¿La crítica como medio para la democratización? La crisis del euro y las perspectivas para la Esfera Pública Europea

This paper suggests that the euro has crisis signalled a significant political moment in the European public sphere. Analysing the crisis as a conflict between the European decision-making elite and European civil society, I propose that the concentration of decision-making in the euro crisis at the European level, and the growing public critique aimed at the supranational centres of power, may lead to the politicisation of European integration and contribute to strengthening the European public sphere.Este artículo parte de la siguiente idea: la crisis del euro representa un momento político importante en la esfera pública europea. Si analizamos la crisis, entendida como un conflicto entre la elite y la sociedad civil europea, encontramos que por un lado se está centralizando la toma de decisiones a nivel europeo para la superación de la crisis del euro, hecho que, por otro lado, está provocando un aumento de la crítica pública dirigida hacia los centros supranacionales del poder. El presente texto explora si esta realidad en proceso puede favorecer una integración europea política y contribuir al fortalecimiento de la esfera pública europea

European Public Sphere and Small Nations : Is There a Critical Role for Academic Intellectuals

Non peer reviewe

Book Review: Peter Berglez Global journalism: Theory and practice

Non peer reviewe

Is the Age of Impartial Journalism Over? : The Neutrality Principle and Audience (Dis)trust in Mainstream News

This exploratory study addresses the relationship between audience trust in the news media and the ideal of neutrality in journalism. It starts from the premise that, at a time when national conservatism is on the rise as a political movement in Western societies, journalism is less and less recognised as a neutral actor in politics. Therefore, efforts to present itself as such may be damaging journalism’s credibility and trustworthiness among its publics. The article examines this premise on the basis of a representative survey of Finnish media audiences and three focus group interviews, asking how Finns’ expressed trust or distrust of the mainstream news media is connected to their perceptions about journalism’s neutrality and impartiality—or lack thereof—in political debate. The findings indicate that while the large majority of Finnish audiences express trust in the mainstream news media, they are divided when it comes to their level of confidence in journalism’s neutrality. Moreover, both trust and perceptions of neutrality are strongly associated with audiences’ political outlook. We conclude that audience distrust of the media mainly reflects the difficulties that mainstream journalism faces in giving an equal voice to all political groups and views at a time of heightened ideological contestation.Peer reviewe

Doing Away with the Sovereign : Neoliberalism and the Promotion of Market Discipline in European Economic Governance

This article proposes a critical reading of market discipline and its limitations as a mechanism in European economic governance. Consistent with neoliberal beliefs about market-based governance, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is premised on the functioning of the government bond market as a fiscal-policy discipliner. However, the operation of market discipline requires that neither governments nor their private creditors can rely on an authority to bail them out. It, therefore, precludes the kinds of intervention by Eurozone’s supranational institutions witnessed during the euro crisis. In the post-crisis context, efforts to strengthen market discipline continue to be frustrated by the growing reliance of financial institutions on government bond markets as well as the European Central Bank’s (ECB) active participation in those markets. Having undermined the credibility of the market as an autonomous and apolitical mechanism of discipline, European economic governance struggles to come to terms with the rise of a supranational ‘economic sovereign’ in the Eurozone.Peer reviewe

The Media, European Integration and the Rise of Euro-journalism, 1950s‐1970s, Martin Herzer (2019). [Book review]

Book review. Reviewed work: The Media, European Integration and the Rise of Euro-journalism, 1950s‐1970s / Martin Herzer. - London: Palgrave Macmillan, (2019). 357 pp.Non peer reviewe

Watchdogs, Advocates and Adversaries : Journalists’ Relational Role Conceptions in Asylum Reporting

Journalistic role conceptions are usually understood as internalised professional conventions about the tasks reporters pursue in society. This study insists that more attention be put on the relational and context-dependent nature of journalistic role conceptions. Adopting a social-interactionist approach to journalistic roles, the study examines how Finnish journalists conceived of their professional roles when covering asylum issues during the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015–2016. Based on an analysis of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 24 journalists, we highlight how considerations of the political context and interactions with three key reference groups—officials, asylum seekers and anti-immigrant publics—shaped the journalists’ conceptions of their tasks and duties. The article contributes to the study of journalistic role conceptions by illustrating how the conceptualisation of journalistic roles in relation to reference groups takes place in practice. It also sheds light on the tensions involved in journalistic balancing and negotiation between various available role conceptions, especially in the shifting societal and political contexts of a Europe marked by multiculturalism and the simultaneous rise of anti-immigrant movements.Peer reviewe

Naturalising the new cold war : The geopolitics of framing the Ukrainian conflict in four European newspapers

The conflict in Ukraine has prompted analyses about the return of cold war divisions to Europe. This study focusses on the role the news media plays in the conflict by examining how the visual and textual practices of news framing help constitute geopolitical rationality and legitimise foreign policy. We analyse how the framing of the conflict in Die Welt, Dagens Nyheter, Helsingin Sanomat and The Guardian developed through four key events between February 2014 and February 2015. The analysis indicates that by promoting particular news frames the newspapers contributed to the legitimation of European Union policies, which are premised upon supporting the Ukrainian government in its military campaign in eastern Ukraine and placing responsibility for the conflict onto Russia. Hence, we argue that the news framing eventually contributed to the naturalisation of the ‘new cold war’ as a geopolitical rationality, orienting and legitimising foreign policy in EuropePeer reviewe

Mediating the German Ideology: Ordoliberal Framing in European Press Coverage of the Eurozone Crisis

The German Government has played a leading role in the Eurozone crisis management, largely characterised by a commitment to fiscal austerity and supply-side structural reforms. The legitimation of these measures in the European policy arenas as well as in the public domain has partly rested on an ordoliberal economic policy framing, which has presented the Eurozone crisis as one of public indebtedness and loss of competitiveness. To study the public legitimation of the crisis management, we analyse the press coverage of the crisis in 8 Eurozone member states, with a total of 7986 newspaper articles included in the sample. Focusing on ‘problem definitions’ and ‘treatment recommendations’ as two key elements of issue framing, we find that an ordoliberal framing of the crisis prevails in all the studied countries, while a competing Keynesian policy frame is mostly undermined. Significant variation between the countries emerges, however, on the question of EU federalisation and on the framing of the sovereign bailout loans. We discuss the implications of these findings for the success of the German Government to maintain the austerity orthodoxy across the Eurozone and crowd out economic policy alternatives.Peer reviewe