Hajo G. Boomgaarden

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

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

Projecting EU Referendums

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).

Mapping EU attitudes: conceptual and empirical dimensions of Euroscepticism and EU support

Public attitudes towards the European Union (EU) are at the heart of a growing body of research. The nature, structure and antecedents of these attitudes, however, are in need of conceptual and empirical refinement. With growing diversification of the policies of the Union, a one-dimensional approach to attitudes towards the EU may be insufficient. This study reviews existing approaches towards theorizing EU public opinion. Based on this inventory, originally collected public opinion survey data (n = 1394) indicate the presence of five dimensions of EU attitudes: performance, identity, affection, utilitarianism and strengthening. The study furthermore shows that different predictors of EU public opinion matter to differing extents when explaining these dimensions. In light of these findings, we suggest tightening the link, conceptually and empirically, between attitudinal dimensions and their antecedents.

Media Effects on Public Opinion About the Enlargement of the European Union

Studies of public support for matters of European integration tend either to neglect or inadequately model the role of the mass media. This study investigates how news media content affects public support for the enlargement of the EU. Other influences on support for integration, such as economic evaluations, anti-immigration sentiment, domestic political considerations and cognitive mobilization are accounted for. The study draws on two-wave panel surveys and media content analyses of television news and national newspapers. The results suggest that media coverage of EU affairs matters to change in public opinion about EU enlargement. The effects of the news media, however, are conditional upon the visibility and consistency in tone of the news.

Media Message Flows and Interpersonal Communication: The Conditional Nature of Effects on Public Opinion

This study investigates the differential effects of exposure and attention to news and of interpersonal communication on change in public opinion under the condition of one-sided or two-sided information flows. Based on Zaller’s theory of public opinion dynamics, for less politically sophisticated individuals, we expected media to influence changes in opinion under the condition of a one-sided message flow. We further expected politically sophisticated individuals to rely more on cues for opinion change stemming from interpersonal communication. The study draws on two-wave panel surveys and media content analyses of television news and national newspapers. The results confirmed our hypotheses and showed media effects for less politically sophisticated individuals under the condition of a one-sided message flow and effects of interpersonal communication for politically sophisticated individuals. Media had no effect under the condition of a two-sided message flow. The study concludes with a discussion of the conditionality of media effects and the moderating role of political sophistication.

Changes in political news coverage: personalization, conflict and negativity in British and Dutch newspapers

Political news coverage has – allegedly – undergone profound changes in the past decades. A professionalization of both politics and journalism, increasing market pressures and technological developments (Negrine & Lilleker, 2002) have led to a new quality in the link between political actors and institutions and the mass media, but are also claimed to have greatly affected the way politics is covered in the media. Such changes include overall decreasing amounts of political news coverage, an increasing focus on political strategy and the horse-race in politics, increasing negativity towards political actors and politics in general, conflict as a central theme of the news and an increasing focus on political leaders and personalities (Blumler & Gurevitch, 1995).

Real-World Indicators and the Coverage of Immigration and the Integration of Minorities in Dutch Newspapers:

A B S T R A C T ■ An intriguing question in communication science deals with factors determining the intensity of news reporting about certain issues. The study investigates whether the prominence of immigration and the integration of minorities in news coverage reflects real-world developments or whether it is dependent on (political) key events. The authors compare the direct effects of real-world developments and key events in Dutch newspapers for the period 1991—2002 on the prominence of issue coverage. Results indicate that events have a more direct impact on the attention given to immigration and the integration of minorities in the news. The authors furthermore find that international events have a direct, but temporary effect, while most institutional national events influence media attention permanently. ■

Across time and space: Explaining variation in news coverage of the European Union

News about the European Union (EU) looks different in different countries at different points in time. This study investigates explanations for cross-national and over-time variation in news media coverage of EU affairs drawing on large-scale media content analyses of newspapers and television news in the EU-15 (1999), EU-25 (2004) and EU-27 (2009) in relation to European Parliament (EP) elections. The analyses focus in particular on explanatory factors pertaining to media characteristics and the political elites. Results show that national elites play an important role for the coverage of EU matters during EP election campaigns. The more strongly national parties are divided about the EU in combination with overall more negative positions towards the EU, the more visible the news. Also, increases in EU news visibility from one election to the next and the Europeanness of the news are determined by a countrys elite positions. The findings are discussed in light of the EUs alleged communication deficit.

Reporting Germany's 2005 Bundestag Election campaign: Was gender an Issue?

Research conducted in the United States and Canada shows that female candidates for political office are covered differently in the news than their male counterparts: Female candidates receive less coverage, their electoral prospects are more negatively assessed, and the focus of reporting is often on “soft” issues compared with coverage of male candidates. We examine reporting during the 2005 Bundestag election campaign to assess the degree to which findings can be extended from North American and European contexts. Germanys first female chancellor candidate, Angela Merkel, and her male opponent, incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, were the main focus of campaign news. Drawing on an analysis of the four main evening national television newscasts and the most widely read newspaper in the six weeks prior to Election Day, we show that while the two candidates were rather equal in terms of visibility in the news, and did not differ substantially in terms of the issues on which they were reported, gender did play a considerable role in framing certain stories.

Explaining Campaign News Coverage: How Medium, Time, and Context Explain Variation in the Media Framing of the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections

It is an open question why news media cover political campaigns the way they do. Framing elections in terms of conflict or strategy or focusing on horse-race framing and the role media and journalists themselves play in elections is commonplace, but this study investigates the factors that explain the variation in campaign news coverage. The context of our study is the 2009 European Parliamentary elections, and we use a cross-national media content analysis (N = 52,009) conducted in all 27 European Union member states. Findings show that time, country, and media characteristics all matter in explaining the way news media frame elections, however, to different extents and with different emphasis. Especially the variation in conflict framing is contingent upon the medium, the electoral system, and public aversion against the EU. We conclude with a discussion of our findings in the light of the ongoing debate on the role and impact of media framing during election campaigns.