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EU perceptions in Northeast Asia: a cross-national comparative study of press coverage and citizens’ opinion

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Abstract

This study provides a unique and innovative comparative investigation of the press coverage and citizens’ opinion towards the European Union (EU) and its bilateral relations with the three most important Northeast Asian countries, People’s Republic of China, Japan and South Korea. On the basis of media content analysis of mainstream national newspapers and opinion surveys of the general public and elite stakeholders, the analysis explores the extent to which media agenda and framing, the shared interests between the EU and the respective country, and social and personal connections influence citizens’ opinions of the EU and its bilateral relations in these three countries.

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Notes

  1. The data for Japan are weighted to reflect the difference in the duration of coverage.

  2. Stories focusing on the economic aspects and the political aspects of the EU in Japan took a similar share.

  3. Before that, Korea maintained diplomatic relations with Republic of China (Taiwan).

  4. In China, this proportion is very close between the elite survey and public survey. This may be due to some methodological limitation in the Chinese public survey data that many respondents for the online public survey are Chinese elite (Holland et al. 2007: 36). Therefore, for the analysis of the link between public social connections and the perception, I will only consider the Japan and Korea cases.

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  1. School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK

    Li Zhang

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Zhang, L. EU perceptions in Northeast Asia: a cross-national comparative study of press coverage and citizens’ opinion. Asia Eur J 8, 161–175 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-010-0254-y

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