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The contribution of the press to Europeanization of public debatesA comparative study of issue salience and conflict lines of European integrationUniversity of Hohenheim, Germany, pfetsch{at}uni-hohenheim.de
University of Hohenheim, Germany, adamsilk{at}uni-hohenheim.de
TNS Infratest, Munich, barbara.eschner{at}tns-infratest.com In our study we seek to understand how national political contexts and different media formats constrain the role of the press in contributing to a Europeanization of national public spheres. To single out the explicit role of different newspapers in seven Western European countries we systematically compare their commentating about European integration. The role of the press is analyzed with respect to the visibility of European issues and actors and to the synchronization of conflict lines across Europe. The results show that the further a country is integrated into the European Union, the less parochial is its press and the stronger it takes part in a common European debate. Compared to these political settings the influence of specific press formats seems to play a secondary role.
Key Words: comparative political communication European public sphere media formats political contexts press commentary analysis
Journalism, Vol. 9, No. 4,
465-492 (2008) |
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