Mapping the European Public Sphere combines theoretical and empirical perspectives to address three relevant issues that are marking the European communicative landscape: the role of media and journalism in shaping the European debate, the function of public communication in promoting institutional activities, and the implications of processes of inclusion to and exclusion from the public sphere. The volume offers a timely reflection on the communicative arenas that are structuring the discourse on Europe and its future and provides a map of existing communicative spaces to provide a better understanding of the development of a European Public Sphere and to identify critical issues. Situated in a timely debate and providing well-grounded empirical evidence, the book will be particularly valuable to social scientists researching European integration issues. At the same time, the book is relevant to those actors who are studied in the research, in particular European institutions, media groups and NGOs.

This book investigates an important source of the European Union's recent legitimacy problems. It shows how European integration is debated in mass media, and how this affects democratic inclusiveness. Advancing integration implies a shift in power between governments, parliaments, and civil society. Behind debates over Europe's 'democratic deficit' is a deeper concern: whether democratic politics can perform effectively under conditions of Europeanization and globalization. This study is based on a wealth of unique data from seven European countries, combining newspaper content analyses, an innovative study of Internet communication structures, and hundreds of interviews with leading political and media representatives across Europe. It is by far the most far-reaching and empirically grounded study on the Europeanization of media discourse and political contention to date, and a must-read for anyone interested in how European integration changes democratic politics and why European integration has become increasingly contested.

This book examines the emergence of (and limitations to) a common European public sphere and the advantages and problems surrounding this development.

This collection is up-to-date and vital at the present moment which demands a special sense of responsibility regarding the tasks ahead for Europe, especially in the fields of media and communication. The volume adopts a wide range of approaches to the European public sphere, and provides much-needed insight into both Western and Eastern perceptions of events and processes in Europe. The contributions here analyse recent trends in media and communication (such as misinformation, fragmentation, and the core-periphery division) and search for possible ways to approach them. In doing so, they discuss a number of important current issues, such as populism, migration, and foreign involvement in European affairs. The volume also sheds light on the question of how the changes in communication environments affect the public spheres in Europe. Focusing on media in Europe, the contributors bring knowledge from different scientific fields (including geopolitics, sociology, political science, and philosophy) and represent different geographic regions, whilst at the same time presenting a European perspective on the issues they investigate.

The European Union is often attacked for its 'democratic deficit', namely its deficiencies in representation, transparency, accountability and lack of popular support. This book assesses the possible formation of a communicative space that might enable and engender the creation of a transnational or a supranational public.

The book edited by four known specialists of European history presents for the first time a discussion among European historians on the European public sphere since the 1950s. It treats the general perspective and deals also in special articles with the role played by the European Union, by the Council of Europe, and by national media such as television and film. The volume shows that the role of the European public sphere is often underestimated and that it is gradually becoming more influential and forceful not only in politics, but also in culture. Sous la direction de quatre spécialistes renommés de l'histoire européenne, cet ouvrage présente de façon inédite un débat entre historiens de l'Europe sur l'espace public européen et son évolution depuis les années 1950. La question est abordée dans son ensemble, mais certaines contributions traitent aussi plus spécifiquement du rôle joué par l'Union européenne, par le Conseil de l'Europe, et par les médias nationaux, comme la télévision et le cinéma. Ce volume montre que l'on a souvent sous-estimé l'espace public européen, alors que son influence est de plus en plus importante, tant au niveau politique que culturel.