Traces of official sources in the mediatization of road safety can be found in TV programmes (excluding newscasts) between 1995 and 2004. The political context was original in those years: a combination of mass government communication campaigns and stricter control to combat 'road violence'?. This 'invisible'? public communication around a 'grand national cause'? seems to have been particularly effective since it gradually spread to all programmes with large audiences, in pace with government measures. The heteronomy of the media sphere as regards state conceptions was particularly evident in the amplification of and support for a depolitisized and individualizing perception of this public problem.