Introduction and theoretical framework

In the previous chapter, we focused on degrees, types, and evaluations of Europeanization of public debates across issue fields, countries, and time. Although most studies of Europe and the media stop at this level of analysis, the public debate is ultimately carried by the strategic and often conflictive discursive actions of concrete collective actors. Europeanization is therefore not just a phenomenon that we can read from aggregate measures of media content, but also a particular type of discursive strategy that some actors are able and willing to choose, whereas other actors may employ – either by choice or by lack of other options – discursive strategies that remain national in focus and content. Moreover, when actors make Europeanized claims, they may do so both to support and to oppose the European integration process and European institutions.