EU’s media strategies

legitimizing popular representation at the supra-national level of governance (with

the exception of the popularly elected European Parliament)
Information deficit: lack of knowledge about EU policies in the national public spheres
Communication deficit: insufficient and ineffective provision of information, as well as a lack of transparent policy-making processes by the EU institutions

post for Institutional Relations and Communications in August 2004
Little influence

on public opinion
Audiovisual Services Directive
Entered into force on 19 December 2007
Target: to create a single European market for audiovisual services
Target: to take cultural aspects into account

behind closed doors
Then moved towards greater transparency by allowing the

public to follow such matters that are subject to co-decision procedure
The Commission, whose meetings are held in private, started in 2001 to grant access to its records as well as to the ones of the Council and the Parliament

more you know about something, the more you like it?
Or

could the causal link be the opposite: the more you like something, the more you want to know about it?

European Public Sphere? Why?

deficit?
The parliamentary press office reports serious communicative inadequacies
And so do

individual parliamentarians
low profile of the EP in the organisation of the EU (Anderson & McLeod, 2004)

inform the media and citizens of the activities of the

European Commission
to communicate the objectives and goals of its policies and actions
to inform the Commission of public opinion in member states
European Year of Citizens 2013
http://europa.eu/citizens-2013/

promoting a pro-integration consensus than providing factual information

information
Balčytienė et al conducted an interview study of the spokespersons

in 2006
Not necessarily journalists by education or experience
See their relevant Commissioner as their ’real boss’
Some spokespersons claimed that they are not allowed to attend meetings of the Cabinet
Communication Planning and Priorities Unit
Some spokespersons inform the Planning Unit of their line, others are instructed by the Planning Unit what line to take
Main audience: journalists residing in Brussels (over 95%)

Editor in Chief of a daily newspaper/weekly magazine with EU-wide

distribution
What topics does your paper/magazine cover?

the Commission)
Close cooperation with the Spokespersons’ Service
Stakeholder and campaign communication

(via Facebook)
Informing citizens
Sharing experiences
Promoting policies and campaigns
Engaging with stakeholders
Use of social media in staff members’ personal capacity
Commission employees must follow the guidelines for all staff on the use of social media

linked to childrens programs
Hourly limit of 12 minutes for advertising and

teleshopping spots

state that is the most familiar to you, what is

the situation regarding media pluralism?

an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem
Targets:
‘Defining

common principles’ (with a proposed ‘European Charter or Code of Conduct on how to communicate to citizens’);
‘Empowering citizens’ (i.e. emphasizing national civic education and dialogue with citizens);
‘Working with the media and new technologies’ (i.e. providing blogs and access to EU news on the Internet);.
‘Understanding European public opinion’ (i.e. creating an expert network and expanding research);
‘Doing the job together’ (i.e. involving all key actors in the states, EU institutions, civil society etc.).
Two citations:
Communication […] should be based on genuine dialogue between the people and the policymakers and lively political discussion among citizens themselves.
Communication has focused largely on telling people what the EU does: less attention has been paid to listening to people’s views.
Close the gap between the information society ‘haves and have nots’ – addressing such issues as equal opportunities, ICT skills and the inequalities between Europe’s regions in terms of Internet access.
For example, in Greece, only about 50% of the population use the Internet

many journalists as an attempt to suppress critical reporting about

the Union.
The suggestion to increase professional outreach activities with regards to information dissemination about the EU could resemble the installation of ‘embedded journalists’ instead of the independent coverage currently performed by the media outlets.
The utilization of interactive technologies such as the Internet is limited to a technology-savvy, mostly younger segment of the population.
It is far from clear how exactly all participating actors of the EU polity should be collaborating as what has been described as ‘doing the job together’. (Thiel 2008)

more ‘democracy, dialogue and debate’
Increasing EU official visits to the

member states
Establishing civic roundtables
Recommending the increased utilization of the Internet
(http://www.youtube.com/user/eutube)

Internet
According to the Commission, the EU-wide online discussion forum ‘Debate

Europe’ received 5,345 contributions from a total of 380 million EU citizens (European Commission, 2005)
http://ec.europa.eu/archives/debateeurope/index_en.htm

Wallström

much communication’ (Sain Ley Berry, 2007).