J. van Spanje

Europhile Media and Eurosceptic Voting: Effects of News Media Coverage on Eurosceptic Voting in the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections

Extant research is not very specific about when the media matter for vote choice. In this study, we test multiple theories about the influences of the media on vote choice in 21 countries. The European Parliamentary (EP) election campaign offers a unique research context to test these influences. We rely on a two-wave panel survey conducted in 21 European Union (EU) member states, asking both vote intentions before the campaign and reported actual votes (among 14,000 voters). We link these data to media content data of campaign coverage between the two waves in these countries (37,000 coded news items). We conclude that media evaluations of the EU affect voting for Eurosceptic parties. On average, the more positive the evaluations of the EU a voter is exposed to, the less likely she or he is to cast a vote for a Eurosceptic party. In addition, our findings indicate that in countries where political parties have markedly different views on EU issues, the more a voter is exposed to framing of the EU in term...Extant research is not very specific about when the media matter for vote choice. In this study, we test multiple theories about the influences of the media on vote choice in 21 countries. The European Parliamentary (EP) election campaign offers a unique research context to test these influences. We rely on a two-wave panel survey conducted in 21 European Union (EU) member states, asking both vote intentions before the campaign and reported actual votes (among 14,000 voters). We link these data to media content data of campaign coverage between the two waves in these countries (37,000 coded news items). We conclude that media evaluations of the EU affect voting for Eurosceptic parties. On average, the more positive the evaluations of the EU a voter is exposed to, the less likely she or he is to cast a vote for a Eurosceptic party. In addition, our findings indicate that in countries where political parties have markedly different views on EU issues, the more a voter is exposed to framing of the EU in terms of benefits derived from membership in these countries, the less likely she or he is to cast a Eurosceptic vote. This suggests that the outcome of the 2009 EP elections was influenced by how the media covered EU-related news during the campaign.

Anti-immigrant party support and media visibility: a cross-party, over-time perspective

Explanations of the performance of Western European anti-immigrant parties feature prominently in the literature on electoral behaviour and the mass media have been introduced as an important explanatory variable in these analyses. In this article we advance our understanding of the relationship between mass media news reporting and anti-immigrant party support in three ways. First, we go beyond extant research to consider the visibility of anti-immigrant parties and party leaders in the news, rather than anti-immigration issues more generally. Second, in addition to analysing media effects on a partys popularity we also consider the reverse relationship, the effects of a partys popularity on media coverage of the party. Finally, we analyse the relationships from a cross-party perspective, using time-series analysis for six parties in three countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany) over the past two decades. Our results show strongest support for the effects of party and particularly leader visibility in the news on anti-immigrant party success, rather than the reverse relationship.

Party financing and referendum campaigns in EU member states

This study has been prepared by the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), part of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam (UvA). It comprises 1) an up-to-date inventory of party finance rules within the EU Member States, 2) an overview of the regulations on referendum and issue campaigns, 3) an investigation into actual spending on the EU referendum, national election, and EU election campaigns, and 4) remarks concerning AFCO’s amendments to the proposed Statute for European Political Parties based on collected data.