Tracing Europeanization in the Mass-Mediated Debate on 2019 EU Leadership Selection

Abstract

The 2019 high-level appointments to the European institutions represented a key event in recent EU politics. Especially the debate over who would succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission attracted substantial public attention and was marked by conflict and controversy at the European political level. While a number of studies have recently addressed the 2019 appointment process, its institutional background and implications, little is known about the coverage in the media. In particular, in light of the literature on Europeanization and the European Public Sphere (EPS), it remains an open question whether media in EU countries advanced nationally distinct accounts of the nomination of the Commission president or whether reporting was Europeanized, featuring (1) similar frames of reference across borders and (2) involving EU-wide speakers. The present thesis addresses this matter, comparing the quality newspaper coverage in three European countries (Germany, France and Ireland) at the time of the European Council negotiations in June and July 2019. The analysis yields results that need to be interpreted with care: On a general level, it was possible to identify both shared frames and a substantial proportion of European speakers in the media coverage. Taking a closer look, however, marked national differences were found in the use of frames, setting in particular German newspapers apart from news reporting in France and Ireland. As far as speakers are concerned, furthermore, the coverage in the Irish press was found to be largely nationally confined. On this basis, the paper suggests remaining wary of claims that a common European Public Sphere has already emerged in EU-Europe.