The Legitimising Potential of the European Parliament in the Media – A Comparative Newspaper Analysis

The European Parliament (EP) has always been seen as having the greatest potential of all EU institutions to alleviate the so called democratic deficit of the Union since it is the only one that is directly elected. Accordingly, it has been empowered in the course of integration. However, this seems not to have had the anticipated effect: The European financial crisis has made inequalities painfully evident in the European Union (EU) and has made citizens question the project more than ever. It has led to a rise of anti-EU forces at both ends of the political spectrum which have topped the polls of the 2014 elections – the same is true for many national elections, too. So how come the EP could not help to make citizens embrace EU politics more? The paper tries to find an explanation for this by looking into newspaper contents about the EP. After all, journalists bring politics home, select news to be published and suggest evaluations of their own. Consequently, the research question asks about the scope and tone of coverage and its influence on public opinion in Finland, Germany and the UK in 6-week periods in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014. The analysis is based on an extensive content analysis of articles and the evaluation of legitimation statements (Hurrelmann). Media effects are estimated using a multilevel regression model connecting the dataset with external sources such as the Eurobarometer and the European Election Survey. In focusing on the discursive dimension of the EP’s legitimacy, the paper also tackles a research gap in academic research and contributes to the broader discussion about the EU’s legitimacy.