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Chapter by Chapter ResourcesChapter Seven: The media: player and recorder
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There are considerable variations between countries in media use, ownership and regulation, although all combine commercial systems with more or less independent public broadcasting.
Politicians and the media enjoy a relationship characterised by mutual dependence and antagonism. The media environment is now more fragmented and political coverage possibly more personalised Parties have lost their uncontested right to access and their attempts to maintain control of the agenda have resulted, in some countries, in a media backlash.
TV is indisputably the medium politicians care most about since it has the biggest reach, like radio, is generally a more trusted source than the press.
The evidence for media influence on election outcomes is thin (although not non-existent) and it could be that the media (and campaigning more generally) will become more important as voting becomes more volatile. The media's role in setting agendas and enhancing the salience of some concerns over others is probably more important than any direct effect.
As yet new ICTs do not appear to have had much of an impact on conventional politics, although there is some evidence that less traditional actors are making use of its potential. They are in any case at some advantage in as much as their activities are consonant with 'news values'.
Even though European rules have an impact on regulatory regimes, which may have helped to boost cross-ownership between European countries, there remain considerable practical obstacles to a truly pan-European market, let alone a 'public sphere'.
(For general web materials on European Politics see Tim Bale's Internet Guide)
Comprehensive info on and links to Europe's print and broadcast media are provided
by Kidon media link
For European newspapers, check out Newslink
and the IHT's partners
For broadcasters, check out the website provided by Nikos Markovits
Valuable country and regional media profiles are provided by Caslon Analytics' ketupa.net
Freedom House provides a useful survey of press freedom all over the world, including
Europe For more detail, see
Reporters without Borders
and the International Press Institute
For more in-depth research on political communication in the region, go to the Centre for European Political Communication at the
University of Leeds and
Europub.com at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
(WZB)
On audiovisual media in Europe, see the Council of Europe's European Audiovisual Observatory
For more discussion on the internet and politics, try Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute
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 suggested 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 is actually undermining democracy by the way it reports 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 will have a fundamental impact on politics in Europe?
9. How well does the European media cover 'Europe'?
Germany's Grand Coalition, 2005-?
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