Introduction

Abstract

Supporters of the “European integration process” often complain about the media. Ever since the 1950s, they have been claiming that journalists do not pay enough attention to (Western) European integration, publish only negative stories about “Europe” and fail to cover the EU from a genuinely “European perspective.” In his memoirs, Jean Monnet commented that at the time of the Schuman Declaration in 1950, few journalists had recognised the true “significance of the declaration, the technical aspects of which tended to obscure its political importance.” In 1975, Marcell von Donat, a spokesman for the European Community, criticised journalists who, he alleged, filed only negative stories from Brussels, while ignoring any positive news. As he put it, “the image is [always] negative.” In an influential article published in 1993, the German sociologist Jürgen Gerhards lamented that compared to politicians and economic actors, the media were “lagging behind” when it came to “Europeanisation.” EU officials have regularly expressed outrage regarding the “Euro-bashing” of the British tabloids. Studies of the media’s coverage of the Euro crisis have focused on the persistence of national perspectives and stereotypes. Over the past decades, both intellectual debate and scholarly research have thus concentrated on the obstacles that nationally organised media allegedly pose to European integration, and how these obstacles might be overcome. In particular, such debate and scholarship have considered the role that media might play in the construction of a European identity, and in the creation of a more legitimate and democratic EU.