Converging on euroscepticism: Online polity contestation duringEuropeanParliament elections

Abstract

Does the increasing politicisation of Europe signify a step towards the legitimation of the Union? This could be the case if the increased public intensity of debate and polarisation of opinion brought about by politicisation do not fragment the audience and if arguments presented in public are sufficiently clear about the desired nature of the polity. To answer this question, the focus of this article is on dynamic contestation in the public sphere using original data of news platforms and political blogs in 12 EU Member States and transnational websites during the European Parliament election campaign of 2009. The results are, first, that diffuse eurosceptic evaluations dominate public debates despite large variation in the intensity of debate across Member States. Second, a majority of evaluations made, particularly those by citizens leaving comments online, are negative in all countries included in this study. A gap between elites and citizens persists, but it appears less pronounced than often proclaimed in the literature. And third, democracy is a primary concern in EU polity contestation, especially for those evaluating the EU negatively. Although little evidence is found of a fragmentation of audiences, the prominence of diffuse euroscepticism poses a major challenge to legitimation of the Union.

Can Euroscepticism Contribute to a European Public Sphere? The Europeanization of Media Discourses on Euroscepticism across Six Countries

“…Szczerbiak and Taggart (, p. 16) acknowledge the ‘extremely broad’ scope of soft euroscepticism, which may lead to wrongly categorizing parties that are pro‐integration. Furthermore, studies that attempt to operationalize euroscepticism via typologies typically result in large diffuse categories (De Wilde et al, ; Szczerbiak and Taggart, , p. 14).…”

“…At the same time, the national media exhibit some commonalities in their communication practices, and rigorous empirical tests demonstrate that these similarities can be distinguished along four major geographical regions in (western) Europe: northern, central, western and southern (Brüggemann et al, ). Media coverage about the EU can therefore converge on certain topics, especially during Europe‐wide events such as the EP elections (De Wilde et al, ). Topic convergence across national media underpins the development of a public space for shared political discussion.…”

Putting Brexit into perspective: the effect of the Eurozone and migration crises and Brexit on Euroscepticism in European states

“…For the literature on parties there has been less explicit work on the impact of crises on their positions. The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections saw increasing support for parties expressing Euroscepticism and the elections have become a focus for those looking at party positions on Europe (Hobolt and De Vries, 2016;Nicoli 2017;Treib 2014;Wilde et al 2014). Hobolt and De Vries (2016) show that the economic crisis had a significant impact on the support for parties expressing Euroscepticism.…”

Internet, News, and Political Trust: The Difference Between Social Media and Online Media Outlets

“…Other studies report a higher level of negativity in the tone of social media stories related to political topics compared to the tone used by mainstream media (Pew, 2012). Similarly, De Wilde, Michailidou & Trenz () analyzed professional journalism websites and political blogs and found a similar citizen‐elite divide with respect to the level of Euroscepticism.…”