The local angle

1
The local angle

• News values and frames in the coverage of
  European affairs
• Sigurd Allern, University of Oslo, Norway

2
European ambitions, national and local markets

• The EU is not Europe. However
• The EU has 25 member states, 450 million citizens
• New members will join
• Associated countries (European Economic Area)
• Set backs (the referendums in Holland and France)
• Very few pan-national news outlets
• Local, regional and national media dominates
• Contradiction lofty ideals about European
  Public Sphere and the national/local orientation
  of the media.

3
The European public sphere, more than an EU pipe
dream?

• At the bottom the idea of universality, the
  public sphere must be accessible for all citizens
• The importance of the media they must be within
  reach for societys members (Peter Dahlgren)
• One or more spheres?
• Colin Sparks singular, unifying
• Craig Caloun spheres of public

4
Two important obstacles

• 1 The importance of language in political
  communication (20 official community languages in
  the EU alone, and more will come)
• 2 The structure of the media market. Few
  pan-European or pan-national media outlets
• National frames shape what is reported about
  European Affairs

5
EU on the news agenda

• Agenda analysis (3 weeks spring 2005, 5 leading
  news outlets in ten countries). Three levels
  concerning the amount of news stories
• 1 France, Germany, Lithuania, Ireland
• 2 Finland, Estonia, Italy, Norway, Belgium
• 3 UK
• 1 National newspapers
• 2 Regional newspapers
• 3 Popular press, public service and commercial
  television

6
Actors in the EU-related news

• National 46 per cent
• EU 24 per cent
• Foreign 31 per cent

7
Factors influencing the news agenda

• Market strategy
• News values
• Resources
• Editorial mix

8
Reporting from Brussels and beyond

• 929 journalists accredited
• About 25 per cent from countries outside the EU
• Only seven Norwegian correspondents from 9 news
  outlets
• Institutional news often pre structured
• Business related, or about laws, regulations,
  meeting, summits
• European correspondents versus Brussels
  correspondents
• Reportage journalism

9
Types of relationships/networks

• National groups
• Status groups
• Media type groups

10
Creating an European identity?

• No, thank you, we have other obligations! (Irish
  report)
• Only those with a stronger partisan profile
  accept the idea.. (Italian report)
• ..A dream of EU bureaucrats, particularly French
  and German ones (Lithuanian editor)
• We are no missionaries.. (Norwegian foreign
  news editor)

11
Journalistic approaches

• The sacerdotal approach covering political
  institutions important per se.
• The pragmatic approach politics must compete
  with any type of news
• The conventionally approach (conflicts, crisis,
  personal drama)
• The analytical approach
• The critical approach

12
Proximity in the news

• Proximity, local angle and national framing How
  does this affect us, what are the consequences
  for our area and our daily lives?
• The dilemma Transnational political processes
  and vital decisions in a European Union without
  a transnational or European public sphere is in
  conflict with basic, democratic values.
• Can visions about a European Public Sphere be
  more than a pipe dream?