Journalists and EU

to studying the EU and media.
In one, it is

assumed that there are 'Europeans' who communicate with each other to a greater or lesser extent.
In the other, the focus is more on how people construct themselves as European.
Quantitative vs. qualitative studies
Lack of studies on information provision of EU institutions (to the media), especially activities of EU spokespersons

Danish ‘no’ 1992): focus on EU’s institutional design and matters

of constitutional law
After the Danish ‘no’ on the Maastricht Treaty: focus shifted to public opinion and media
Lack of communication as part of EU’s democratic deficit

the Public Sphere
Habermas (2005, 2006): public visibility of European policy

making as a requirement for a legitimate politics
EPS could link the EU with its citizens
Habermas (2006: 102): ’The missing European public sphere should not be imagined as the domestic sphere writ large. It can arise only insofar as the circuits of communication within the national arenas open themselves up to one another while themselves remaining intact.’
Transnational arena of communication where social, political, institutional, cultural and economic actors voice their opinions and ideas which are then discussed, distributed and negotiated with reference to different (crucial) events (Krzyzanowski, Triandafyllidou and Wodak 2009)

if media in different countries talk about the same (European)

pop singer?
Or should they necessarily talk about 'Europe', European values, identity etc.?
When Berlusconi made a racist comment saying that Obama had a good tan and newspapers in different European countries reported on it, was it EPS?
When media in different EU countries talk about the "rise of China"?

midday briefing
EUROPA Newsroom
http://europa.eu/newsroom/index_en.htm
EU4Journalists
www.eu4journalists.eu
presseurop
www.presseurop.eu
Euronews
http://www.euronews.com
EuroparlTV
http://www.europarltv.europa.eu

not allowed to give official statements
Do EU representatives engage in

public discussion with each other?
The only ‘debate’ seems to be between Europhiles and Eurosceptics

the EU before the 1994 referendum (Mörä 1999)
Journalists’ definition of

the situation
Hard facts discourse
Economy
Foreign and security policy
West-discourse
Western Europe as the only proper reference group for the Finns
Inevitability discourse

Blick is aware of its readers’ EU-critical stance, but consciously

takes an Europhile position anyway
What about critical journalism?
Journalists from old vs. new member states (see Lecheler 2010)

interested
Should we ask:
Do you (journalists) understand the EU?
Are you (journalists)

interested in the EU?