Apathetic Publics and European Integration: Media Use and Citizen Engagement in European Union Politics.

Abstract

The European Union is determined to succeed. European integration continues to move forward and the European Union has grown into a unified political entity representing over 500 million people. Reforms brought about by the Treaty of Lisbon have allowed it to strengthen its influence on its member states and citizens. Furthermore, the 2004 and 2007 enlargement process has brought citizens of western and post-communist Europe together under a common institutional framework. Citizen engagement becomes more crucial under such circumstances. Political engagement is vital for a democratic system to function well, however, European integration has raised significant concerns regarding Europeans’ apathy towards the project. The media are important for democratic systems and serve a number of important functions, as they are the main source from which people can learn about the society they live in, and can inform, mobilize and encourage feelings of community. They are particularly important for the European Union, which brings together people of different nationalities. The media have the ability to bridge the divide between EU institutions and citizens, and assist in the formation of a European political community. For this reason, the dissertation examines the role of the media in fostering engagement in EU politics. It takes a broad perspective and focuses on various indicators of engagement in EU politics. This research utilizes multiple data sources and methods and combines secondary data analysis of Eurobarometer and European Election Studies data with original survey and experimental data from a subset of EU member states. This research concludes that traditional media are able to engage people in EU politics under certain circumstances. However, while social networking sites could lower barriers for engagement in EU politics by bringing citizens from different countries together, it appears that this potential is not being taken advantage of fully. Finally, processes through which engagement develops are quite similar between citizens of established and post-communist member states. Differences in political behavior between the two groups of countries are declining.