Let's talk about Europe': explaining vertical and horizontal Europeanization in the quality press

This paper contributes to the ongoing quest for a European public sphere understood as a structural transformation of national media debates. The process of Europeanization has a vertical and a horizontal dimension: an increased focus on the EU as well as more attention for other European countries. A content analysis of quality newspapers in five EU member states covering a period of 20 years reveals common trends across different countries but no convergence over time. Four different patterns of Europeanization can be identified: comprehensive Europeanization, segmented Europeanization, Europeanization aloof from the EU, a parochial public sphere. This paper pushes research in this area ahead by identifying and testing factors which explain these differences in newspaper coverage. In-depth case analysis as well as regression analysis show that the editorial mission of a newspaper and the size of a country have a significant effect on patterns of Europeanization. Contrary to common expectations, the number of correspondents in Brussels and the degree of popular identification with Europe did not significantly affect patterns of Europeanization. --

Die Mehrfachsegmentierung der europäischen Öffentlichkeit

Eine wachsende Zahl empirischer Arbeiten hat inzwischen gezeigt, dass der politische Integrationsprozess der Europäischen Union zwar von einer zunehmenden Europäisierung nationaler Öffentlichkeiten begleitet ist, die darüber erzeugte europäische Öffentlichkeit aber national segmentiert bleibt: Die einzelnen Länder intensivieren zwar ihre jeweils eigene kritische Beobachtung der EU-Politik, der diskursive Austausch innerhalb der europäischen Staatengemeinschaft wächst dagegen nicht. Auf Basis einer standardisierten Inhaltsanalyse von Zeitungsdebatten in sechs europäischen Länder (Dänemark, Deutschland, Frankreich, Großbritannien, Österreich und Polen) überprüft das vorliegende Arbeitspapier die Stabilität dieses Muster der 'segmentierten Europäisierung' zum einen für eine neue Erhebungswelle (2008) und zum anderen für das bisher oft vernachlässigte Segment der Boulevardzeitungen. Dabei beschreibt es anschaulich, wie das Interesse an der EU in den Qualitätszeitungen im Zuge der weltweiten Finanzkrise spürbar abschwächt, während sich in der Boulevardpresse ein (noch) ungebrochener Trend der vertikalen Europäisierung zeigt, wenn auch auf deutlich niedrigerem Niveau. Der Austausch zwischen den europäischen Ländern stagniert jedoch weiterhin in beiden Zeitungstypen. Die europäische Öffentlichkeit ist demnach sowohl nach Nationen wie auch nach Zeitungstypen segmentiert, es ist also von einer mehrfachsegmentierten europäischen Öffentlichkeit auszugehen. -- A growing body of empirical research has established that the political integration of the European Union has been accompanied by a Europeanization of the national public spheres, even though the resulting European public sphere remains nationally segmented: While each country intensifies its critical discussion of EU politics, the discursive exchange among the European community of nations has stagnated. Based on a standardized content analysis of newspaper debates in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Poland) the working paper reappraises the stability of this pattern of 'segmented Europeanization' on the one hand for a new wave of data (for 2008) and on the other hand for the often neglected segment of the tabloid press. It can thus demonstrate how the interest in EU politics lessens in the quality press at the time of the global financial crisis while the tabloids display a (still) unbroken trend of vertical Europeanization, though at a much lower level. The exchange between European countries, however, continues to stagnate. The European public sphere appears to be segmented both by nations and by newspaper types, and should thus be considered as a multisegmented European public sphere.

Publikumsfragmentierung in der Online-Nachrichtenumgebung

Dieser Beitrag widmet sich der empirischen Überprüfung der These, dass Online-Medien zu einer Fragmentierung der politischen Öffentlichkeit führen. Auf Basis einer Bevölkerungsbefragung zur Informationsmediennutzung im Vorfeld der Nationalratswahlen 2013 in Österreich (n = 2.867) stellt er die Informationsrepertoires derjenigen Bürgerinnen und Bürger, die sich stärker online über das politische Geschehen informieren, denen der restlichen Bevölkerung gegenüber. Indem er die Publikumsüberschneidungen verschiedener Nachrichtenquellen als Netzwerk darstellt, zeigt er auf, dass das Netzwerk der Onliner dichter ist. Gleichzeitig sind auch für sie die wichtigsten Informationsquellen die Nachrichtensendungen des öffentlich-rechtlichen Fernsehens und deren Webseite, so dass eine Fragmentierung der politischen Öffentlichkeit auf Publikumsebene verhindert wird.This article aims to empirically assess whether online media contribute to the fragmentation of the political public sphere. Based on a representative survey (n = 2.867) of the information media use before the Austrian national elections in 2013, it contrasts the information repertoires of citizens who prefer online information to those of the whole population. By mapping audience overlaps as a network, it can show that the network of onliners is denser and contains more overlaps. Furthermore, the most important information sources for onliners remain the main newscasts of the public service station and its website, preventing any fragmentation of the political public sphere on the audience level

Uninvited Dinner Guests: A Theoretical Perspective on the Antagonists of Journalism Based on Serres’ Parasite

In the digital age, the crisis of journalism has been exacerbated by antagonistic actors infiltrating the journalistic system without adhering to its norms or logic. Journalism itself has been ill-prepared to respond to this challenge, but journalism theory and research have also had trouble in grasping these phenomena. It is thus the aim of this article to propose a theoretical perspective on a specific set of antagonists characterized by its paradoxical nature. It is ‘the excluded third, included’ as described by Serres, the parasite that is both part of the system and its antagonist. From the perspective of systems theory, the parasite is a subsystem that threatens the integrity of the primary system. Thus, the parasite is defined by the relations that describe its position, its behaviour towards the host system. Due to these peculiarities—this contradiction, this vagueness—it evades a classical bivalent logic. This may be one reason why the paradoxical nature of the antagonist from within, the ‘uninvited dinner guest,’ has not been described as such until now. The parasitic practices follow the logic of the hacker: He is the digital manifestation of Serres’ parasite. Accordingly, parasitic strategies can be described as news hacks whose attack vectors target a system’s weak points with the help of specific strategies. In doing so, they not only change the system output but also compromise its values and exploit its resources

Normalisierter Erfolg? Der Einfluss struktureller Vorteile von Schweizer Parlamentsmitgliedern und Parteien auf ihren Erfolg auf Facebook und Twitter

Der Einfluss struktureller Vorteile - wie finanzielle Ressourcen - auf den Erfolg politisch Agierender auf Social Media-Plattformen kann sich je nach Plattform unterscheiden. Da Facebook im Vergleich zu Twitter eher sozialen Offline-Netzwerken entspricht, müssten strukturelle Vorteile hier einen größeren Einfluss haben (Normalisierungsthese), während der Themenfokus auf Twitter mehr Möglichkeiten für strukturell benachteiligte politisch Agierende bietet (Angleichungsthese). Die empirische Studie kontrastiert 246 Schweizer Parlamentsmitglieder und die elf Parteien bezüglich ihrer persönlichen und strukturellen Charakteristika sowie ihres Erfolgs (digitale Anhängerschaft und deren Reaktionen). Basierend auf einer Analyse von 24.234 Facebook-Beiträgen und 99.579 Tweets zeigen sich auf Parteiebene für Facebook die erwarteten Normalisierungstendenzen, für Twitter Angleichungstendenzen. Einzelne strukturell benachteiligte Parlamentsmitglieder können mit ihren Kontrahentinnen und Kontrahenten mithalten, nur ihre geringe mediale Präsenz wirkt sich hemmend aus

Segmented Europeanization: the transnationalization of public spheres in Europe ; trends and patterns / Michael Brüggemann; Stefanie Sifft; Katharina Kleinen

The existence of a European public sphere, a public network of exchange of opinions and ideas on political issues, has come to be seen as a prerequisite for the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. The paper conceptualizes the Europeanization of the national public spheres as a gradual process that may occur on four different dimensions: 1. monitoring governance, 2. mutual observation, 3. discursive exchange, and 4. collective identification with Europe. It then presents the results of our empirical research on the transnationalization of public spheres in Europe: What is the prevailing pattern of Europeanization that can be observed in different countries of the EU? We have conducted a quantitative content analysis of the political discourses in quality newspapers of five EU member states (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain) over a period of twenty years. According to our analysis of more than 3,000 articles the main pattern of transnationalization to be found in all countries is segmented Europeanization: Within each public sphere we find more and more talk about European institutions and policies but there is no indication of an increase in the debate in between the national public spheres. In addition, we find weak indications of a gradually developing European we-perspective. --

Intra-Campaign Changes in Voting Preferences: The Impact of Media and Party Communication

An increasing number of citizens change and adapt their party preferences during the electoral campaign. We analyze which short-term factors explain intra-campaign changes in voting preferences, focusing on the visibility and tone of news media reporting and party canvassing. Our analyses rely on an integrative data approach, linking data from media content analysis to public opinion data. This enables us to investigate the relative impact of news media reporting as well as party communication. Inherently, we overcome previously identified methodological problems in the study of communication effects on voting behavior. Our findings reveal that campaigns matter: Especially interpersonal party canvassing increases voters’ likelihood to change their voting preferences in favor of the respective party, whereas media effects are limited to quality news outlets and depend on individual voters’ party ambivalence

Earth Virtualization Engines (EVE)

To manage Earth in the Anthropocene, new tools, new institutions, and new forms of international cooperation will be required. Earth Virtualization Engines is proposed as an international federation of centers of excellence to empower all people to respond to the immense and urgent challenges posed by climate change

Earth Virtualization Engines (EVE)

To manage Earth in the Anthropocene, new tools, new institutions, and new forms of international cooperation will be required. Earth Virtualization Engines is proposed as an international federation of centers of excellence to empower all people to respond to the immense and urgent challenges posed by climate change