Suchergebnisse

Untersucht wird die Berichterstattung der reichweitenstärksten Fernsehnachrichtensendungen. Inhaltsanalytisch zeigt sich eine deutlich geringere Präsenz des Themas "Europawahl" gegenüber dem Thema "Bundestagswahl" in den letzten drei Wochen vor dem jeweiligen Wahltag. Interessanterweise wurden jedoch in der Berichterstattung über die Europawahl 2009 die nationalen Akteure von den EU-Akteuren übertroffen - ein Novum in der Fernsehberichterstattung über Europawahlen in Deutschland und zugleich eine Annäherung an die Presseberichterstattung im Jahr 2009. Das Bild, das von Europa in den Fernsehnachrichten zu Wahlkampfzeiten präsentiert wird, scheint zudem deutlich weniger konfrontativ auszufallen, als dies für nationale Hauptwahlen der Fall ist. (ICE2)

Support for European integration is a function no longer only of `hard' economic and utilitarian predictors but also of `soft' predictors such as feelings of identity and attitudes towards immigrants. Focusing on the issue of the potential membership of Turkey in the European Union (EU), this study demonstrates that the importance of `soft' predictors outweighs the role of `hard' predictors in understanding public opinion about Turkish membership. The study draws on survey data (N = 1630) and applies a series of regression models and structural equation modelling to show in addition how the effects of utilitarian considerations are mediated through `soft' indicators, further accentuating the importance of identity considerations and anti-immigration sentiments. The findings are discussed in the light of public support for and the legitimacy of further European enlargement.

This issue brings together papers that focus on the question of whether and in which ways the 2014 European Parliament elections were different from previous ones. This is important from the point of view of emerging scholarship on changes in the EU and from the point of view of the self-proclaimed 'This time it's different!' slogan from the Parliament. The papers centre around three themes: 1) the role of the Spitzenkandidaten, 2) media and voters, and 3) electoral behaviour. (auhtor's abstract)

The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections were characterised by a novel element in European Union (EU) politics. For the first time, the major European party families put forward top candidates for President of the European Commission, the so-called Spitzenkandidaten. This paper tests whether this innovation had the potential to—at least partially—alleviate the alleged accountability deficit. We rely on original survey data to assess citizens' preferences for each of the main Spitzenkandidaten: Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Schulz, and Guy Verhofstadt. Our research is guided by three questions: what explains whether citizens formulate a preference for a certain Spitzenkandidat? Which factors are responsible for variations in such preferences? And, are these explanations moderated by citizens' political awareness? We show that three factors enable citizens to formulate a preference for the Spitzenkandidaten: news exposure, general EU political information, and campaign-specific information about the Spitzenkandidaten. Furthermore, we demonstrate that only the most knowledgeable citizens are able to use party cues in their evaluations of the Spitzenkandidaten. The implications of our findings are discussed with reference to the EU's democratic deficit debate.

This article analyzes the news coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary (EP) elections in all 25 member states of the European Union (EU). It provides a unique pan-European overview of the campaign coverage based on an analysis of three national newspapers and two television newscasts in the two weeks leading up to the elections. On average, the elections were more visible in the new 10 member states than in the 15 old EU member states. The political personalities and institutional actors featured in news stories about the elections were generally national political actors and not EU actors. When it was evaluative, the news in the old EU-15 was generally negative towards the EU, while in the new countries a mixed pattern was found. The findings of the study are discussed in the light of the literature on the EU's legitimacy and communication deficit.

We outline the competitive television news market in the enlarged European Union (EU) and demonstrate the continued importance of traditional media, in particular television, in the context of proliferation in choice of news sources, including on-line news services. Drawing upon a content analysis of the most widely watched evening television news programs in each of the EU countries, we find that on average, EU news in 2004 was more visible in the new member states than in the old member states. The level of coverage in the old member states was slightly higher in 2004 compared to 1999. Looking at individual countries there was considerable variation with some countries (e.g., Greece, Denmark, Slovakia, and Austria) devoting about 20% of the news to the elections and others (e.g., Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic) devoting about 5% or less to the elections.

Political parties have substantial influence on which issues the news media cover during election campaigns, while the media have limited influence on party agendas. However, we know little about why some parties are more successful than others in passing the media's gates and being covered on sponsored issues. On the basis of content analyses of election news coverage (812 news stories) and press releases published by political parties (N = 334) during the 2007 national election campaign in Denmark, we analyse which parties were successful in appearing in the news on issues on which they published press releases. Using Sartori's notion of relevant parties, we conclude that the more relevant parties have more success, that there is a positive spillover effect from other parties' press releases, but also a negative interaction effect between a party's own and other parties' press releases. The results are discussed with respect to their generalizability and arising challenges for future research.