European Research Cooperation: The Euro Crisis, Media Coverage, and Perceptions of Europe within the EU

Full title: European Research Cooperation „The Euro Crisis, Media Coverage, and Perceptions of Europe within the EU“ under the direction of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, UK

Project Partner: Leen d'Haenens (Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgien), Prof. Dr. Heinz-Werner Nienstedt, Prof. Dr. Hans Mathias Kepplinger, Prof. Dr. Oliver Quiring (Institut für Publizistik der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Deutschland); Prof. Hannu Nieminen, Dr. Juha Herkman, Markus Ojala, Liina Puustinen, Timo Harjuniemi (Media and Communication Studies, University of Helsinki, Finnland), Nicolas Hube (Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique de la Sorbonne Université Paris, Frankreich), Georgios Tsourvakas, Andreas Veglis (School of Journalism and Mass Media Studies, Aristotle University, Tessaloniki, Griechenland), Paolo Mancini, Marco Mazzoni (Facoltà di Scienze Politiche, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, Italien), Katarzyna Sobieraj (University of Wroclaw, Polen); Angel Arrese, Alfonso Vara (Facultad De Comunicación, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spanien), Prof. Robert G Picard, John Lloyd (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, United Kingdom)

Aim of Research:

For four years now, the European community has been confronted with profound problems and consequences of the European public debt crisis. The crisis has elicited unknown forms of solidarity, but also painful dependencies that have been extensively covered by the national media. The aim of this large-scale research project with partners from ten European countries is to investigate and compare the media portrayal of the Euro crisis in the national print media. In the face of cultural differences, but also different positions within the European context, the study is supposed to show which actors play a significant role in the context of the crisis, what causes and treatment recommendations are discussed in different national media outlets and how long-term developments of the Euro and the European Union are assessed. The European research cooperation wants to enable a comparative insight and understanding of the perception the Euro crisis that reached the public arena through the national news media and ultimately also dominated the political and social discourse about Europe in the member states.

Method: Content analysis of the media coverage about the Euro crisis of important national print media in ten European countries (in sum over 11 000 articles in 40 European newspapers)

Sample Period: February 2010 – July 2012 under special consideration of 11 central crisis Events

Publications:

  • National project and result reports are available at: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/
  • Full anthology with extensive comparative and in-dept analysis: Picard, R. G. (Eds.) (2015). The Euro Crisis in the Media. Journalistic Coverage of Economic Crisis and European Institutions. London, New York: IB Tauris.