Stefanie Walter

Three Models of the European Public Sphere

While previous research has taken into account different normative theories when examining the concept of the public sphere at the national level, the underlying normative conceptualisation of the European public sphere has often remained vague. However, better understanding whether the European public sphere is functional and able to fulfil its democratic role needs further specification of the underlying normative criteria. This study considers different normative public sphere theories in the context of the European Union (EU) news coverage. Specifically, it focuses on one main criterion, namely the actor structure, and examines which normative theory is able to describe the actor structure of the EU best. The visibility of national and European governmental actors, civil society actors and citizens is examined by drawing on secondary data of a large-scale content analysis of television and newspaper articles of all 27 EU member states gathered during the 2009 European Parliament election campaign (N = 12,850).

A Network Perspective on European Union News: Explaining Relationships of Horizontal Reporting Across EU Member States

Due to the increased importance of transnational governance, individual states become increasingly interdependent. This is also reflected in the news media coverage and media attention to foreign affairs. The European Union (EU) represents a case of advanced globalization. This study investigates news media attention to fellow EU member states. The main objective of this study is to explain what factors determine whether EU member states report about each other. The analysis is based on large-scale content analysis data of TV news and newspaper articles of 27 EU member states gathered during the 2009 European Parliament election campaign (N = 19,106) and employs network analysis to explain differences in media attention. The findings show that there are indicators at the national level that are independent of EU governance, as well as factors related to the European integration that determine whether two states report about each other. As such, countries that are neighbors, and where the same language is spoken, are more likely to report about each other. Furthermore, smaller, older, and EU member states that are more supportive of the European integration report more on fellow states.

Echo Chambers of Denial: Explaining User Comments on Climate Change

ABSTRACT Although there is a broad consensus among scientists and journalists about the existence of anthropogenic climate change as a global problem, some segments of the population remain doubtful about the human impact on it. The internet provides citizens with opportunities to publicly voice their doubts and user comment sections of online media are a popular form of user-generated content. This study identifies factors that foster comments that are sceptical or supportive of basic assumptions of anthropogenic climate change, drawing on online news in the US, the UK, Germany, India, and Switzerland. The results show that users adapt to the dominant opinion within the respective media outlet: user comment sections serve as echo chambers rather than as corrective mechanisms. Climate change denial is more visible in user comment sections in countries where the climate change debate reflects the scientific consensus on climate change and user comments create niches of denial.

Explaining the visibility of EU citizens: a multi-level analysis of European Union news

This article analyses the visibility of European Union (EU) citizens in EU news during the 2009 European Parliament election. It argues that the presence of EU citizens in EU news is vital for responsiveness of European governance. First, the theoretical notion of EU citizens is considered. Next, a new way of defining EU citizens is proposed: EU citizens are divided into national and supranational EU citizens. The visibility of EU citizens in EU news of 27 EU member states is analysed aiming to explain cross-country differences. The paper is based on a large-scale content analysis of TV and newspaper articles gathered during the 2009 European Parliament election. To explain different levels of visibility, a multi-level analysis is carried out. The results suggest that EU citizens are visible in the EU news, yet, their presence strongly varies across countries. The findings indicate that explanations for different levels of visibility can be found at both the media and country level.

Klimawandel in den Medien

Die Menschen konstruieren den gegenwartigen Klimawandel in zweierlei Hinsicht: Der anthropogene Klimawandel ist Nebenfolge der Entwicklung von Gesellschaft und Technik. Und: Der Klimawandel als ein Phanomen, das offentliche Debatten, Politik, Wissenschaft und Kultur beschaftigt, unterliegt der gesellschaftlichen Deutung und ist insoweit ein gesellschaftlich konstruiertes Phanomen (Beck 1996, S. 128). Menschen verstandigen sich daruber, was sie unter Klimawandel verstehen, ob sie ihn als Problem ansehen und was dagegen zu tun ist. Gegenstand einer kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Analyse des Klimawandels sind genau diese Prozesse sozialer Deutungsproduktion und ihre Folgen fur die Gesellschaft: „Rather than starting with (scientific) ignorance and ending with (scientific) certainty, telling the story of climate change is in fact much more interesting. It is the unfolding story of an idea and how this idea is changing the way that we think, feel and act“ (Hulme 2009, S. 42).

The European Public Sphere

The traditional notion of the public sphere outlined in the previous chapter has initially been developed departing from the nation state as its reference framework and did not discuss the idea of a supranational or European public sphere. However, these days many politically important decisions are made at the EU level. The European integration process has led to a shift in governance from the national state to the supranational policy level and is increasingly affecting people’s lives (Beetham and Lord 1998).

The Public Sphere

Citizenship is the basis for democratic governance at the national as well as at the European level and decision-making in democracies has to be responsive and accountable to the will of the people. As the next two chapters outline, similarly to the concept of citizenship, the idea of a public sphere also originally emerged at the national level and its scope has then been extended to the EU level in the course of the European integration. When interested in analysing the extent to which EU citizens are visible in the European public sphere, and in finding the factors that foster their visibility, first a clear conceptual understanding of the public sphere and the relevant actors within it is needed.