Eurosceptic Voices in the Media Coverage of European Parliament Elections 2014

• In Event: The Voices Represented in the News: Inclusion and Contention

Abstract

The present study investigates whether national media discourses about Euroscepticism are Europeanized. A discourse is considered Europeanized when an issue involving non-national or EU level actors is discussed in a similar fashion within different Member States. we ask:
To what extent are national media discourses about Euroscepticism Europeanized?
What factors explain the presence of a Europeanized media discourse about Euroscepticism?
To answer these questions we employ a two-phase research design. In the first phase, we uncover the content of media reporting relating to Euroscepticism in 2014 across six countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, France, Denmark, and Sweden. Using LDA topic modeling, a natural language processing method, we identify the primary topics in connection with the words ‘Eurosceptic’ and ‘Euroscepticism’ across each of the six cases and compare them in terms of their content (what is discussed) and their scope (national or European). We find that the topics associated with Euroscepticism are remarkably similar across all of our cases, with the exception of the UK, and therefore find substantial evidence that the discourse about Euroscepticism is Europeanized. We explain the Europeanization of media discourses about Euroscepticism with three factors: broadsheet versus tabloid coverage, the success of a national Eurosceptic party, and
whether the country is a net contributor or receiver of EU funds.

Authors

• Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Lund U

• Michael Bossetta, U of Copenhagen