EU Politics Representations in the media

EU POLITICS REPRESENTATIONS IN THE MEDIA – THE CASE OF THE PORTUGUESE COVERAGE OF 2009 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

Ana Catarina Marques da Silva ana.silva.10@ucl.ac.uk Summary: This paper focuses on the co-relation between the Portuguese media, public opinion and electoral results. Such co-relation is studied through the analysis of three of the main Portuguese daily newspapers (Diário de Notícias, Público and Correio da Manhã), and ‘assessment’ of their coverage of 2009 European elections, following the approach of similar researches previously carried in this field, and will eventually lead to similar conclusions, despite the fact that the ‘key event’ and country under analysis differ from those of previous studies. The methodology includes content and discourse analysis, in view of understanding whether or not there is a common pattern followed by the different newspapers in the coverage of European issues.

Key words: media coverage, European communication deficit, public sphere.

elections,

public

opinion,

CONTENT Introduction .............................................................................................................. 2 1.

Media Coverage of the 2009 European Elections in Portugal ........... 3

2.

The tone of the news ...................................................................................... 5

4.

A ‘De-mobilizing’ campaign........................................................................ 7

5.

The second order elections model ............................................................. 9

6.

Europeanisation of the news ..................................................................... 12

7.

‘Dramatization’ & personalisation in the news .................................... 13

Conclusion............................................................................................................... 15 References ............................................................................................................... 16

INTRODUCTION

“The central question [for political communication research] concerns how the media aid citizens in becoming informed voters.”

(Holbert, 2005 in Shehata and Strömbäck, 2009) Eurobarometer polls continuously show that the European citizens identify the media as their main source of information about European issues, and a substantial percentage refers to daily newspapers as the first instance where they look for information (Sinnott, 1997; Maier & Ritterberger, 2008). Despite television being considered “the most pervasive and accessible mass medium” (Kaitatzi-Whitlock, 2007: 688), and continuously referred as the most important source of information (Eurobarometer, 2006: 65), the pertinence of analysing newspapers lies in their expectable potential to “offer the most detailed overview of issues”, since they are not subject to the same constraints imposed on television reporting, and are supposedly able to provide more background information and analysis (Bijsmans & Altides, 2007: 328).

The chosen timeline, which is longer than those usually defined for similar analyses, is linked to the initial intention of understanding the pattern of evolution of the coverage in the months preceding and following the actual European election, since most studies focus on a two or three-week period immediately prior to the election, and it has been demonstrated that there is an increase in the amount of coverage of the EP in that period, followed by a decline immediately after (Martins, 2008, 2010b; Vreese et al, 2005).

In the database research carried out in order to identify the news related to the EP elections over the six-month period corresponding to our timeframe, the search with the key-words “European elections” returned a total of 1407 results (for the three newspapers), out of which only a very small percentage actually corresponds to articles with an actual focus on the European Union.

The importance of the media for a communication policy of the EU is recognized in several official documents, namely the Plan D and the “White Paper on a European Communication Policy” launched by the European Commission in 2006 as part of an effort to better communicate the EU to the citizens avoiding the increasing distancing and lack of interest in the Union (European Commission, 2006). In a resolution by the European Parliament about “Media Literacy in a Digital World” (European Parliament, 2008) we can read that “the media make themselves felt in politics and the day-to-day life of society” and “media literacy is therefore central to political culture and active participation by Union citizens”, reinforcing the importance of understanding how the media cover European events such as the EP elections.

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Previous studies have shown that all relevant actors in the process of political European communication recognise the need for improved information. In Michailidou’s research, the importance of quality coverage of EU in national media ranked first among a set of twenty-two aspects presented to EU officials as potential factors for improving EU’s legitimacy (Michailidou, 2008:9).

The data of Eurobarometer 70 – referring to the European Elections of 2009 – clearly reflect the gap between media mentions to the EP and the actual information they provide to citizens, as 44% of respondents affirmed to have recently (at the time, 2008) read, heard or seen something about the EP whereas only some 23% considered themselves to be ‘well-informed’ about the activities of the European Parliament, against 73% who said to be badly informed on the subject (European Parliament, 2009: 6).

In his analysis linking the level of knowledge with the public perceptions of the European Union, Richard Sinnott concludes that the main effect of low levels of knowledge on attitudes towards European politics is normally to increase indecision and ambivalence rather than opposition (Sinnott, 1997: 9). Applying this to the context of the European elections, we can thus make the argument that since the media do not provide electors with adequate knowledge about the EU, this may lead to indecision that can ultimately be reflected in a decision not to go vote (thus contributing to an increased level of abstention).

1. MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE 2009 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS IN PORTUGAL The reminiscences of the Portuguese dictatorship (overthrown less than forty years ago, in 1974) are still present in many areas of the Portuguese society, such as the media, where the still incipient pluralistic and politically engaged press was interrupted by the regime consolidated in the 30’s (Pinto and Sousa, 2004: 180; Hallin and Mancini, 2004: 103). The press, being the only forum for some sort of political discussion, was then mainly used by the elites, and did not reach the majority of the population (Serrano, 2006: 125).

According to the existing literature on the evolution of the media in Portugal, one may be tempted to assume that the problems and deficits present in today’s national press may well be connected to the same weaknesses affecting it as far back as 1974, when a member of Diário de Notícias mentioned the press dismissal of the ‘critical function’ that it should perform (Serrano, 2006: 160). In 1975, Jean Paul Sartre declared that “the Portuguese press, in general, does not seem very good. It does not explain anything. […]There is never an attempt to explain, unlike the French press, which is also a bad press but tries to provide an interpretation” (Sartre in Serrano, 2006: 162). This seems to be the case until today.

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As far as EP elections are concerned, one can generally affirm that in the Portuguese case the parties’ campaign strategies are likely to accentuate its overall second-order dimension (Jalali, 2006: 155). When describing the Portuguese political scenario, some authors refer to the parties as “hybrid organisations”, with generally weak organizational bases in terms of the mass party model (Jalali, 2006: 157). The inter-party competition between the two major parties – PS and PSD – is frequently referred as the dominating feature within the Portuguese party system (Jalali, 2006: 158), something that is easily perceptible by the dismally unequal visibility given to these two parties by the media, in comparison to the others, as we will be able to verify in the following paragraphs.

Contrary to some of the initial expectations, the most significant differences registered between the two quality newspapers (Diário de Notícias and Público) and the popular one (Correio da Manhã) are not related to content but mainly to structural differences. These include, for instance, the absence of a European correspondent in Correio da Manhã, or of some journalists who can be identified as being in charge of EU-related news. Also, we verified that the news stories are generally shorter than the articles in the quality newspapers, and are not usually placed under specific sections (such as ‘Portugal’ or ‘International’ sections, as in the case of Diário de Notícias, or ‘Politics’ and ‘World’ in Público). This is probably also due to the fact that in Correio da Manhã we find several faits divers – indicating perhaps a slightly more ‘entertaining’ character of its news – included in one single news article, which therefore would not fit into any single section or category.

The fact that no newspaper makes a single allusion to Europe’s day on 9 May seems to correspond to the notion that the electoral campaign in Portugal and its respective media coverage are emptied of the “ritual action” referred by Horta (2008: 10) as a feature of a celebratory dimension that might be emphasised in key moments. In fact, it seems logical that the official day of the European Union could provide a chance for the newspapers to shift attention from the national inter-party dispute towards a European dimension, conferring a more informative and attractive tone to the news, that could convey the notions of a common sense of European belonging, giving more sense to the electoral act that would take place the following month. That opportunity was evidently missed (or dismissed) by the Portuguese newspapers. Likewise, we find virtually no allusions (during the months preceding and following the election) to the thirty years of European elections celebrated in 2009 before the actual election day. That symbolic dimension of the European community is only emphasised after the elections, for instance in Público’s headline reading “Biggest abstention in thirty years of European elections” (Público, 2009).

The fact that the newspapers largely disregard these symbolic moments seems to indicate a low importance assigned to the EU by the editorial teams (Horta, 4

2008:6). Concurring with the same idea is the observation that where some information directly concerning the EP is actually provided, it is very often left for the last paragraph of the articles, therefore evidencing the secondary relevance attributed to the European dimension. This situation was mainly observed in the quality dailies, whose news are most of the time very similar because they derive from the same source, the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

2. THE TONE OF THE NEWS According to the established idea that the Portuguese media are independent and not affiliated to specific political parties or ideologies, no significant differences were found as to the more negative or positive content of the news, or to the greater presence of some actors to the detriment of others in the different newspapers. We can generally affirm that the news stories related to the EP elections are presented in a rather neutral tone in the journalistic pieces of all three newspapers, contrasting with a more ‘opinionated’ trend of sections like opinion columns, comments or editorials (largely written by politicians). In these sections, the tone is overall pessimistic, critical of the campaign strategies and citizens’ perceived apathy, and frequently predictive of a high abstention rate in the country.

It is plausible, in that sense, to refer to a somewhat ‘alarmist’ tone of the news when the topic of abstention is brought into the discussion. Despite alerting to the imminent risk of record abstention levels, the media do not give adequate coverage to innovative initiatives of some parties aimed at an increased and more active involvement of the citizens. We refer, in this particular case, to the online debates promoted by left-wing party Bloco de Esquerda, whose initiative has only received a brief and marginal coverage by the newspapers.

Considering the analysis to perceive the existence of pro or anti-European stances in mediated discourses, it is particularly easy to identify patterns of positioning and diverging discourses. The two biggest parties (PS and PSD) seem to be generally Europhiles, whenever the candidates actually refer to the EU, albeit in a rather vague, and sometimes even naïve, way (i.e. mentioning the shared European ideal, the crucial importance of belonging to the EU, etc.).

These results seem to support the arguments advanced by some authors that ‘centre parties’ tend to converge on European matters, as “opinions on Europe tend to cut across traditional party cleavages” (Menon and Peet 2010: 3; Horta, 2005: 1436).

Among the five dominant political parties in the Portuguese scene, those placed more to the left appear to be the ones that keep a more concomitant critical stance towards the EU, or such is the way in which the media represented their positions. Not far from the vagueness inherent in the centrist pro-European rhetoric, the criticisms made by the Portuguese Communist Party, for instance, 5

appear to favour a blurred perspective of the national and European sphere, as indicated by the following excerpt from an article published in Diário de Notícias (8 March): “the elections are going to be a tough combat, political and ideological, an important journey against the Europe of Durão Barroso and Sócrates”.

Considering the logic of knowledge production, such type of discourse produced by the parties and repeated ipsis verbis in the news does not seem to hold a great potential for helping people get clearer ideas concerning the EU and its functions. Instead, such discourse is potentially confusing for citizens who do not have a prior knowledge of the mentioned individuals, as it mixes up national and European actors, from different spheres of the political spectrum, in a simplistic way typical of the politicians discourse (but which should not, ideally, be conveyed by the media).

A considerable lack of coherence between discourse and practice of all parties means that they defend the need for a balanced, responsible and useful debate, but do not act accordingly, as many of them constantly initiate and encourage polemics, embarking on personal exchanges of accusations. Another limitation to a coherent communication pattern is the fact that several small parties, with very low visibility, do not seize the few chances of media exposure to produce a constructive discourse, instead making radical (and often unexplained) statements, which may seem newsworthy but hardly convincing to capture the attention of readers to the theme of the elections. The best example of this ‘strategy’ is the declaration made by a representative of POUS (one of the eight small parties competing for the European election) that Portugal should leave the EU and that “it is needed to abolish these institutions and these treaties” (Diário de Notícias, 2009). It seems, at least, paradoxical that a party is disputing the elections for an institution that it believes should be destroyed.

3. FRAMING THEORY Framing theory is often used by researchers in their analyses of media coverage (Maier & Ritterberger, 2008; Martins, 2008, 2010b; Scheufele, 1999) and refers, in broad, to a ‘model’ which determines the ‘selection and salience’ of topics are reported by the media. Such framing can be identified in textual analysis through the key-words, idiomatic expressions, stereotypes or cultural symbols that are used by the journalists to accentuate and reinforce some aspects at the expense of others (Martins, 2008: 516), and the way in which the media characterize a particular phenomenon, an event or an actor is considered to influence the audience’s understanding of the subject (Maier & Ritterberger, 2008: 248; Alarcón, 2010: 2). This idea supports the belief inherent in our analysis that media coverage of an event such as the EP elections and the actors involved in it (namely the candidates and current MEPs) will ultimately have an effect on citizens’ perceptions about the issue and may, eventually, impact on their voting 6

choices (Vreese et al, 2006). It is also in this sense that we can argue for the reality of a ‘demobilizing campaign’ (and its coverage) in some cases, and such may be the case of Portugal.

The way in which the most visible candidates are represented in the Portuguese news seems to match the model of a ‘horse-race framing’ (Serrano, 2006: 348), according to which candidates are presented as strategic manipulators. There is very little coverage of their political agenda, and when some candidates’ proposals are reported, they are given a very superficial treatment and are not properly explained, and may even lead to increased confusion of readers. One good example is the coverage given to Paulo Rangel’s proposal of creating a European employment network similar to the Erasmus programme, reported in the beginning of May. Although it might apparently have a European scope, the focus of the news soon shifted to personal arguments, as the holder of an important national post publicly criticized the candidate for suggesting the creation of projects that already exist (in that sense denoting a lack of knowledge of the European schemes by the candidate). The polemic and conflict dimension associated with that proposal meant that it was used as material for news until nearly the end of the month – this fact also refers to the frequent repetition of the same news (in different days and different ‘sections’ of the same newspaper, which was verified.

The ‘place’ where the news appear within a newspaper is frequently associated with the relevance given to the theme of those news (Serrano, 2006; Martins 2010). In this sense, scholars commonly resort to quantitative techniques, such as counting the number of articles appearing on the newspaper’s front page to assess the importance attached to it, but such a measurement is not easily applicable in the case of newspaper websites. However, we were able to register that the majority of the analysed news in Diário de Notícias appeared either in the section ‘Portugal’ or in the ‘International’ one, and in Público European news are essentially located in the sections ‘Politics’ and ‘World’. This corroborates the idea that European news are normally dispersed throughout various sections in the newspapers (Martins, 2008: 518).

The dispersion of news among different sections is relevant insofar as it is considered a good indicator of how Europe is codified and represented as a national or a foreign cause and therefore interferes with the way in which people identify with the EU themes or events that are reported (Martins, 2008: 518).

Another inference taken from that disposition is that it is still not clear where to ‘place’ European issues, which is probably one of the reasons for the creation of special ‘dossiers’ in moments such as the European elections (as far as we could assess, this was only done by Diário de Notícias, although it is likely that Público also had something similar in its printed edition).

4. A ‘DE-MOBILIZING’ CAMPAIGN 7

Although some findings point to an increase in participation as a result of newspaper reading (Shehata and Strömbäck, 2009), it is also plausible to make the argument that several aspects of the media coverage may in fact lead to a ‘de-mobilization’ of citizens, together with the excessive focus on national issues that relates to the model of second-order elections. Among these we can emphasise the increasing fragmentation (Serrano, 2006) and ‘superficialisation’ of media contents, which according to Pierre Bourdieu hinders the diffusion of knowledge about society, therefore distancing the citizen from civic and political intervention (Bourdieu in Fonseca, 2001: 40).

Other authors relate the emphasis of media coverage on parties’ campaign strategies to a “voter cynicism about politics and even a tendency to be less likely to vote in an election” (Weaver, 1996: 45). In effect, we realise through the analysis of Portuguese newspapers that the coverage is mostly concerned with the candidates and parties’ campaign strategies, rather than with their ideological positions or political agenda. Although each party claims to contribute to the electoral debate with quality while condemning their opponents for making a campaign based on personal attack and negativism, these features are valid to characterize the type of campaign of all the visible parties, at least according to the information conveyed by the media.

The period of electoral campaign represents a moment with the “potential to inform and mobilise voters” to take part in the democratic process (Vreese et al, 2005: 185; Bilska, 2011: 15) with the media playing a crucial role in that context.

We may thus question, considering the ever decreasing turnouts at the European elections, if the European media – and the Portuguese press in particular – have been performing their function properly and matching the expectations of the readers.

The correlation between the political campaigns and electoral turnout is not very clear, with different studies reaching contradictory conclusions – while some suggest that negative campaigns have a negative effect on turnout, others advance that negative campaigns can produce a mobilizing effect to some extent (Hobolt, 2008: 99). In the case of the Portuguese campaign coverage for the 2009 EP elections – and despite previous studies indicating a negative portrayal of the EU (Hobolt, 2008: 05) – it has proved somewhat difficult to determine what was the tone of the campaign, since the most visible actors produce a proEuropean discourse in theory, but at the same time they relegate the true debate about European issues to a marginal, secondary dimension.

Notwithstanding the reality aforementioned, Diário de Notícias published an article on 25 April, reporting that political groups guaranteed “debate and information” for the electoral campaigns, as they identified the lack of these aspects as weaknesses associated to the distant relationship between the EU and 8

the citizens. However, despite seeming aware of that problem, neither parties nor the newspapers have actually provided the electors with information that might attract them to the polls, like showing how the European Parliament’s decisions affect their daily lives.

According to the results of Eurobarometer 71 (2009), the Portuguese were mainly interested in having economic matters discussed during the campaign.

Unemployment was pointed out as the major theme, followed by economic growth and purchasing power and inflation. As we shall see, these topics were frequently mentioned during the campaign for the EP elections, but there are little or no signs of a structured debate around them, nor is there much evidence of actual proposals by the different parties to tackle unemployment and promote economic growth. The absence of concrete proposals is noted in several comment and opinion columns in the newspapers.

Opinion polls are the topic of various news featuring in the newspapers, again demonstrating media awareness of the risk of high abstention, and the incidence of such news tends to increase as the election day approaches. Opinion polls are a traditional element in the period of elections, as they constitute an inexhaustible source of material for journalists, by creating ‘political facts’ and leading to official declarations by parties, reactions and interpretations made by politicians and analysts (Serrano, 2006: 348).

5. THE SECOND ORDER ELECTIONS MODEL It is generally acknowledged in the scholarly literature that national topics traditionally dominate the campaigns in most member states (Vreese et al, 2006; Martins, 2010a). In fact, that seems to have been the case since the very first elections back in 1979, according to the statement of Bino Olivi, who wrote that the “electoral campaign in the Spring of 1979 was, in each country of the Community, dominated by themes and debates related to the internal dialectics, and its political results were evaluated according to criteria and motivations of each national polity” (Olivi, 1998: 257).

The conceptual model of second order elections was proposed by Karlheinz Reif and Herman Schmitt and assumes that European elections – and other elections that are not national – are given less prominence than the national ones (Jalali, 2006: 156). This idea is closely linked with the specific features of the electoral acts in terms of the public interest, perceptions and mobilization, as well as with the campaign strategies adopted by parties (Martins, 2010: 57).

The findings of the case study about Portuguese press coverage appear to confirm the hypotheses postulated by this model, and correspond to what would be expected in line with previous studies (Vreese et al, 2005; Jalali, 2006).

The majority of the news’ stories where the ‘European elections’ are mentioned 9

turns out to be, in reality, mainly about national issues, and in the Portuguese case the national issues reported about correspond essentially to party politics strategies and political quarrels at the national level. The unequivocal emphasis placed upon national issues is certainly the one conclusion extracted from the newspapers’ content analysis that appears undisputable.

Indeed, the national dimension is always present in the candidates’ discourses and actions, whether implicitly or explicitly – and is consequently replicated in the media. A good example of this national bias, the discussion about the continuation of Durão Barroso as president of the European Commission is defined in terms of its importance to the ‘national interest’ (even though it refers to the functioning of the European institution where commissioners are not supposed to be representing their country, and should therefore be treated as a truly European issue). Several other episodes reported in the news demonstrate the second-order dimension of the European elections, which seem to be frequently manipulated by the various parties in the opposition trying to present them as “the first round” of the national election which would take place in September of that year, with opposition parties calling for a “vote of protest” or punishment of the government. These discourses are reproduced in the different newspapers from a very early stage of the pre-campaign period (March and April), therefore exposing the readers to these ideas for a long term.

This type of discourse reveals the trend described by Jalali (2006) of the Portuguese voting in EP elections as an assessment of the performance by incumbent governments. That trend becomes obvious when we look at the two last European elections (in 2004 and 2009). In 2004 the Socialist Party (then the main opposition party) obtained its highest result while the right-wing coalition parties faced the lowest voting percentage since democratisation (Jalali, 2006: 165), and the results in 2009 seem to have followed exactly the same pattern.

We must not ignore, in this context, the increase of voting percentages for the left parties, namely Bloco de Esquerda, which seems to go in line with the hypothesis presented by Hobolt (2008) of electors’ defection from voting on governing parties.

Following a similar path of argumentation, some theorists (Marsh and Norris, 1997; Reif, 1997) tend to assume that small extremist parties have good chances of faring well in EP elections, either because mainstream parties provide no alternatives concerning European integration, or as a result of an extensive media coverage received by small parties in European elections (Ferrara and Weishaupt, 2001: 288). The last factor does not seem to match the findings of this analysis of Portuguese newspapers. Notwithstanding the fact that this study focus only on a particular medium support, what is verified in terms of the online editions is a huge disparity between the amount of visibility given to the five biggest parties running for the elections (one being a coalition of the 10

Portuguese communist party with the smaller green party), and the coverage given to the remaining eight parties that figured in the voting ballots.

It is perhaps possible to identify a slight difference among the three newspapers, with small parties being more visible (present in a bigger number of articles) in the news of Público, but nevertheless this greater exposure still amounts to an overall very reduced visibility of those small parties. There is little evidence, for instance, of interviews with any of the candidates from these parties similar to those conducted with the candidates of the biggest parties. The question remains, at this point, whether the reduced coverage is due to the lack of consistent proposals advanced by the small parties, or simply to their absence from heated disputes and controversies that involved the government party and the other parties who sit at the national parliament.

The same authors suggest that people who are not satisfied with how the EU is ‘governed’ or fear the direction taken by the integration process “have no choice but to abstain or to express their dissatisfaction by voting for extreme parties” (Ferrara & Weishaupt, 2001: 288). Although we cannot assume that the voting results reflected a real dissatisfaction with the functioning of the EU or the EP, we may ascertain that, if such is true, the dissatisfaction of Portuguese voters was clearly expressed through abstention – and we should take into account the blank and spoiled ballots, that amounted to 6.63% of the overall 37% casted votes (DGAI, 2009).

Another hypothesis advanced by Ferrara and Weishaupt (2001: 290) establishes a link between internal dissents inside a party and its decline in the European elections. They make their argument according to the potential effects that parties’ ‘euro-divisions’ may have on the electors choice, a reasoning which presupposes that electors are rational actors and are informed (Weaver, 1996: 39) about the stance adopted by parties with regards to European subjects and policy areas, rather than people who are only vaguely aware of the ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ European attitudes of the different parties.

This hypothesis does not seem to apply to this case study, firstly since there is no evidence of significant internal divisions in any party around European issues, and secondly because taking into account the information conveyed by the newspapers, it is hard to assume that the average elector is effectively informed about specific policy goals of the parties at the European level, let alone eventual divergences over these issues.

Nevertheless, we may adapt the abovementioned argument to a situation that marked the electoral campaign of the Socialist Party (PS) and was largely reported in the news, probably due to its news-value characteristics (like conflict dimension). The episode refers to the official support of the party to Durão Barroso as candidate for a second term presiding to the European Commission, 11

despite the fact that he was the candidate of the European People’s Party. While the Secretary-General of PS openly declared that the party would support the fellow Portuguese in the name of ‘national interest’, the first candidate of the party’s list maintained a more reserved position, arguing that if the European socialists were the winners they should have their own candidate to the Presidency of the Commission, in the name of coherence and in accordance with what is included in the Treaty of Lisbon.

These divergent positions within the party created some discomfort, and generated widespread criticism by the opposition, which was echoed in the media, so in this sense one may consider the argument that the internal dissent was one more aspect contributing to disconnect the electorate from the Socialist Party, ultimately leading to the poor results it faced.

6. EUROPEANISATION OF THE NEWS Vertical Europeanisation is “the process of paying closer attention to Brussels”, according to the definition of Brüggemann and Königslöw (2007:3), who use the visibility of EU institutions and the focus of articles on EU politics as indicators to assess the degree of vertical Europeanisation in a media outlet (Brüggemann and Königslöw, 2007: 9; Wessler et al, 2008). While it is possible to identify several mentions to the European institutions in the Portuguese newspapers (especially the EP and the Commission), these are mostly marginal references and do not constitute the scope of the articles where they appear, and therefore do not account for a real vertical Europeanisation of the news produced. Similarly, there are some signs of a horizontal Europeanisation (although very incipient) especially during the election days and immediately after, with newspapers reporting about the process of European elections in other EU countries, election results and levels of abstention. Correio da Manhã, for instance, reported on 8 June 2009 about the “EP elections: Socialists falling throughout the EU” (Correio da Manhã, 2009), in an article with a clear European dimension.

There are occasionally a few news about episodes in other EU countries, characterized for being very succinct and for addressing mainly controversial affairs (such as scandals in Italy with the electoral list of Berlusconi’s party), or trivial data, like the case of a Polish candidate paying electors for their votes.

These mentions to other European countries do not seem to correspond to a true Europeanisation of the national sphere that may contribute to the formation of a ‘Europeanised’ public sphere, as suggested by several authors (Vreese et al, 2006; Lecheler, 2006).

Finally, the argument that newspapers’ correspondents in Brussels play an important role as agents of Europeanisation of national public spheres (Gerhards, 1993 in Lecheler, 2006: 18, 21) seems to be upheld by the evidence 12

found on both quality newspapers, where the most complete articles, which include an analytical perspective a have a clear European focus are those written by the Brussels correspondents. We must, in this context, take into account that the number of such articles in the printed editions is probably higher, while in the case of the online editions these journalistic pieces correspond to a negligible amount out of the totality of articles analysed for the six-month period that constituted our time frame.

7. ‘DRAMATIZATION’ & PERSONALISATION IN THE NEWS Some scholars (Kriesi et al, 2007; Rodrigues, 2010; Martins, 2010b) point out the ‘dramatization’ of news discourse as a feature of media news production, and the three Portuguese newspapers analysed seem to match that pattern. The authors affirm that the “mass media follow certain news values such as negativity, conflict, drama and personalisation” contributing to the ‘spectacularization’ of political communication (Kriesi et al, 2007: 9), characteristics which are all present in the media outlets studied. In all three newspapers, we were able to verify a very significant presence of negative and combative verbs, both on the actual news text and the headlines – where the predominance of such verbs immediately indicates that the content of the article is not likely to be informative. The verbs most widely noticed in the headings of the news analysed were ‘attack’, ‘defy’, ‘accuse’, ‘respond’, ‘admit’, ‘deny’, ‘demand’, ‘insist’, ‘warn’, ‘alert’ and ‘criticize’, mainly referring to actions or attitudes taken by candidates towards their opponents.

The disputes involving the use of aggressive verbs are very frequently embodied in the wider left-right debate that seems to dominate the majority of the news, which in turn are mainly superficial and limited to a reproduction of the discourses made by candidates (and other politicians) in the course of the electoral campaign. At this point, two questions may be raised: while on the one hand it is the parties’ responsibility to produce useful debates that may help the citizens be informed, it is, on the other hand, the ‘duty’ of the media to balance the amount of coverage given to inter-party disputes that do not provide any input to citizens’ knowledge about the EP elections and its related topics. What is more, since the logic appears to be that the parties and candidates involved in more political or personal controversies are those who benefit from a greater exposure in the media, the smaller parties are almost completely neglected.

Dramatization in the press is characterized by Sousa (2001: 79) in terms of a focus on the importance of the present time, the simplification that results from the need to produce a clear and easily accessible discourse, the need to make the discourse appealing and the construction of narratives where the action is centred around a nucleus composed by a few personalities.

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The dramatization seems to be linked to the tendency for a ‘personalisation’ of the news, in which the candidates – and some candidates in particular, namely the first in each electoral list – are given more space and coverage than the rest of their own party and their opponents. Kriesi et al (2007:10) affirm that “by highlighting the role of personalities, the media enhance the focus on party leaders and chief executives” and empower individual political figures leading to a weakening of the organizational structures of political parties. This argument is somehow concurrent with the fact that many titles referring to the five biggest parties (PS, PSD, PCP, CDS-PP and BE) do not even mention the name of the party but only the names of party leaders or members – whereas when referring to smaller parties this does not happen, because their leaders are not likely to be associated to the party by the readers.

This tendency of personalisation appears to be particularly strong in the Portuguese newspapers, and can be clearly identified in the headlines – where there is almost always a reference to some political personality or a quote by a politician – as well as in the body of the news, which in many cases is mainly composed of an assemblage of selected quotes from candidates’ discourses and exchange of accusations. The constant reporting of conflicts and controversies involving certain candidates – falling into the realm of ‘dramatization’ – also emphasises this personalisation.

A particular episode of personalisation which dominated the newspapers in the beginning of May was the assault suffered by the first candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), Vital Moreira, during the workers’ day parade. The attack was attributed to a militant of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), inevitably leading to a quarrel with PS demanding a formal apology by the party, and third parties intervening to condemn the aggression and support or criticize the positions of PS and PCP. Another issue constantly present in the news in the months preceding the electoral campaign (March and April) was the ‘suspense’ made around the first candidate of PSD, since the party decided to make the announcement in midApril, after all other candidates had already been officially presented. This was the topic of several news, featuring politicians who commented on the party strategy, some praising it and others criticizing it as a loss of opportunity to intervene publicly while other parties were already doing it. Bearing in mind the global picture of newspaper coverage in the months preceding the election, it appears that the strategy of late announcement by PSD has proved fairly successful. Indeed, the expectation created around it for a couple of weeks may well have resulted in an increased interest by the media at the time when the first candidate was presented, according to the notion that ‘novelty’ is a crucial factor in news’ production logic (Martins, 2010b: 63).

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After the presentation of Paulo Rangel as the ‘head’ of the electoral list (in midApril) he became one of the most visible candidates, with his name constantly making the headlines in the different newspapers (this is of course also due to the fact that he was the first candidate of the opposition party).

These are only two examples among a huge array of news concentrated on one or few individuals, and such news occupy a very significant proportion of the newspapers reporting in all the outlets studied, indicating that personalisation and spectacularization constitute a very common feature of the Portuguese press. Needless to say, since these news tend to dominate the journalistic production concerning the European elections, they leave little space for the publication of useful and instructive information.

CONCLUSION The most relevant conclusion taken from the analysis of the three newspapers is that a structured and consistent debate concerning European matters involving all the relevant actors (candidates, parties, civil society and citizens, and also European institutions) is clearly lacking in all the newspapers analysed, regardless of their ‘status’ as quality or ‘popular’ newspapers, and this may be likely to be the case for the entire Portuguese media. Although the findings of this analysis may not be particularly original when compared to other of the kind, they render evident the necessity of better information, something that can only be provided by the media. The critical comments of readers on the newspapers’ websites also seem to be indicative of the notion that the media provide a poor informative service to the public.

Concerning the visibility in the news outlet, it is evident that national actors – namely candidates to the EP election and members of the government – are by far those who enjoy a greater level of exposure, and very often they make an instrumental use of the EP elections phenomenon in favour of party and domestic disputes. Seemingly, then, they are the first responsible for the absence (or only marginal presence) of truly European topics in the national public sphere. Despite the argument of media agenda setting power, that appears to be countered by an excessive dependency of the media on official and political sources, meaning that the press and the news discourse culminate in a reproduction of the topics defined by the politicians’ agenda (Horta, 2008).

By doing so, the media fail to fulfil their function as a component of democratic systems, and their role of providing cues for citizens’ perceptions of the EU (Vreese et al, 2006). In addition, the tendency to a ‘spectacularization’ of the news, reflected in the use of ‘dramatic scripts’ (Martins, 2008) leads to a loss in terms of relevant content, as the media privilege the emphasis on conflict as opposed to an in-depth explanation of the issues reported. In the same vein, the 15

media tend to give more prominence to certain actors to the detriment of others, namely persons with rhetorical competence, the ability to practice politics ‘front stage’, charisma and prestige, according to the description of Kriesi et al (2007:45).

The resource to these journalistic techniques, aimed at making the issue ‘interesting’ for the audience, seems to prevent Portuguese newspapers from taking an active position in countering abstention, which, it is assumed, could simply consist of a more informative set of news about the EP elections, It is interesting to verify how ‘abstention’ is codified in the media and political discourse in a very negative way, being referred to as a ‘danger’ or the ‘main adversary’ in the EP elections, Finally, although there are no straightforward solutions that can be advanced to solve the weaknesses of the Portuguese media, it is evident that they need to rethink the models of coverage of European themes and political events, in view of a more ‘balanced’ coverage that can be inclusive of all relevant actors and not just political parties and a few other prominent national personalities. Political parties, considering their privileged condition as channels of communication, should also revise their campaign strategies, in order to make actions more consonant with discourse, with the claims for constructive debates and an overall informative campaign for the European elections. This idea is backed by the argument of Simon Hix (1995: 533) that party leaders have the possibility to use the mass media and political power to “educate the public”, thus ultimately contributing to the reinforcement of the integration project through an enhanced mobilization and participation by the citizens.

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