The Quest for a European Public Sphere: News Media and Democratic Legitimacy

Abstract

This paper critically discusses the normative criteria commonly used to assess the emergence of a “European Public Sphere” and presents the results of a comparative, long-term, multi-dimensional content analysis of national quality newspapers in five European countries to test these criteria (A, D, DK, F, and GB, 1982-2003). In the first part, four normative models of Europeanization are advanced and partly revised. In particular, it is argued that a European public sphere cannot do without some degree of mutual observation and exchange between countries as well as some collective identification with Europe; coverage of EU institutions and policies in the national media is not enough. In the second part content analytic data on all of these dimensions is presented. Unlike other studies, this paper identifies a complex pattern of “segmented Europeanization” due to its multi-dimensional design: While EU coverage does increase over the past two decades, mutual observation and exchange as well as collective identification stagnate. Proposals for future research on both the reasons and the consequences of this pattern are advanced in conclusion.