Abstract

News coverage of the European Union is influenced by conflicting dynamics between supranational and national sources and the news organizations. On the one hand, there are the peculiar decision-making procedures of supranational institutions, their bureaucratic style and feeble link with citizens, and the reference to national public opinion of inter-governmental institutions. On the other, journalistic practices are linked with national media systems and they have limited flexibility in adapting news values to a cosmopolitan scenario; in addition, the usual strategies of reporting the news using simplification and dramatization hardly fit with the complexity of European issues. The emerging public portrayal of European institutions and issues affects the dynamics of opinion and the European integration process.