`Europe' in the News

Abstract

This study is a cross-nationally comparative investigation of the news coverage in Britain, Denmark, and the Netherlands of three major EU events: (1) the January 1999 first-step introduction of the euro, (2) the June 1999 European Parliamentary elections, and (3) the December 2000 summit in Nice. The visibility of the three events, the news agenda, and the role played by national news organizations in covering the EU events are examined. The study draws on content analyses of the most widely watched main evening television news programmes as well as interviews with news practitioners in the three countries. The results showed that news coverage of European affairs is cyclical, peaking during the events but hardly visible before and after. A number of cross-national differences were found: overall, Danish news devoted most attention to the EU events, followed by Britain and the Netherlands. News organizations differed in the editorial policy and the degree of effort invested in covering the events. Danish, and to some extent the British and Dutch, public broadcasters exerted more discretion in the choice of issues covered and assumed a proactive agenda-setting role compared with their private counterparts. The findings are discussed in the light of the role of news in public opinion formation processes about EU affairs.