Covering the EU at local level: A multiple-case study in Germany, the UK and Spain

Abstract

In recent years, European journalists show a preference for opinionated stories in a growing movement triggered by the acceleration of the political information cycle in the digital sphere. This research aims to analyze how reporting the EU meets quality standards, comparing the coverage of EU affairs in local media from Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and Spain. We content-analyze all the published news items on European issues, collected over a one-year period (2018–2019). Local media are selected because of their relationship with democracy in nearby communities. Based on a corpus of 1093 news stories, the results show that the number of statements was high; meanwhile, we detected a negative bias in every media outlet of the sample, but some differences were also found linking to national contexts. Likewise, our study provides evidence on the shaping of low-quality news about the EU, arguing that this practice could boost a polarized climate.