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Medias: A need to catch up on Europe

Anja Herzog is employed at the Hans-Bredow-Institut in Hamburg. There, she concerns herself with questions on European integration and the media development in Eastern Europe. She spoke to euro|topics about problems for the European public, and the potential in transnational media.

Can we speak of a European public in Europe?
A single, collective European public can only exist for a limited time. In the Kosovo war, for example, the media agendas were to a great extent synchronised, and opinions and discussions within the different European countries were similar. At the same time, opinions from other national publics are perceived more strongly in such situations.

Anja Herzog

So a relationship to Europe is missing within the national public?

Signs of the European thinking within individual publics are beginning to show, but are not particularly distinctive as yet. Individual European countries are heavily underrepresented within the national publics. The situation is similar, by the way, in politics and for decisions made at European level. Such things are only reported within the national publics in a very limited way, and this from a clearly national perspective. Accordingly, citizens are often insufficiently informed about important political decisions made at European level.

Which topics tend to reach the European public most effectively?

Using risk communication and sensation reports, it is always particularly easy to gain the interest of a European public. If a catastrophe occurs, such as the Estonia tanker accident in the Baltic Sea, or the flood along the Oder, strong European publics are recorded. They also perceive each other in this moment. In such situations, the national public often learns how the catastrophe is being discussed in neighbouring countries.

Why does the EU receive little attention within these national publics?

Here the question is rather, what do the Editors and Chief Editors of the individual media perceive? Their perspective is still influenced far more by the national public opinion. Only when the government refers to EU politics, e.g. for their own environmental policies, does the European level become of interest to the media. Unfortunately, Europe is only seldom interesting for the Press of its own accord. Decisions made by the EU, for example, are rarely reported in the media of its member states.

Is the relevance of EU politics underestimated at a national level?

The daily problems in EU politics are usually uninteresting for the national media. Their news value is too low for the copy editors; they prefer national incidents. This is a primary reason why correspondents from Brussels find it so difficult to bring European themes into the national media.

Isn't that a contradiction in terms? The broadcasting stations regulated by public law have their largest foreign studios in Brussels!

That is correct. In comparison to commercial media, the broadcasting stations regulated by public law do make more reports on Europe. However, European topics in detailed form are usually broadcast in formats specially created for this purpose. These generally have a far smaller circle of recipients than programmes which broadcast national events. News coverage on EU politics must also be further optimized in broadcasting services regulated by public law.

How can national and regional media raise public awareness of Europe?

These media would have to alter their perspective. The editorial staff should now and then swap their national angle for the European one. Many people believe that EU politics has no influence on their lives. This is not least because Europe is often presented as an issue detached from national debates. It would be important that editorial staff attach to the topic of Europe the full value of its importance which it in fact already has at a political but also economic and cultural level. This would help to strengthen the "we-feeling” with reference to Europe.

Other media apply themselves exclusively to the topic of Europe in order to reach a transnational public. What is special about these transnational media?

Transnational media are far more specialized in their news coverage than the national media. They focus on those interested in Sports, such as Eurosport; on businesspeople, such as the Financial Times, or on those interested in Europe, such as Eurotopics. The popular consciousness for the meaning of Europe must first grow so that the media which exclusively refer to Europe can reach a larger circle of users.

Which public do transnational media reach?

Most recipients of transnational media already have a very close relationship with Europe and its topics. The reasons for this are varied; some are engaged with and in Europe as part of their business and also economically. Other recipients are very interested in Europe at a cultural level. For such a recipient circle, it is also partly important to perceive media in other languages and therefore to remain informed about Europe from original sources.

A great challenge in European news coverage is the diversity of languages. How can media reach as large a public as possible in spite of these different tongues?

The language diversity within Europe should certainly be taken into account by the media. Unfortunately, it is not normal in Europe to be able to speak a further European language in addition to the native one so proficiently as to be able to receive foreign language media. This has a lot to do with education (of the Editors and consumers). The lower the standard of education, the less media are received in other languages. The potential for growth in transnational media is therefore dependent on the language barriers. A multi-language and, if possible, also culturally adapted range of offers is still a prerequisite for a larger European circle of users.

Which media are most successful at reaching a European recipient circle?

European media consumers usually belong to classes with a higher education. This means that the internet and newspapers primarily reach European readers. Television and radio tend to take a back seat. On television, the genres with European sport news coverage achieve the highest numbers of spectators.

The EU have passed a new television regulation in order to interest as large an audience as possible in Europe for their topics. Are they concentrating on the correct medium?

In order to strengthen the presence of Europe in the heads of the public, it is important to give every channel the same importance. Only in this way can the EU reach different target groups. The internet should be expanded, as its range of offers is particularly used by young people.

Which ways do we have to achieve European thinking within the national publics?

Press reviews play a large role in the European consciousness of the publics. They increase the attractivity of foreign media and allow an insight into other national publics – this last is of particular importance for the perception of other European countries amongst the editorial staffs, who could serve as multiplying factors. Several TV formats, too, are very successful. For example, arte has achieved excellent results by uniting two very different cultures in its programs. Broadcasting stations who simply try to translate news and then broadcast it without further comment in different countries have more problems. In television, it is particularly important to think ahead about the media-cultural aspects and visual codes for each individual European country.

Media companies are becoming increasingly European, if not actually global. What effect does the economic aspect of the media have on the European thinking of the publics and the national media cultures?

In spite of the increased European consciousness of the media companies, the range of information offers still have national editorial staff. In the field of entertainment, on the other hand, a homogenisation of genres and formats is becoming recognisable. Many of these entertainment formats already function at global level. In the information and documentation areas, the transnationality of the concerns has very little influence on the formats.

Are media companies operating Europe-wide and globally a danger to the European consciousness of the publics?

The large media concerns primarily cause commercialisation of the media and formats. For European public thinking, this is quite certainly a large danger, as this is detrimental to the work of the editorial staffs. The consequences are a reduction in editorial posts and heavier demands on agency reports. The broadcasting services regulated by public law can up to now dedicate itself to the European consciousness of citizens, away from market and success strategies. But here, too, people do need to catch up in terms of Europe.

Interview by Julia Rosch

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