The Mediatization of Politics. From the National to the Transnational

The mediatization of politics is generally explained in relation to the legitimacy requirements of the modern state and as such, it is typically confined to the national media sphere. Can we speak in any meaningful way of mediatization beyond the national? The European Union (EU), which operates under increasing legitimacy constraints and is exposed to the salience of media debates that contest its public legitimacy, is a case in point. Is the EU becoming mediatized? And what are the effects of EU mediatization? Under what conditions can the mass media become a facilitator of European integration? The issue at stake is whether the media (new and old) can have an integration function beyond the national and facilitate the building of democratic legitimacy of the European Union. We propose that the concept of mediatization offers the theoretical and analytical tools necessary to understand precisely how the interaction between the EU polity and the media unfolds and how it impacts on the process of the EU’s public legitimation. First we deliver a general account of mediatization, highlighting its core definers and main points of critique that the concept has attracted. We then show how mediatization is relevant to the EU pol­ity and propose an analytical model that can capture this process empiricall

The Mediatization of Politics. From the National to the Transnational

The mediatization of politics is generally explained in relation to the legitimacy requirements of the modern state and as such, it is typically confined to the national media sphere. Can we speak in any meaningful way of mediatization beyond the national? The European Union (EU), which operates under increasing legitimacy constraints and is exposed to the salience of media debates that contest its public legitimacy, is a case in point. Is the EU becoming mediatized? And what are the effects of EU mediatization? Under what conditions can the mass media become a facilitator of European integration? The issue at stake is whether the media (new and old) can have an integration function beyond the national and facilitate the building of democratic legitimacy of the European Union. We propose that the concept of mediatization offers the theoretical and analytical tools necessary to understand precisely how the interaction between the EU polity and the media unfolds and how it impacts on the process of the EU’s public legitimation. First we deliver a general account of mediatization, highlighting its core definers and main points of critique that the concept has attracted. We then show how mediatization is relevant to the EU pol­ity and propose an analytical model that can capture this process empiricall

The role of the Internet in the European Union's public communication strategy and the emerging European public sphere

The focus of this thesis is on the vertical Europeanisation of the online public debate and more specifically on the EU's online public communication strategy, i.e. the top-down process of the unmediated, direct, online communication between the EU and the general public. The empirical data has been collected in four stages, namely public communication policy-making; public communication policy implementation online; online public communication policy impact on key Internet audiences; and interviews with key senior Commission officials. The review of the EU public communication documents has shown that the Commission has unambiguously committed to facilitate direct communication with the EU public as part of the process of building the EU citizens' trust towards its institutions and in addressing the issues of transparency and democratic legitimation of the EU's decision-making process, while the Internet is seen as a key tool in facilitating direct communication. However, after monitoring three of the EU's official websites for a year and analyzing the views of 221 Internet users on the EU's Information and Communication strategy online, it has become evident that the Commission has not yet fulfilled these commitments. The interviews with key Commission officials have revealed that behind this gap between policy and online implementation lie: a) an institutional culture which conflicts with the aims of the Commission's public communication strategy; and b) constant institutional restructuring in the last six years. Very recently the Commission has begun to address some of the shortfalls in the online implementation of its public communication strategy, yet there is no indication that the results of the online debate regarding the EU's future will be incorporated in the decision-making process, while further study is required in the future in order to assess any change in the institutional culture in relation to its public communication strategy.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Translating the complexity of EU differentiation: a comparative analysis of news coverage in Germany, Denmark, and the UK

This article explores whether and how journalists cover various forms of differentiation in the European Union (EU) in the news. Differentiation is a key feature of European integration, viewed by some as a facilitator of democracy and by others as a mechanism leading to dominance. Yet we know only little how its complex and controversial aspects are communicated to the citizens by journalists in their role as public mediator and critical watchdogs. Drawing on a selection of news reports published between 2015 and 2020 in nine media outlets from Germany, Denmark, and the UK, we find that the media frequently covers EU differentiation in a range of forms that extends beyond the conventional academic focus on territory-based differentiated integration. The majority of this coverage presents a balanced view, yet nuances emerge with respect to the forms of differentiation discussed and the origins of commentary on these matters. Overall, these results point to the key role of the media as translators and watchdogs of the complexity of EU governance

‘The Germans are back’: Euroscepticism and anti-Germanism in crisis-stricken Greece

The Eurocrisis has generated a deep and ongoing politicization of the EU within and across national public spheres, fuelling age-old and new political and social conflicts, which in turn shape public perceptions of crisis and the legitimacy of ‘crisis government’. Focusing on Greece, an EU member state at the epicentre of the crisis, this paper examines how the European polity was contested in the first five years (2009–2013) of the ‘Eurocrisis’. During this period, anti-German stereotypes resurfaced in the Greek public sphere in parallel with increasingly mainstream Euroscepticism. Nevertheless, analysis of news and social media content from this period shows that beneath this new-found scepticism towards the EU and Germany's role in it lie two much broader narratives: that of the power struggle between the people and the political elites; and that of an epic clash between diametrically different political ideologies. The final version of this research has been published in National Identities. © Taylor & Francis

The role of the public in shaping EU contestation: Euroscepticism and online news media

The participation of the public in framing and debating the news has added a new layer in the making of European Union contestation and the European public sphere, traditionally driven by journalists and political elites. Drawing on news coverage of the ongoing Eurocrisis (2010–2013) and the 2009 European Parliament elections, this article examines the structure and content of European Union contestation in mainstream online news media over time and across several European Union member states. The cross-national patterns that emerge from this analysis strongly suggest that, despite the differences between the observed online news spheres, the European Union is rather uniformly contested: national politics firmly remain the key defining ‘frame’; Eurosceptic claims are very much focused on the present rather than the future; and contributors often appeal to the public’s emotions rather than reason. Furthermore, the Eurocrisis appears to have consolidated European Union contestation on the more substantial issues of power, solidarity and accountability

Mirroring or Setting the Political Agenda? The Role of the Media in the Eurosceptic Debate

From the opinion-swinging British tabloids which have become synonymous with anti-EU sentiment, especially during the ‘Brexit year’ of 2016, to the Commission’s Euromyths-busting service, dedicated to counteract Eurosceptic inaccuracies in media reporting, the message is clear: Euroscepticism in the media is a force to be reckoned with. But does this also mean that EU politics is hostage to media reporting? Are media responsible for the rise of Euroscepticism? Placing the rich empirical literature on Euroscepticism and the media in the context of mediatization and democratic public sphere norms, this chapter argues that media-driven EU contestation can be an indicator of a healthy European public sphere. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in The Routledge Handbook of Euroscepticism on 27.07.2017, available online: http://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Euroscepticism/Leruth-Startin-Usherwood/p/book/978113878474

The Challenges of Reconstructing Citizen-Driven EU Contestation in the Digital Media Sphere

This article reflects on the discursive representation, legal, and practical challenges of locating, classifying, and publishing citizens’ views of the EU in digital media discourse. We start with the discursive representation challenge of locating and identifying citizens’ voices in social and news media discourse. The second set of challenges pertains to the legal, regulatory framework guiding research ethics on personal data but also cuts across the academic debate on what constitutes “public” discourse in the digital public sphere. The third set of challenges are practical but of no less consequence. Here we bring in the issue of marketisation of the public sphere and of the digital commons, and how these processes affect the ethics but also the feasibility and reliability of digital public sphere analysis. Thereby we illustrate that barriers to content analysis can make data collection practically challenging, feeding dilemmas with data reliability and research ethics. These methodological and empirical challenges are illustrated and unpacked with examples from the Benchmark project, which analysed the extent to which citizens drive EU contestation on social and digital news media. Our study focuses on UK public discourse on a possible European Economic Area solution, and the reactions such discourse may have triggered in two EU-associated countries, Norway and Switzerland, in the post-Brexit referendum period 2016–2019. We thus take a broad European perspective of EU contestation that is not strictly confined within the EU public sphere(s). The case study illustrates the research process and the emerging empirical challenges and concludes with reflections and practical suggestions for future research projects