The EU as a public sphere

This Living Review takes stock of our current theoretical and empirical knowledge with respect to a European public sphere. It first provides a discussion of the notion of a public sphere and the virtual incompatibility between the notion of a public sphere in the nation state and the current state of European integration. It is then argued why a notion of a (Europeanized national) public space for debate between citizens and with power-holders is important for the legitimacy and accountability of the EU. A three-fold typology is proposed that organizes previous research on the European public sphere: the Utopian, the Elitist and the Realist perspective. The diverging conclusions stemming from extant research are reviewed in the light of the methodological pluralism in the studies. It is demonstrated that most signs of Europeanization of national public spheres stem from studies focusing on the quality broadsheet press, whereas studies focusing on the popular press, television and new media provide little evidence (yet) of a Europeanization trend. The review looks ahead in both theoretical and methodological terms and also assesses the consequences of the (absence of) a European public sphere and current policy initiatives in this area

News Framing Effects

"News Framing Effects is a guide to framing effects theory, one of the most prominent theories in media and communication science. Rooted in both psychology and sociology, framing effects theory describes the ability of news media to influence people’s attitudes and behaviors by subtle changes to how they report on an issue. The book gives expert commentary on this complex theoretical notion alongside practical instruction on how to apply it to research. The book’s structure mirrors the steps a scholar might take to design a framing study. The first chapter establishes a working definition of news framing effects theory. The following chapters focus on how to identify the independent variable (i.e., the ""news frame"") and the dependent variable (i.e., the ""framing effect""). The book then considers the potential limits or enhancements of the proposed effects (i.e., the ""moderators"") and how framing effects might emerge (i.e., the ""mediators""). Finally, it asks how strong these effects are likely to be. The final chapter considers news framing research in the light of a rapidly and fundamentally changing news and information market, in which technologies, platforms, and changing consumption patterns are forcing assumptions at the core of framing effects theory to be re-evaluated.

News framing: Theory and typology

The increasing popularity of the framing concept in media analysis goes hand in hand with significant inconsistency in its application. This paper outlines an integrated process model of framing that includes production, content, and media use perspectives. A typology of generic and issue-specific frames is proposed based on previous studies of media frames. An example is given of how generic news frames may be identified and used to understand cross-national differences in news coverage. The paper concludes with an identification of contentious issues in current framing research

Projecting EU Referendums: fear of immigration and support for European integration

This study tests competing hypotheses about public support for European integration and projects referendum voting behaviour. It emphasizes anti-immigration sentiments as a key variable for understanding reluctance about integration. Drawing on survey data, it is shown that anti-immigration sentiments, economic considerations and the evaluation of domestic governments are the strongest predictors of both attitudinal support for integration and individuals’ propensity to vote ‘yes’ in a referendum on the enlargement of the European Union (EU)

Information processing on smartphones in public versus private

People increasingly turn to news on mobile devices, often while out and about, attending to daily tasks. Yet, we know little about whether attention to and learning from information on a mobile differs by the setting of use. This study builds on Multiple Resource Theory (Wickens, 1984) and the Resource Competition Framework (Oulasvirta et al., 2005) to compare visual attention to a dynamic newsfeed, varying only the setting: private or public. We use mobile eye-tracking to evaluate the effects of setting on attention and assess correspondent learning differences after exposure to the feed, which allows us to uncover a relationship between attention and learning. Findings indicate higher visual attention to mobile newsfeed posts in public, relative to a private setting. Moreover, scrolling through news on a smartphone in public attenuates some knowledge gain but is beneficial for other learning outcomes

The news coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary Election Campaign in 25 countries

This article analyzes the news coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary\ud (EP) elections in all 25 member states of the European Union (EU). It\ud provides a unique pan-European overview of the campaign coverage based\ud on an analysis of three national newspapers and two television newscasts in\ud the two weeks leading up to the elections. On average, the elections were\ud more visible in the new 10 member states than in the 15 old EU member\ud states. The political personalities and institutional actors featured in news\ud stories about the elections were generally national political actors and not EU\ud actors. When it was evaluative, the news in the old EU-15 was generally\ud negative towards the EU, while in the new countries a mixed pattern was\ud found. The findings of the study are discussed in the light of the literature on\ud the EU’s legitimacy and communication deficit

This time I’m (not) voting: how campaign factors affect European citizens’ turnout in EP elections

Turnout in European Parliament elections declined in every vote held between 1979 and 2014. Ahead of the 2019 elections, the EU launched an initiative, ‘This time I’m voting’, in the hope of raising public interest. While turnout did increase in the 2019 contest, it remains an open question as to whether such campaign efforts help mobilise citizens. Drawing on a new study, Franziska Marquart, Andreas C. Goldberg and Claes H. de Vreese assess the role of individuals’ passive exposure to and active engagement with the 2019 campaign, finding that not all campaign efforts helped to increase turnout, with some even serving to demobilise the European electorate

Media in the game of politics: effects of strategic metacoverage on political cynicism

This study examines the effects of generic strategy news, self-referential press news, and "spin" spotlighting publicity coverage on political cynicism, against the backdrop of governance and policy. Drawing on data from two experiments allowing for replication within a single study, the authors demonstrate that exposure to both generic and publicity strategy news aroused political cynicism relative to issue-based news. In addition, the authors found positive interactions between political knowledge and strategic press and publicity news exposure, showing that more knowledgeable individuals were more strongly affected by these frames. The findings are discussed in the light of extant knowledge about framing effects and the media's increasing use of metareporting

Frequencies, Drivers, and Solutions to News Non-Attendance: Investigating Differences Between Low News Usage and News (Topic) Avoidance with Conversational Agents

Low levels of news seeking can be problematic for an informed citizenry. Previous research has discussed different types of news non-attendance but conceptual ambiguities between low news usage, general news avoidance, and news topic avoidance still exist. By using a longitudinal design conducted with a chatbot survey among Dutch users (n = 189), this study provides first empirical evidence that helps clarify conceptual differences. First, it estimates the prevalence of these different types of news non-attendance. Second, it tests to what extend cognitive restrictions, quality assessments, and personal relevance are relevant predictors in explaining engagement in three types of non-attendance to news. Third, the study investigates how news usage behaviors (e.g., news curation, news snacking, and verification engagement) may serve as potential user-driven counter strategies against news avoidance. We find evidence for the conceptual differences. Only small shares of news non-attendance are explained by avoidance motivations. Especially news curation and verification engagement can mitigate common drivers of news avoidance, while news snacking reinforces them