Control values? Control the media!

In three European countries citizens are deeply at odds with their leaders, and public opinion in these countries is shaped in different ways. The media play an important role in it.

• In France, a country with a history of very complicated state affairs (Clearstream, Dreyfus, Bettencourt), the foreign minister lost her job over something as simple as flying in a plane that belongs to a friend of dictator Ben Ali's. (And a controversial statement on the repression of protesters.)
  
• In Germany, the defense minister is under heavy fire for plagiarism in his PhD thesis. But a whopping 68% of the population still support him.
• And in Italy, thousands of Italian protesters all across Europe joined demonstrations against their prime minister on 13 February. Yet, many Italians, in particular elderly women, still support the prime minister. Of those who demonstrate against him, quite a few believe that he will somehow manage to remain in power after all.

Apparently

• in France you don't get away with stuff unless you control the public sphere (Sarkozy does. MAM didn't)
• in Germany you get away with quite a lot as long as you control the public sphere (Guttenberg receives favorable coverage from BILD)
• in Italy you get away with everything because you own the public sphere. And those defying you are either retarded or criminal

It strikes me how public opinion in these societies, all of them rather critical of politics and of political elites, would be so volatile depending on the way in which the media cover these affairs. It strikes me in particular because it touches values as well.

• France is gloating because a morally correct politician who didn't do anything "illegal or improper", is no longer "chef de la diplomatie française".
  
• Über-correct Germany has a new debate about the acceptability of cheating.
  
• And Italy spends more time debating "bunga bunga" than fighting unemployment.

Values are shaped because of media coverage. And coverage is dependent on political influence over the media.

I find that worrying.

Accountability through the media - what is the value of science?

Two publications of political science that I recently had on my desk made me wonder where science stops and where investigative journalism begins - or vice versa.

In the first article "The Quint", Catherine Gegout investigates the secretive decision-making of Germany, France, the UK, Italy and the US in an informal working group before 2002. The group took decisions and more or less imposed them on the other Member States in the Council of Ministers without the possibility of them participating. Gegout interviewed multiple members of national bureaucracies under cover of anonymity and could slowly make sense of the informal body that Germany, France and the UK did not acknowledge at all and Italy and the US only mentioned in passing on the national websites.

The second article is Gijs Jan Brandsma's PhD thesis "Backstage Europe" in which the Dutch researcher brings light into the secretive comitology system of the European Union. National representatives are often not held accountable for decisions and yet they have a wide discretion in their actions:

(W)ithin only a few minutes the committee rushes through five official votes related to the points discussed before lunch, and the meeting closes instantly. Then Van Veen [name replaced] turns to me and smiles: ‘You saw that? We just spent 50 million here’ (p. 29).

Like Gegout, Brandsma based his research on personal interviews with decision-makers in national bureaucracies - under the cover of anonymity.

For me, these two papers provide a check on decision-makers in the way in which investigative journalism puts a check on them. But they are published in a scientific journal and will only reach the academic community and a few students. In consequence, this check is confined to an elite community. Will any policy changes result from these articles? Is that the intention of the scientist? Does he intend to saw the chair of a decision-maker, or does he see himself as the person providing the saw? And if he wants to actively saw, do policy-makers feel more threatened by revolting scientists than by revolting masses (i.e. classical journalism)?

You could argue that an important function of the European blogosphere is to find the little flaws in European policy-making which slip through the filter of the MSM, thereby providing an additional check on policy-makers. Science has the resources to provide the same.

But it is not enough to debate hot scientific findings in the scientific community. In the interest of public accountability, I would like those discussions to reach the media and the blogging community as well.


Update (30 January 2011): Don't miss the interesting take on the topic by Kosmopolito. And his add-on published here (3 March 2011).

Let's talk about EU!

Because it's not enough to talk about European politics in the hallways of the EP and the Commission. Because European politics can be entertaining, controversial and informative. Because in the EP elections last year nobody talked about Europe save for two exceptions. So let's finally talk about EU!

Is the German public sphere Europeanizing?

The online portal tagesschau.de is widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive and most-consulted online media for Germans. For readers in and outside the country, the website is one of the crucial actors in the German public sphere. In his daily German-language European review Politikportal, for example, Stefan Happer regularly refers to tagesschau.de as one of the most trusted and most prominent sources. Furthermore, the website has started to involve common citizens by allowing for comments (after subscribing, however).

Over the last few months, I had the impression that this important actor of the German public sphere has gradually developed a more and more European and international stance. Since a medium only changes its focus as long as the news are continuously read, I take this as a sign that the German public discussion as a whole is becoming more Europeanized and internationalized. A few years ago, Stefanie Sifft still found a "predominantly domestic orientation of public discourses" in the Member States (see here).

Now I counted the number of European articles on tagesschau.de (Sunday, 28. February, 2 p.m. CET). Besides the earthquake in Chile, I don't have the impression that there are a lot of highly-relevant international topics, so it might well be an example for an average day in Germany.

I counted:

• 20 articles overall (only counting major articles, not those that support another one)
  
• six articles with non-German, non-European actors
• four articles with non-German, European actors
• one article with German actors abroad
• seven articles with purely domestic issues

For me, this is a sign that public interest in Germany is growing beyond the domestic focus that Stefanie Sifft diagnosed in 2007 in "Segmented Europeanization". Globalization finally seems to reach the common people in every aspect of their lives.

After a disappointing campaign for the European Parliament Elections last year, I have the hope that we are slowly moving towards Europeanized national public spheres, even if it will take a long time until a truly European public sphere reaches the common people.

Bye bye Moravcsik: Neofunctionalism is still on

Adapting to an unprecedented outcome at the first Lisbon vote in Ireland by calling another vote. Electing the Commission President with the Nice treaty, his Commissioners with the Lisbon treaty. Filling up the ranks of the EP with 18 phantom MEPs, unprovided for in any legal EU documents. Zapatero's plans for a (supernational) European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). Possibly bailing out Greece with EU money, unforseen by any existing regulation.

All these are examples in which the EU reaches beyond the scope that was defined in the treaty framework or in secondary legislation. EU critics could say the EU exceeds its competencies. But you can also see it in a different way. The EU is again adapting to problems without precedence by taking bold actions without precedence.

Sound familiar? Exactly, that's the theory of Neofunctionalism, defined by Ernest B. Haas. As the first Commission under the EEC-Treaty of 1957 encountered problems that transcended individual DG portfolios and individual member states, a need for European integration in other fields became apparent. Hence, an economic and atomic cooperation evolved into the semi-sovereign construction that we have today.

Much has changed since the first years of Neofunctionalism; after a wave of EU enthusiasm under Delors in the late 80s, European integration can be rightfully described as stagnating throughout the last decade. There are no indications that the EU is moving closer to the citizens after Lisbon; the electoral mobility caused by the EP elections last year soon gave way to confusion again.

Yet, there are signs that neofunctionalism is back. The new faces installed by the Lisbon treaty, Van Rompuy's new methods, the federalist proposal by a national prime minister (Zapatero) and the increased power of a supranational vis-à-vis an intergovernmental institution are indicating a changing climate between the institutions. A change towards the f-word. Needless to say that many of the problems facing the EU today have become supranational as well. Climate mitigation, regulation of financial flows, sustainable energy provision, protection of intellectual property, the conclusion of the Doha round and food security to name but a few.

Therefore, it is not completely illusionary to expect another spillover with regard to financial regulation and climate mitigation. Especially regarding the latter, every single citizen can make a difference. A combined effort in private reduction of waste and emissions can make a tremendous difference with regard to reaching the 20/20 goal. Thus, a healthy integration process should involve citizens through social media and through established forms of pluralism.

Social media allow the EU to create a common feeling of belongingness, a space for personal fulfilment and identification. Desertec has been doing this by calling for donations, setting up a Facebook group, installing a blog and demanding people's opinions about the project. The EU could do the same thing without a lot of additional cost. What it takes is for the Commission to really start using web 2.0 - and for the heads of government to send Moravcsik to the dungeons.


Please also see the discussion in the comments section, in which Professor Moravcsik reacted to the points expressed in this post

Update: In a recent statement, Commission President José Manuel Barroso takes the position that a de facto change of the institutional relationship between the member states and the EU instititutions has to take place, if Europe wants to maintain its place in the world.

We need a truly European radio station!

The EP webstream doesn't work with my Mac, so I couldn't watch the Ashton and Piebalgs hearings in video. Ska Keller has been doing a live-ticker via Twitter, but I'm not a Twitter fan and a live-ticker is different from listening to the audition yourself.

In Germany or France, I would turn to the live-relay of a radio station. Both Germany and France have their own political radio stations; you get a live coverage of political events, party congresses and the like via radio.

What about the EU? Where's Radio EU? There are two consortiums, Euranet (which imho will suffer badly from Deutsche Welle dropping out) and the Association of European Radios, but there is no supranational European radio station. The only one coming close is EURadioNantes. But despite a lot of good content, EURadioNantes is a radio school, not an opinion maker.

We need a truly European radio station! We need a station that discusses policies critically, gives background information, finds interview partners and provides an overview over the actors and events in Brussels. The Commission, the Parliament and the Council all offer advanced workspaces for journalists; the Residence Palace is the perfect environment for the shaping of a supranational public sphere. All the location factors are met. So...where are the European radio stations?
Professional Brussels-based radios?
Brussels journalism school projects or student radios of the VUB or the ULB?
I don't see any.

It can't be that hard to organize a radio presence at the hearing of a Commissioner. After all it's possible to organize live commentaries and interviews at any random first-league football game in Europe...

Blogging for Th!nk2 about it

For the next three months, I will be blogging for the European blogging competition thinkaboutit.eu, which is organized by the European Journalism Centre (EJC) in Maastricht. The competition brings together 91 bloggers from the European Union, Brazil, India, China, the US, Kazhakstan and South Africa and will discuss topics relating to the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in the middle of December. Heads of government will meet in Copenhagen in December to work on a agreement which replaces the Kyoto agreement and aims at reducing carbon emissions and counter global warming.

From January to June 2009, there has already been another blogging competition on thinkaboutit.eu on the topic of the European parliamentary elections in June. The blogging competition is held in English and tries to pool national discussions on the European elections or climate change. Bloggers with a background in journalism or politics will share their views and portray the discussions in their countries, so that a veritable European debate can take place.

Until now, it has been difficult to create a common European debate on pan-European topics. National media often report about European topics when they hit the nation-state, and pan-European media like Euractiv.com and EUObserver.com are limited to an English-speaking elite. Thinkaboutit.eu therefore uses young people as multipliers in order to break down European topics onto the nation-state level and to bring the national discussions onto the European level.

The first competition has had a remarkable quality of posts, says Anne Autio from the European Journalism Centre. In the second competition, journalistic competence will be put together with scientific knowledge in order to inform, educate and entertain a European audience. To enhance the blog posts, all bloggers received a High Definition Flip Video Camera and are supposed to use them to give insights into public opinion in their home countries.