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Reporting Europe European Studies – Master of Arts Centre for Languages and Literature Spring 2021 Reporting Europe A Narrative Analysis of Euractiv and Politico Europe on EU Affairs Julia Kaiser Master Thesis EUHR18 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tomas Sniegon Submitted: May 2021 Abstract The EU is home to uncountable media outlets whose narratives are vastly impacted by their national identity. Yet, in recent years, Europe witnessed a growth in transnational media. While the European public sphere is vastly researched, little attention has been paid to these newly established newsrooms. This master’s thesis seeks to investigate the framing by the pan-European press. Aside from determining narratives, the question of whether these narratives contribute to European identity-building and the Europeanization of the public is taken up, as well as in which way transnational media can be considered a viable alternative to national media. In order to provide a solid background, the concepts of European public sphere, Europeanization and European identity-building are defined. Furthermore, multiple studies on the quantity and quality of EU-affairs, as well as the history of Europe’s transnational press, is presented. Concerning the methodological approach, this thesis follows the narrative analysis. Concretely, Labov’s six-part model is applied. The news website Euractiv and the newspaper Politico Europe provide the material. The articles selected for the analysis were published during the German EU Council Presidency in 2020 and cover either Hungary’s and Poland’s veto on tying the rule of law to the EU budget, or policies vis-à-vis the enlargement in the Balkans. The analysis found that Euractiv and Politico Europe are similar as they seem to side with European values and the enlargement, despite some differences in framing. It remains debatable if and to what extent this press contributes to Europeanizing the public, considering that their outreach is rather limited. Moreover, their contribution to Europe’s cultural identity is questionable, as their narratives are rather built on “civic” identity. Yet, both newspapers can be considered an alternative to national media, as they clearly provide decentralized coverage and offer a pro-European point of view. The pan-European public sphere most likely will develop further. Future research might be able to evaluate its impact on Europeanization and European identity, and if pan-European media advances European integration. Keywords: Transnational media, European public sphere, European identity, Europeanization, journalism, narrative analysis, integration, culture. Table of Abbreviations EC: European Communities ECSC: European Coal and Steel Community EEC: European Economic Community EP: European Parliament EU: European Union EURATOM: European Atomic Energy Community FAZ: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung MEP: Member of the European Parliament MS: Member State NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization PM: Prime Minister TWF: Television Without Frontiers USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics List of Tables Table 1: Overview of Euractiv and Politico Europe 28 Table 2: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Euractiv/Rule of Law/1 32 Table 3: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Euractiv/Rule of Law/2 34 Table 4: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Euractiv/Rule of Law/3 36 Table 5: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Politico Europe/Rule of Law/ 1 37 Table 6: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Politico Europe/Rule of Law/ 2 38 Table 7: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Politico Europe/Rule of Law/ 3 40 Table 8: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Politico Europe/Rule of Law/ 4 41 Table 9: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Euractiv/Enlargement/1 43 Table 10: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Euractiv/Enlargement/2 44 Table 11: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Euractiv/Enlargement/3 46 Table 12: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Politico Europe/Enlargement/1 48 Table 13: Example for Labov’s six-part-model in Politico Europe/Enlargement/2 49 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Theoretical Framework 4 2.1 The European Public Sphere 4 2.2 Europeanization of the Public Sphere 7 2.3 European Identity and the Media 9 3. Background: Europe in the Media 12 3.1 Quantitative and Qualitative Coverage of the EU 12 3.1.1 Considering Europe: The Amount of Europe in National Media 12 3.1.2 Narrating Europe: The Framing of Europe in National Media 14 3.2 The Creation of a Pan-European Press 17 4. Methodology 21 4.1 Narrative Analysis 21 4.1.1 Narrative Research 21 4.1.2 Application of Labov’s Six-Part Model 22 4.1.3 Limitations of the Method 25 4.2 Material 26 4.2.1 Euractiv and Politico Europe 26 4.2.2 Articles: Period of Publication and Topics 29 5. Findings 31 5.1 Rule of Law 31 5.1.1 Euractiv 31 5.1.2 Politico Europe 36 5.2 Enlargement 42 5.2.1 Euractiv 42 5.2.2 Politico Europe 47 5.3 Summary 51 6. Discussion and Conclusion 54 7. Bibliography 60 Appendices 69 1. INTRODUCTION “If we were beginning the European Community all over again, we should begin with cul- ture.” Rumor has it that this line is to be attributed to none other than EU founding father Jean Monnet. Even though sources claim that this short but powerful statement is nothing but fiction,1 the actual originator of this quote implicitly assumed that culture is a vital factor, perhaps even the core, of European integration. Culture, in this sense, might include sharing a history or maintaining the same customs. Another decisive feature would be belonging to the same public sphere—following the same websites, watching the same news broadcasts, or listening to the same socio-political podcasts. Nowadays, in a union that counts twenty-seven member states (MS) and twenty-four official languages, and that is fragmented into individual national public spheres, it shall come as no surprise that news outlets of each MS not only have a different political affiliation, but they are also impacted by their nation’s cultural heritage. Therefore, there are different narratives in journalism—a crucial pillar of democracy. Research questions While there are uncountable news outlets in each MS, there are only a handful of transna- tional media that operate independently from any national affiliation. These newspapers are based in Brussels and possess additional offices across Europe. They address a European audience and focus predominantly on EU-related issues. The question now is how Europe is reported by its transnational press. With the objective to provide a response, the following research questions will be investigated: 1. Does the pan-European press share a narrative when covering the EU versus when covering EU-critics, and how can that narrative be characterized? 2. Do these pan-European news outlets and their narratives contribute to the European- ization of the media landscape and to a European identity? 3. With regards to the quality of EU-coverage, in which way does transnational media offer an alternative to national newspapers? 1 Jerzy Łukaszewski, Cel: Europa. Dziewięć esejów o budowniczych jedności europejskiej, 90 cited in Karol Jakubowicz, “European Melting Pots? European Integration and EU Audiovisual Policy at a Crossroads,” in Media, Nationalism and European Identities, ed. Miklós Sükösd and Karol Jakubowicz (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2011), 273. 1 Research status European newspapers are an often-investigated subject within the field of European and Me- dia Studies. Yet the status quo of research regarding the European public sphere—the EU’s presence in public discourse—is not the only relevant question when tackling transnational media. In fact, it is closely interlinked with the rather abstract question of whether there is a European identity—a feeling of a cultural belonging—as well as with the prominent topic of the Europeanization of media, meaning EU integration in communications. Various schol- ars have taken up specific angles to investigate said topics. This includes, on the one hand, the comparative analysis of the share of EU-related issues in national newspapers (see Trenz 2004). On the other hand, much research is dedicated to the national framework of narratives and framing (see Vidra 2006). Some of the first few approaches in the study of the transnational European press include Peter Varga (2011), who investigated how pioneers of the pan-European media spectrum handle challenges, or Martin Herzer (2019), who studied the narrative of, as he calls it, “Euro-journalism” from the 1950s to the 1970s. Today, the EU is ever-changing with the dawning enlargement in the Balkans, reported violations of the rule of law in Eastern Europe, and a decade-defining global pandemic. Therefore, the news coverage by transnational press provides valuable material for comparative analyses. This thesis seeks to build upon Varga and Herzer by analyzing the media coverage of contemporary issues. Structure of the thesis With the intent to contextualize the epistemological approach of this thesis, first the theoret- ical background of Europe’s public sphere as it manifests in the media will be presented. As a basis for both the background and the analysis, the public sphere will be defined, followed by an examination of how a public sphere functions within a European context. However, defining and discussing possible conceptual approaches to the European public sphere is not sufficient; when grasping the meaning of a European public, two further major issues must be considered. The second subchapter of the theoretical background seeks to outline 1) Eu- ropeanization, and 2) which concepts concerning the Europeanization of media exist. The following subchapter seeks to tackle the question of whether there is a European identity and how it is constructed through the media.
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