The Making of a European Public Sphere

“A democratic European Union, engaging citizens not just technocratic elites, requires a vibrant European public sphere to strengthen integration and legitimacy. Koopmans and Statham lead a first-rate team of international scholars to assess how far such an arena had emerged by the 1990s. Comparing newspaper and online coverage of European affairs in seven nations, supplemented with journalist interviews, the study concludes that the EU is publicly visible today on the policy issues where the EU is most influential, such as the euro. Koopmans and Statham present a highly original and theoretically-rich study providing novel insights into processes of political communications and European Union policymaking.” —Pippa Norris, Harvard University
“This is a book of major importance. It is hard to imagine how any future scholar addressing issues of Europeanization could possibly ignore it.” —William Gamson, Boston College
“European integration and European democracy are increasingly contested. Elites can no longer take public support for granted. The debates are taking in place in the mass media. This book documents in detail who raises which issues with whom and to whom in the European public sphere. It represents a giant leap forward in the study of the European public sphere by a group of top experts in the field. A must-read if you want to understand why the European Union and its policies are becoming ever more contentious.” —Thomas Risse, Freie Universität Berlin
“A collectively written work rarely exhibits consistency in its conceptual framework or applies a common methodology. This rigorous argument for the existence of a ‘Europeanized’ public sphere, therefore, is surely an exception. Even better, as the European Union faces its present deep financial and political crisis, the authors’ central thesis will be severely tested, providing grounds for future debate.” —Philip Schlesinger, Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow