Publication details
Mapping European Ideoscapes: Examining newspaper debates on the EU Constitution in seven European countries
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | European Societies |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | nation; class; mass media; EU Constitution; welfare state; neoliberalism; federalism; democratic deficit |
| Description | Despite embracing the rhetoric of transnational flows and networks, comparative research on media content continues to fall prey to methodological nationalism. Researchers often fall back on techniques that assume that the discourses circulating within particular nationally bounded communicative spaces are homogenous. In this article, we developed a set of propositions and analytical approaches that should help to overcome this impasse, and used them to examine the newspaper debates on the EU Constitutional Treaty in seven European states. We suggested that instead of focusing solely on comparisons between nationally bounded communicative spheres, we should also look at differences between class-related communicative spaces. The results support our initial contention that the research on European mass communication ought to move beyond comparisons between national units and examine how European issues are conveyed in media catering to different social classes. |