Journalistic Practices: National and European Cultures of Political Discourse

Abstract

As we have argued in the previous chapter, we consider the concept of cultures of political discourse helpful to understand the multi-segmentation of the European public sphere. By applying this concept to our analysis of the communicative construction of Europe and the emergence of a European public sphere, we assume that the multi-segmented European public sphere is shaped by different cultures of political discourse in Europe. Aiming at understanding the communicative construction of Europe within and across various European countries, our empirical analysis first of all focuses on journalistic production practices related to EU political issues. Our main argument is that journalists in their everyday work practice continuously re-articulate cultures of political discourse — national as well as transnational — so that differences between them become concrete in the ways journalists handle Europe and the EU.