Bad Press? Parliamentary representatives, EU affairs and the media

Drawing on Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, it can be argued that democratic legitimacy is not limited to ‘government by and for the people’. In addition, ‘government of the people’ requires that citizens feel a sense of ownership towards the political system and decision-making. Within the European Union (EU), domestic parliamentary representatives are in a privileged position to provide such ownership in EU affairs by serving as transmission belts between the EU and their citizens. Yet their legitimation potential crucially depends on whether they are actually able to reach the broader public. Given that most citizens experience politics through the media, the paper therefore investigates how national newspapers report on domestic parliamentary representatives in EU affairs, focusing on two main types of parliamentary actors, parliamentary party groups (PPG) and individual members of parliament (MPs). In particular, given the growing salience and contestation of EU issues in public opinion in recent years, it investigates how the media feature Eurosceptic PPGs and MPs. Do Eurosceptic parliamentary actors get more publicity – and if yes, what kind – or are the media reluctant to provide them a platform? For the analysis, the paper draws on two unique and extensive quantitative datasets covering parliamentary activities in Austria, Finland, France, Germany Poland, Spain and the UK between 2010 and 2013 as well as data derived from a quantitative content analysis of three newspapers in each member state (two quality papers and one tabloid) over the same time period.