We investigated the prevalence of 5 news frames identified in earlier studies on framing and framing effects: attribution of responsibility, conflict, human interest, economic consequences, and morality. We content analyzed 2,601 newspaper stories and 1,522 television news stories in the period surrounding the Amsterdam meetings of European heads of state in 1997. Our results showed that, overall, the attribution of responsibility frame was most commonly used in the news, followed by the conflict, economic consequences, human interest, and morality frames, respectively. The use of news frames depended on both the type of outlet and the type of topic. Most significant differences were not between media (television vs. the press) but between sensationalist vs. serious types of news outlets. Sober and serious newspapers and television news programs more often used the responsibility and conflict frames in the presentation of news, whereas sensationalist outlets more often used the human interest frame.Over the past 25 years, an impressive literature has contributed to our understanding of frames and framing effects (e.g.). Framing analysis shares with agenda-setting research a focus on the relationship between public policy issues in the news and the public perceptions of these issues. However, framing analysis "expands beyond agenda-setting research into what people

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In the wake of the Cold War, democracy has gained the status of a mantra. Yet there is no consensus about how to conceptualize and measure regimes such that meaningful comparisons can be made through time and across countries. In this prescriptive article, we argue for a new approach to conceptualization and measurement. We first review some of the weaknesses among traditional approaches. We then lay out our approach, which may be characterized ashistorical,multidimensional,disaggregated,andtransparent.We end by reviewing some of the payoffs such an approach might bring to the study of democracy.

This study investigated whether and how journalistic news frames affect readers' thoughts about and recall of two issues. A sample of 187 participants was randomly assigned to one of four experimental framing conditions, which included (a) conflict, (b) human interest, (c) attribution of responsibility, and (d) economic consequences, as well as a control condition. Each participant was presented with two newspaper stories that dealt with two socially and politically pertinent issues in Europe: crime and the introduction of the euro, the common European currency. Each story had an identical core component, whereas the title, opening paragraph, and closing paragraph were varied to reflect the frame. The study found that frames played a significant role in the readers' thought-listing responses, and they defined the ways that readers presented information about both issues. The results showed that the human interest news frame can have negative consequences for recall.

A B S T R A C TThis article analyses the news coverage of the 2004 European parliamentary elections in all 25 member states of the European Union (EU). It provides a unique pan-European overview of the campaign coverage based on an analysis of three national newspapers and two television newscasts in the two weeks leading up to the elections. On average, the elections were more visible in the 10 new member states than in the 15 old EU member states. The political personalities and institutional actors featured in news stories about the elections were generally national political actors and not EU actors. When evaluative, the news in the old EU-15 was generally negative towards the EU, whereas in the new countries a mixed pattern was found. The findings of the study are discussed in the light of the literature on the EU's legitimacy and communication deficit. IntroductionThe 2004 European parliamentary (EP) elections were an unprecedented exercise in democracy, with more than 350 million people in 25 countries having the opportunity to vote. The elections took place only weeks after the accession of 10 new member states to the European Union -the largest enlargement ever. Most voters in both the old EU-15 and the 10 new member states experience politics primarily through the media. Particularly in the case of low-salience, second-order elections, most of what citizens know about the campaign stems from the media (Bennett and Entman, 2001; see also Eurobarometer 162). Empirical knowledge about the media's coverage of EP elections is a prerequisite for assessing the well-being of democratic processes in Europe and for informing the ongoing discussion about the EU's democratic and communication deficits.Observations of the democratic process in the EU have been dominated by the 'democratic deficit'. This deficit has been identified as one of the major shortcomings of European integration and has been conceptualized in terms of institutional design and linkage institutions that focus on national rather than EU issues (Coultrap, 1999: 108;Kuper, 1998;Scharpf, 1999). The unelected nature of the Commission, the lack of European parliamentary power in policy-making, and the dominance of national issues are reflected in a lack of popular support, legitimacy and engagement in the EU among EU citizens (e.g. Eichenberg and Dalton, 1993).The importance of the media in alleviating or contributing to the democratic deficit lies in the media's ability to contribute towards a shared framework of reference and a European identity. First, the lack of EU legitimacy is viewed as a communication deficit (Meyer, 1999;Anderson and McLeod, 2004). According to this view, EU institutions have been unsuccessful in shaping European identity and promoting the connection between citizens and EU institutions via the media (Anderson and Weymouth, 1999;Anderson, 2004). Although the EU, and the European Parliament specifically, need to promote themselves, they are oftentimes confronted with media outlets that are either sceptical or uninterested ...