Pieter de Wilde

Hans-Jörg Trenz

Asimina Michailidou

The book compares EU coverage in main online news forums during the 2009 European Parliamentary campaigns.

Exploring Euroscepticism in Online Media Coverage

Contesting Europe

Pieter De Wilde

This book investigates the way politicians and citizens evaluated the European Union and the process of European integration in public debates during the 2009 European Parliament elections. It presents detailed and rigorous content analysis of online media where citizens directly and voluntarily responded to news stories posted by journalists. New evidence is presented about the dynamic nature of contestation about Europe on the internet and the degree of convergence towards Euroscepticism across EU member states. Such convergence poses new challenges for democratic representation in the EU and provides insight into the public basis for a legitimate European Union. 'In this book European contestation has come of age. Pieter de Wilde, Asimina Michailidou and Hans-Jorg Trenz deliver a tour de force in mapping the multifaceted debate about Europe among parties and citizens in twelve countries. Informed by rich media data they convincingly argue that opposition as well as support for Europe comes in different shades: it can be partial, conditional, or temporal. This is a wonderfully nuanced book for scholars, students and policy makers concerned about Europe's future.' Liesbet Hooghe, W. R. Kenan, Jr.Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina and Chair in Multilevel Governance, VU University of Amsterdam

Hans Jörg Trenz

This book offers a wealth of original empirical data on how online media shape EU contestation. Taking a public sphere perspective, the authors highlight the myths and truths about the nature of audience-driven online media content and show how public demands for legitimacy are at the heart of the much-analyzed politicization of European integration. What EU citizens most intensely debate online are the fundamental questions of what the European institutions stand for and how they can be held accountable. Drawing on innovative and rigorous analysis of online media ownership, journalistic content and online readers’ inputs, the authors piece together the components of the dynamic nature of EU contestation and the degree of convergence towards Euroscepticism across EU member states in the first years of the Eurocrisis. There is no doubt that EU citizens have strong opinions about the EU and interactive online media allow these opinions to come to the fore, to be challenged and amplified both within and beyond national public spheres. Yet, for all its potential to unite European publics, online EU contestation remains firmly anchored in offline news media frames, while citizens and journalists alike struggle to put forward a clear vision of the future EU polity.

Asimina Michailidou

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