A Game of Tones – Analysing Media Contents and Their Effects on the European Parliament’s Legitimacy in Public Opinion

The ongoing discussion about the EU’s legitimacy deficit has concentrated to a large degree on the European Parliament as the EU institution with the greatest input legitimacy and thus strong legitimizing potential. However, academia has mostly ignored public communication about the EP and thereby neglected an essential indicator of trends in legitimation processes. To address this research gap, this paper first introduces a conceptual framework for the comparative analysis of newspaper coverage of the EP by building on Hurrelmann’s method of legitimation statements’ analysis. Second, it identifies legitimacy frames in quality and tabloid newspapers in Finland, Germany and the UK and compares them to public opinion surveys. As a result, thus, the effect of public communication on the EP’ legitimacy is measured, giving credit to the pivotal role that the media play in the EU’s representative democracies.