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Chapter by Chapter ResourcesChapter Seven: The media: player and recorder
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Television is far and away the most important medium. Newspaper-reading is more important in Northern than in Southern and Central and Eastern Europe, but is on the decline everywhere, especially among young people.
The media is subject to country-specific regulation and restrictions on ownership, but these are being undermined by EU law and a tendency toward commercial concentration and co-operation.
Television in Europe has changed considerably since the 1980s towards a more commercial and multi-channel environment, but public broadcasting is still important – and, in some countries, still not entirely free from government interference.
Media coverage of politics is more fragmented across a bigger range of outlets, possibly more personalized, and certainly less respectful towards politicians. Whether, though, this has led to increasing cynicism on the part of voters, or a serious loss of agenda-control by parties (especially at elections), is debatable.
The ability of the media to influence both voters and politicians, even indirectly, is easier to assume than to prove, not least because there are so many other influences at work.
The Internet may really change and open up politics, but it has yet to realize that potential – and, because of inequalities of access and its capacity to insulate users, it may not be an unalloyed benefit if it does. At the moment, mobile telephones and consumer databases are having just as big an impact.
Changes in the way politics is covered arguably advantage media-savvy pressure groups and populist politicians at the expense of more conventional actors.
The media may be Europeanizing when it comes to regulation and ownership, but not when it comes to content. Coverage of the EU varies according to country and issue, but is generally very low.
Although there are some differences between countries, the European media as a whole is not very different from, say, its US counterpart in providing only a very limited window on a world that is supposedly more interconnected and interdependent than ever.
(For general web materials on European Politics see Tim Bale's Internet Guide)
www.hdr.undp.org
English language editions of European newspapers
www.thesun.co.uk, www.bild.t-online.de and www.aftonbladet.se
Tabloids
www.ketupa.net and www.pressreference.com
Media facts and history
www.eumap.org/topics/media/television_europe
Comparative info. on TV in Europe
drseansdiary.blogspot.com
Quirky academic take on Czech politics
iaindale.blogspot.com and www.order-order.com
UK political blogs
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell
BBC Europe correspondent’s blog
www.depts.washington.edu/bennett/internet.html
Political Communication Resources
1. There are some very obvious regional variations in media use in Europe: how would you sum them up?
2. How do governments in Europe attempt to regulate the media, and how has European integration impacted on those attempts?
3. What is public service broadcasting? Despite its problems, do you think it still has a future in Europe?
4. What do people mean when they suggest that political coverage now conforms to media rather than party logic – and what are the implications for politicians?
5.Do you have any sympathy with the view that the media are actually undermining democracy by the way they report it?
6. Are European politicians right to pay so much attention to, and get so worked up about, bias in and the influence of the media?
7. Why might trends in media coverage benefit pressure groups and populists rather than more mainstream, conventional political actors?
8. Do you think new information and communications technology (ICT) will have a fundamental impact on politics in Europe?
9. How well do the European media cover ‘Europe’ and foreign news?
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