The Implications of Europeanized EU-Journalists on the Citizens and its Government
The Brussels Bubble- a paradise for EU-journalists´ to become a good reporter?
Keywords:
Media, Accountability, Europeanisation, reportersAbstract
The national media plays a central role for European citizens by functioning as an information transmitter, ensuring fact-orientated news coverage, to ultimately fulfill a democratic role within the EU system. Not least due to enhanced EU integration, European news coverage of EU-related matters has significantly increased. This is important, as good news coverage is essential for citizens to hold their national government accountable. By conducting 26 semi-structured interviews with German and Italian EU-journalists, this research identifies EU-journalists´ exposure to Europeanization and assesses its impact on their views and framing of EU news. The research explores two potential effects from Europeanisation; a first looks at the possible detachment from the national audience while a second focuses on the quality of a journalists information network as a result of Europeanisation. The findings that Europeanization of EU-journalists improves access to exclusive information through an established quality information network thereby strengthening their accountability role. By contrast, Europeanisation can compromise journalists bridging role as they need to prioritizing the national audience´s interest when selecting EU affairs topics.
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