The News Coverage of the 2004 European Parliamentary Election Campaign in 25 Countries

TLDR

The study is situated within literature on EU legitimacy and the communication deficit. This article analyzes news coverage of the 2004 European parliamentary elections across all 25 EU member states. The authors provide a pan‑European overview based on analyses of three national newspapers and two television newscasts during the two weeks before the elections. The analysis shows that elections received greater media visibility in the 10 new member states than in the 15 old ones, that coverage focused mainly on national actors rather than EU institutions, and that evaluative reporting was generally negative toward the EU in old member states but mixed in new ones.

Abstract

This article analyses the news coverage of the 2004 European parliamentary 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 10 new 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 evaluative, the news in the old EU-15 was generally negative towards the EU, whereas 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.