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Europe-Topics in Europe's Media

The Debate about the European Public Sphere: A Meta-Analysis of Media Content Analyses

University of Leipzig, Institute of Communication and Media Science, Burgstr. 21, D-04109 Leipzig, Germany machill{at}uni-leipzig.de

Markus Beiler

Institute of Communication and Media Science of the University of Leipzig beiler{at}uni-leipzig.de

Corinna Fischer

Hannover corinna.eime{at}gmx.de

The existence of a European public sphere is often disputed –not only in communication and media science. A common thesis in research is that a European public sphere can be constituted via the Europeanization of reporting in the national media. On the basis of a qualitatively oriented meta-analysis, this article aims to answer the question whether such Europeanization is taking place in European countries. With reference to 17 studies analysing media content from several European countries, the empirical research carried out in German, English and French since the beginning of the 1990s is systematically evaluated. All of the studies examined compare European topics being reported in the media in different European countries. The meta-analysis shows that in the 15 member states of the European Union prior to the 2004 enlargement, developmental tendencies of differing degrees towards a Europeanization of the national public spheres are discernible. Overall, EU topics account for an extremely small proportion of the reporting in the particular national media. Players at EU level only feature in minor roles. It can be concluded that the public spheres of the EU states continue to exhibit a strong national orientation. Keeping in mind that there has been little empirical research in this field so far, the results of this analysis are a first step towards a systematization of the existing research –at a time when the debate about a European public sphere becomes even more important against the background of the ongoing expansion of the EU.

Key Words: European public sphere • European Union • media content analysis • media culture • meta-analysis

European Journal of Communication, Vol. 21, No. 1, 57-88 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0267323106060989


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