Explaining the segmented Europeanization of national public spheres

Katharina Kleinen-v.Königslöw

Presenting concepts and results from the research project The Transnationalization of Public Spheres in Europe Collaborative Research Centre „Transformations of the State“, Bremen

A European Public Sphere and the EU’s Democratic Deficit: Where are we now? Research, Practical and Policy Implications

Conference at Bristol University, 3rd-4th of November, 2008by ESRC project “EU constitutionalism and Public Claims-Making over Europe”

Structure of the presentation

1. Main results of our content analysis on national public spheres

2. Explaining segmented Europeanization: concepts

3. Explaining segmented Europeanization: methods

4. Notes from the field: Austria

5. Conclusion

Analyzing the Europeanization of national public sphere as a multi-dimensional process

Result of the process of Europeanization of national public spheres

European public sphere

Monitoring governance (1)

Visibility of the EU and debate of its policies

Convergence of discourse (2)

Common timing, priming and framing of issues

Discursive integration (3)

Mutual observation and discursive exchange

Collective identification (4)

A participant’s perspective in a European discourse

4 Dimensions

of Europeanization

=

The research design: Longitudinal analysis of newspaper content

Newspapers

Longitudinal cross-sectional standardized content analysis

• Austria: Die Presse • Denmark: Politiken • France: Le Monde • Germany: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung• Great Britain: The Times

Articles

All discursive articles in the political section:• Editorials/Commentaries• Interviews• Contributions from external authors• News analysis and background articles

Time period

• 1982• 1989• 1996• 2003

2 representative (constructed) weeksper year

The sample includes 3059 articles: FAZ 769, Le Monde 534, The Times 598, Die Presse 604 and Politiken 554. A reliability test that was performed for 100 randomly chosen articles across all eight coders showed satisfactory values for all variables (kappa between 0.63 and 0.91).

• Poland: Gazeta Wyborcza

Gazeta Wyborcza: 2964.

Coming soon: 2008

Coming soon: tabloids

Visibility of EU institutions increases in all analyzed newspapers, especially in Le Monde. EU institutions strongly gain importance in Die Presse after Austria’s accession to the EU.

0

10

20

30

40

50

1982 1989 1996 2003

%

FAZ

Die Presse

Le Monde

The Times

Politiken

Share of Articles Referring to EU Institutions - by Newspaper

Source: Representative sample of discursive articles in FAZ, Le Monde, The Times, Die Presse and Politiken for the years 1982, 1989, 1996 and 2003 (N=2594).

Increased Monitoring of EU governance

Gazeta Wyborcza

Gazeta Wyborcza (N=971)

0

10

20

30

40

50

1982 1989 1996 2003

%

The horizon of public debate does not expand systematically between 1982 and 2003.

Share of speakers from other European countries – by newspaper

Source: Speakers in representative sample of discursive articles in FAZ, Le Monde, The Times, Die Presse and Politiken for the years 1982, 1989, 1996 and 2003 (N=2640)

No increase in cross-border discussion

FAZ

Die Presse

Le Monde

The Times

Politiken

Gazeta Wyborcza

Gazeta Wyborcza (N=1112)

The share of European We-references slightly increases in all newspapers, except in Poland.

Share of We-ReferencesSource: We-References in representative sample of discursive articles in FAZ, Le Monde, The Times, Die Presse

and Politiken for the years 1982, 1989, 1996 and 2003 (N=1510)

Slight increase in collective identification with Europe

0

10

20

30

40

50

1982 1989 1996 2003

%

European

National

Western

Gazeta Wyborcza (N=759)

1980 today

Monitoring Brussels

Cross-BorderDiscussion

Identification with Europe

Source: Wessler, Hartmut et al. (2008): Transnationalization of Public Spheres. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Main result: Nationally segmented Europeanization of public spheres

Explanandum 1: Growing vertical Europeanization (but on different levels)

Monitoring Brussels

Increasing political impact of EUPR activities of EU

Pol

tical

dis

cour

se c

ultu

re

1 Pol

itica

l dis

cour

se c

ultu

re

2 Pol

itica

l dis

cour

se c

ultu

re

3

Growing vertical Europeanization (on different levels)

Explanandum 2: Stagnated horizontal Europeanization (on different levels)

Cross-border discussion

Increasing political impact of other European countries no coordinated PR activities

Pol

itica

l dis

cour

se c

ultu

re

1 Pol

itica

l dis

cour

se c

ultu

re

2 Pol

itica

l dis

cour

se c

ultu

re

3

How to explain segmented Europeanization I:Driving forces of Europeanization

Growing impact of EU politics

Driving forces

EU Public Relation activities

Tools of analysis

Growing impact of politics of other European countries

[no coordinated PR activities]

Vertical

Horizontal

Direction

Trigger study

Trigger study

EU-PR study:input/output analysis

How to explain segmented Europeanization II:Filters of Europeanization

Editorial cultures

Filters

Political discourse cultures

Tools of analysis

Vertical + horizontal

Direction

Trigger study

Explorative country field study

Newsroom study

Political discourse culture = „A specific ‚thickening‘ of cultural patterns of producing, representing and appropriating political communication as well as the regulation of and the identification within these processes.“ (Hepp/Wessler 2008)

Re-analysis of media content

Editorial culture = “The organization-related totality of cultural patterns in media production which manifest themselves in practices, interpretations and norms influencing and guiding decisions in a specific newsroom.”

The research design: Trigger study, newsroom study and explorative country field study

Newspapers

• Austria: Die Presse, Kronenzeitung, Der Standard, Kleine Zeitung• Denmark: Politiken, Ekstra Bladet, Berlingske Tidende, Jyske Vestkysten• France: Le Monde, Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui, Le Figaro, Ouest France • Germany: FAZ, Bild, Süddeutsche Ztg, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Ztg.• Great Britain: The Times, Daily Express, Guardian, Manchester Evening News• Poland: Gazeta Wyborcza, Fakt, Rzeczpospolita, Dziennik Zachodni

Time period October 13th – November 16th 2008

Trigger study(ext. sample)

• semi-standardized telephone interviews on “trigger” and editorial process for a) four articles on EU politics and b) four articles on politics of other European countries per newspaper

Newsroom study

(core sample)

• one week observation of editorial decision and production processes concerning EU and foreign news• interviews with editors responsible for a) EU news and b) foreign news

Explorative country

field study

• four weeks of media diaries (on political news and discussion in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV)

Notes from the field: AustriaEditorial cultures in relation to EU news and discussion

Criteria

Editorial mission

Regular EU section

Editor responsible for EU news

Type 1

Pro EU

x

x

Correspondent in Brussels x

Type 2

Pro EU

no

no

x

Type 3

unclear

no

no

no

Type 4

Anti EU

x (Anti)

no

no

Most comprehensive coverage of EU in all sectionsNot only event-, but also topic-driven coverage

comprehensive coverage of EU, mostly event-driven

little coverage of EU, only event-driven

little coverage of EU, discussion only Anti-EU

Thank you for your attention!

For further information please consult our website:www.state.uni-bremen.de/publicsphere

The project “The transnationalization of public spheres in Europe” is funded by the German Research Foundation and is headed by Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp

(until 12/2007 by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Wessler).

The project members are: Dr. Michael Brüggemann, Katharina Kleinen-

v.Königslöw, Swantje Lingenberg and Johanna Möller.