International project: Media coverage of the Polish EU presidency

Abstract

International project:Media coverage of the Polish EU presidency E ffectively conducted, the EU presidency can improve the image of the country holding this position. This is particularly true for countries that are holding the chairmanship of the EU Council for the first time. During the six-month period of the presidency the country attracts foreign media attention, not only as a host of numerous meetings and events, but also as an actor in charge of defining the major directions of the EU policy. Therefore, that time could be spent on achieving political goals and building an image as an important and effective EU member, as well as an attractive country for tourists and entrepreneurs. In many cases, however, internal political events such as elections, political tensions, or controversies over domestic issues seem to take over the atmosphere around the country.The project Media coverage of the Polish EU presidency was designed to analyze how the Polish presidency in the EU Council was covered and interpreted by news media in Poland and other European countries. Since scholars from other countries were invited to participate in this project, the comparative analysis was conducted in two areas: (1) the countries' experience of the EU presidency; (2) the media coverage of the Polish presidency.Theme (1) requires a broader interdisciplinary perspective to study how the presidency builds a country's position within the EU structures and how the presidency can be used to create or change a country's image. First, one should consider the actual concept of the EU presidency and the expectations towards the country that is holding this position at the time. Then, one may consider such issues as: instruments that can and should be used to create that country's positive image; events or activities that attract the media and international audience's attention; the stumbling blocks, threats and major challenges.Theme (2) requires the media content analysis (both qualitative and quantitative). The major issues here are: frequency of covering the coun-

Polityzacja Europy. Obraz prezydencji w Radzie UE w polskich mediach

“…The data come from the research project devoted to study the role of media events in creating a state's image (see : Stępińska, 2012;Stępińska, 2013b;Stępińska, Secler, 2014). The key word used to select the items for a study was presidency (of the EU Council).…”

“…The study concentrates on the relation between political bias of selected Polish daily newspapers and weekly magazines and their evaluation of Poland's presidency in the European Union Council with regard to two concepts: Europeanization of public sphere and politicization of Europe. While previous studies on the Polish media coverage of the first Polish EU presidency were focused mostly on domestication of the EU-related topics (Stępińska, 2013a;Stępińska, 2013b;Stępińska, Secler, 2014), the theoretical approach of politicization and Europeanization provides an opportunity to recognize the other side of media role in political debate over the European issue.…”

Ile Europy w europejskich mediach informacyjnych? Rola mediów w kształtowaniu europejskiej sfery publicznej

“…Stêpiñska, 2013) 3 . Badania w Polsce prowadzone by³y z perspektywy krajowej (i horyzontalnej): w centrum zainteresowania znajdowa³a siê mo¿liwooeae kreowania pozytywnego wizerunku Polski na arenie miêdzynarodowej dziêki zwró-ceniu uwagi mediów na wydarzenia towarzysz¹ce sprawowaniu tej funkcji.…”

Media and Communication in Europe

“…For several reasons, that is a strange observation. News value research (Galtung & Ruge, 1967;Chang, Shoemaker & Brendlinger, 1987; clearly stresses the importance of geographical proximity as one of the drivers of news worthiness (see also Stêpiñska et al, 2013). Moreover, the closeness of the EU institutions should also make it logisti-cally easier for reporters to cover EU stories, since all the important news sources are available right at hand.…”

“…Consequently, countries also strive for internationally higher visible and positive world images (Kunczik, 2003). As Stêpiñska (2013) has pointed out, therefore governmental public diplomacy increasingly resembles corporate public relations strategies or global branding campaigns to attract media attention and influence other countries' public opinion -one aim here being to affect foreign governments, tourism, and corporate investment .…”