Euroscepticism, Democracy and the Media: Communicating Europe, Contesting Europe

Manuela Caiani, Simona Guerra

Springer, Feb 22, 2017 - Social Science - 284 pages

This volume focuses on the relationship between the media and European democracy, as important factors of EU legitimacy. The contributors show how the media play a crucial role in making European governance accountable, and how it can act as an intermediate link between citizens and their elected and unelected representatives.

The book focuses on widespread levels of Euroscepticism and the contemporary European crisis. The authors present empirical studies which problematize the role of traditional media coverage on EU attitudes. Comparisons are also drawn between traditional and new media in their influence on Euroscepticism. Furthermore, the authors analyse the impact of the internet and social media as new arenas in which Eurosceptic claims and positions can be made visible, as well as being a medium used by political parties and populist movements which contest Europe and its politics and policies.

Euroscepticism, Democracy and the Media will be of interest to students and scholars with an interest in European politics, political parties, interest groups, social movements and political sociology.

Contents

• An Introduction: 1
• Beyond Party Systems Across Civil Society: 21
• Media Negativity Framing and Opposition to the EU: 49
• Euroscepticism Becoming Mainstream?: 73
• Does the Information Source Matter? Newspaper Readership Political Preferences and Attitudes Towards the EU in the UK France and the Netherlands: 95
• How the Media Make European Citizens More Eurosceptical: 121
• Comparing News Diets Electoral Choices and EU Attitudes in Germany Italy and the UK in the 2014 European Parliament Election: 141
• Extreme Right Online Networks and Their Contestation of EU Legitimacy: 169
• Divided They Tweet? A Comparative Analysis of Twitter Networks of Pro and AntiEU Parties: 194
• Syriza Podemos and Critical Visions of Europe During the Crisis: 219
• A Solution for More Citizen Participation in EU PolicyMaking: 241
• Conclusion: 263
• Index: 273

About the author

Manuela Caiani is Associate Professor at the Institute of Scienze Umane e Sociali at the Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS), Florence, Italy. She has published widely on collective action and Europeanization and on right-wing extremism in Europe and the USA.

Simona Guerra is Senior Lecturer in Politics in the School of History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester, UK. Her main research interests focus on the domestic politics of EU integration, Euroscepticism and Populism, and Religion and Politics. Her publications include Central and Eastern European Attitudes in the Face of Union (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Euroscepticism, Democracy and the Media: Communicating Europe, Contesting Europe; Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology
• Editors: Manuela Caiani, Simona Guerra
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Springer, 2017
• ISBN: 1137596430, 9781137596437
• Length: 284 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / General; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Democracy; Political Science / World / European; Social Science / Sociology / General