Supporting the EU’s Approach to Climate Change: The Discourse of the Transnational Media Within the ‘Brussels Bubble’

Abstract

The Union's global climate change policy has been widely seen as an expression of its normative power, where it is committed to act through multilateral frameworks in order to tackle the effects of changes in the climate and safeguard the future of peoples around the world. Internally, the EU's approach to climate change is complemented by high levels of support from citizens. This article explores another internal source of support for the EU's leadership in global climate change policy, namely the media. The focus here is on the transnational media's reporting and coverage of the Copenhagen summit, which is widely considered to be one of the key points in the development of global climate change policy. The article shows that within the 'Brussels bubble', the transnational media supported through its reporting the EU's ambitious agenda in global climate change policy around the time of the Copenhagen summit.

Mimicry, Fragmentation, or Decoupling? Three Scenarios for the Control Function of EU Correspondents

“…Yet, rather counter-intuitively, some of the most recent studies of the EU Press Corps and of journalists covering EU affairs more broadly, point to the emergence of a Brussels political journalism culture that cuts through national divides and no longer servers a priori fragmented publics (along national identity and linguistic lines). Nitoiu (2015), for instance, has looked at the Brussels bubble of EU correspondents in relation to climate change reporting and found that transnational media are very supportive of EU institutions’ narratives regarding the role of the EU in leading climate change actions. Hepp et al (2016: 39) point to a specific type of emerging EU journalism, which develops “new cultural forms of specific transnational political discourses”.…”

When Normative and Market Power Interact: The European Union and Global Biofuels Governance

“…239–243) argues that the EU's specific history ‘pre‐disposes it to act in a normative way’, with the ‘ability to shape conceptions of “normal” in international relations' based on norms such as democracy, the rule of law, good governance and sustainable development. While not specific to Europe, scholars emphasize that ‘EU interpretations of these values have been translated into guiding principles of EU policy’ (Lucarelli and Manners, , p. 202) and that the EU often exercises normative power by ‘leading by example’ (Kilian and Elgström, ; Nitoiu, ) and setting standards of behaviour (Diez and Manners, , p. 175). Norm diffusion does not only occur passively, but may involve active EU norm promotion (Haukkala, ).…”