British press attitudes towards the EU's global presence: from the Russian-Georgian War to the 2009 Copenhagen Summit

Cristian Nitoiu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

This article surveys the way in which British print media have presented the European Union (EU)'s global presence in the international arena by analysing two case studies which reflect two very distinctive areas of EU foreign policy: global climate change policy and the policy towards Russia. It employs frame analysis, allowing for the identification of the way in which the discourse of the press was categorized around a series of central opinions and ideas. Frames underscore the connections made by journalists between different events, policies or phenomena and their possible interpretations. The analysis highlights that acting through the common framework of the EU rather than unilaterally was a strategy preferred by the British press. These findings are in stark contrast with the deep Euroscepticism which characterizes press attitudes towards most policy areas, and is often considered to be rooted in the British political culture, media system, public opinion or the longstanding tradition of viewing the European continent as the other.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)615-635
Number of pages21
JournalComparative European Politics
Volume13
Issue number6
Early online date7 Jul 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2015

Bibliographical note

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/cep.2014.15

Keywords

  • climate change
  • European Union
  • Euroscepticism
  • foreign policy
  • media Russia
  • newspapers

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