we chose the year 2011 because of important social and political changes in Italy. The corpus consists of 233 editorials from magazines L'Espresso and Panorama (totalling 152 817 words). The study is based on the theoretical framework of van Dijk on ideology and society and on categories of ideological discourse analysis (van Dijk 2005). Some categories of ideological discourse analysis are: actor description (meaning), authority, burden, categorization, comparison, consensus, counterfactuals, disclaimer, euphemism, evidentiality, example, generalization, hyperbole, irony, lexicalization, methaphor, national self-glorification, number game, polarization, negative other presentation, norm expression, us-the, categorization, populism, positive selfpresentation, vagueness, victimization (van Dijk 2005). The method includes the principles of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis. In this broad theoretical and methodological framework we developed the procedure that requires classification of linguistic material in clusters according to key characteristics of Berlusconi's profile. In the end, we compared the matrix in two newspapers. The results confirmed the majority of van Dijk's strategies and emphasized the contrasts of linguistic material in sub-corpuses.