Abstract

The deepening of the Europeanization process seems to be increasingly associated with the controversial character of the European issues. While this ambivalence has tended to marginalize the European public space as a research object within the social sciences, the transformations oc¬curred in these years of crisis have brought to a different configuration and therefore to a new epistemology of the European public space, that needs to be analysed and understood. A constructivist approach may highlight critical aspects but also innovations in the multi-level public communication promoted by the EU institutions, coming to bet¬ter define a situation in which the persistent centrality of the national communicative spaces - especially the news-media arenas - interplay with cohesive efforts and ongoing processes of cultural integration. Identity and related symbols look to suffer from the multiple tensions within the EU public space; nevertheless they are viewed as important instruments for contrasting disintegration tendencies. In this uncertain dynamic, the journalistic field is crossed by the unanswered challenges of the globalization and by the attacks of the nationalist movements.