Playing the blame game I: The media’s fault?

3.1 Playing the blame game I: The media’s fault?

This review might lead some to conclude that the media are at fault or perform ‘poorly’. It would, however, be stretching the observations made. The media are not, ceteris paribus, responsible for the public sphere falling short of normative standards, elite dreaming or decreasing support for advanced European integration. Indeed, as Trenz (2004 ) and van de Steeg (2002 ) also emphasize, the media know a number of constraints that limit them in performing this role. This review – very deliberately – takes the media coverage of European issues as the starting point and almost as a given fact. This position comes from the observation of strong market-driven forces and developments in the media and communication landscape (Semetko et al. 2000 ) which imply that any discussion of alternative roles and responsibilities on the side of the media are less likely to materialize in significant change. Hereby the ‘prime responsibility’ becomes a political one with problems to be addressed (or solved) on the side of institutions, parties and politicians.

This position is obviously debatable and the position has more nuances. The media’s role in society can be seen as a pure market driven business, a ‘business with a public interest’ or a special business that requires government intervention, legislation and provisions. In other words, ideas ranging from a notion of the media as acting in ‘self-interest’ to the media acting in the ‘public interest’ (McQuail 1992 ). Hallin and Mancini (2004 ) distinguish three models of media systems in the western world which all foresee a different role for the media. In the first model, the Polarized Pluralist model (found in most Mediterranean countries) there is strong state intervention, the media industry (in particular the press) is heavily subsidized and ‘obligations’ and expectations from the political side for editorial content is possible (but not necessarily desirable). In the second model, the Liberal model (found most pronounced in the U.S. and Britain), the market domination is strong, the level of professionalization is high, and the possibility for political influence (except in cases of the press where the party-paper parallelism remains high) is minimal. The third model, the Democratic Corporatist model (found in north-western Europe, including the Netherlands), is characterized by state intervention in the provisions of public broadcasting and press subsidies, but also by a strong degree of professionalization and editorial autonomy from political influences.

The different legal provisions and conceptions of the role of the media in society have implications for the degree to which media content and journalistic approaches to, for example, the EU can be influenced. In a market driven, corporatist model such as in the Netherlands, expectations about the coverage of economic and political issues (including European integration) can only be set for public broadcasters (and the partially subsidized segments of the press).

Increasing the visibility of EU news, boosting the presence of EU level actors or sparking the number of cross-references across EU countries in such a system can therefore only be achieved indirectly. To increase visibility and debate, EU politics must be politically more relevant. This (again) places the responsibility on the side of ‘politics’ and only in a second place by on the one hand ensuring that editors and journalists are sufficiently aware of and trained to cover European issues and on the other hand by feeding the media with information that fit the formats of different media and outlets. Should efforts to increase visibility of European affairs be successful, there is the legitimate concern that these efforts will only reach those who are already politically interested and predisposed for paying attention. Nonetheless, the efforts are necessary to create a general news and information environment in which the EU has a (more central) place on the agenda. It is common knowledge that the media monitor each other’s agenda and are influenced by elite media which is why it is crucial to be established in the leading outlets. However, beyond the public broadcasters it would be almost naïve to seriously expect that any media outlet would be responsive to a call for additional attention to the EU.