EU membership and the press

Abstract

In light of the 2004 and 2007 enlargement of the European Union with 12 new member states we need to reconsider what we know about the Brussels press corps. Brussels journalists play a pivotal role in the European integration process. They act as agents of Europeanization, wedged between complex European issues and national public spheres, privileged in terms of information supply, geographical proximity and social networking. This study is one of the first to examine correspondents from new member states vis-a-vis the rest of the Brussels press corps, EU institutions, home offices and audiences. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 14 journalists from different new member states show that the current work situation of the new member states' correspondents in Brussels could impede the emergence of a Europe-wide public discourse. The growing heterogeneity of the Brussels press corps reduces the relative importance of journalists from smaller member states and leaves them at a disadvantage in the news-gathering process. Moreover, volatile and also tense media markets in the new member states, paired with little interest for EU affairs in these countries, constrain the journalists' news performance, leading them to stress national angles over European ones.