Paper Titles & Abstracts

Critical attitudes towards European integration have always been around. To what extent increased scepticism is problematic, is a matter for debate. Importantly, eurosceptism exists in different degrees. This paper aims to discern these different types of scepticism and opposition towards the EU as reflected in the European media. While the immediate effect of media coverage may be a contested issue, there is hardly any disagreement about the mass media's importance for the public spaces of democratic societies. This paper will present a qualitative content analysis of press articles from De Standaard (Belgium), NRC Handelsblad (The Netherlands), Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) and The Independent (UK). While it may be argued that quality newspapers have fewer readers than tabloids, they do usually provide a good overview of opinions. In addition, quality newspapers often act as agenda-setters for other media and for political actors and, as such, reach more people than just their own readers. The abovementioned newspapers tend to at the centre of the spectrum in terms of political affiliation and they are known to play an important role in the political debate. This way we can get the best possible overview of political opinions and, in this case, varieties of eurosceptisicm and opposition to the EU and/or its policies. The paper is meant as an illustration of how euroscepticism and opposition to the EU feature in the media, rather than a comprehensive overview. The analysis is therefore intended to carefully reflect on how the empirical findings relate to the existing literature and ideas about euroscepticism in general and about the media and their place in the European polity in particular. The indicators used will be drawn from the existing literature on euroscepticism.