A PARTIAL EUROPE WITHOUT CITIZENS OR EU-LEVEL POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Euronews is a multilingual television news channel broadcast in eight languages with a remit to cover news and current affairs from a “European perspective”. Launched in 1993, the channel was set up to unite linguistic and cultural differences amongst European citizens and help towards shaping a more inclusive European identity. This article asks—17 years since it began life—in what ways does Euronews reflect European perspectives? Drawing on a content analysis of Euronews' English-language news coverage supplemented with a brief schedule analysis of its routine content, we look, in detail, at Euronews' journalistic practices and reflect upon the democratic implications for Europe and its key democratic institutions. We argue that Euronews' journalistic practices (no anchors or reporters on location, scarce interviews or other typical news conventions) provide a set of journalistic constraints that weakens its editorial control and autonomy, resulting in repackaged news that is primarily national rather than supranational in focus. This, we argue, works against the possibility of fostering a shared European news agenda likely to invigorate public debate or civic engagement on EU-level matters. Euronews' potential to contribute to a common European public sphere is, we conclude, difficult to imagine when its citizens or key political institutions are so marginalised in its news coverage.