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In a world where attitudes towards immigration and the European Union are at the forefront of political and economic agendas across the continent, this Special Issue is highly relevant and well timed. This Forum article reviews the Special Issue and summarizes lessons learned and identifies open, remaining and new, questions. As a future research agenda, it is advised to pay attention to (a) differentiation in EU attitudes, (b) the role of national political elites, (c) the changing communications environment, and (d) the role of religion and religious attitudes.

In a world where attitudes towards immigration and the European Union are at the forefront of political and economic agendas across the continent, this Special Issue is highly relevant and well timed. This Forum article reviews the Special Issue and summarizes lessons learned and identifies open, remaining and new, questions. As a future research agenda, it is advised to pay attention to (a) differentiation in EU attitudes, (b) the role of national political elites, (c) the changing communications environment, and (d) the role of religion and religious attitudes.

In this article, the author reviews the studies in this special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist. It is a strong collection of articles reporting findings from an integrated project that looks at frame building, frames, and effects of frames. The project is part of an exciting large-scale Swiss research program on democracy, NCCR. The author reflects not only on the contents of the issue but also on the framing concept in political communication research more generally. He offers suggestions for conceptual clarity and makes three recommendations about future framing research. They pertain to (a) the types of frames that framing researchers look at, (b) the dynamics of framing effects, and (c) advances in research designs in framing research.

This article explores the relationship between Internet use among young people, their political consumption, and their political participation. The study widens the notion of online civic and political engagement and includes measures of active and passive forms of participation. To test a number of hypotheses developed on the basis of extant research, a survey was conducted in 2006 among 2,404 young Dutch respondents (aged sixteen to twenty-four). The results demonstrate the importance of the Internet for political activities for young people. They also show that most online activities (ranging from news use, peer communication, and consumption to online service use) are positively related to political participation. Contrary to common wisdom, this article shows that the young online consumer is also politically active.

This article investigates the challenges that political parties face in referendums. While political parties are still key actors in a referendum campaign, a number of factors weaken their position. Ambiguous cueing, internal dissidence, electoral volatility and limited impact on citizens' prime information sources reduce the influence of political parties. Large, centrist political parties have the worst performance record in terms of getting their voters to follow the recommendation of the party, while smaller, ideologically strongly profiled parties are more successful in aligning their voters with party policy. At the individual level, we find that, in particular, efficacious voters are likely to disregard the recommendation of their preferred party, while politically disinterested voters are more likely to follow the party endorsement. The article concludes with a discussion of the contingent nature of party control over referendums.