The Role Of Media In Building European Identity

Introduction

Media has been at the forefront of public influence ever since mass production of the newspaper began, during the industrial revolution (Unwin, Unwin & Tucker, 2019). Since then, many techniques have been developed across different mediums, which shape and influence our minds, culture, thoughts, beliefs and opinions (Manzaria & Bruck, 1999). These techniques, for example, have the power to influence which brand of toothpaste we would buy. These techniques range from propaganda to persuasion and are often used to satisfy some type of agenda, whether that be political, social, marketing or environmental to name a few (Maier & Rittberger, 2008, p.244). Media techniques can have many effects on the receiver, whether they be positive, negative, influential, controlling, manipulative, persuasive or mind-changing is all determined by the sender (Citizen, 2010). Given those effects we will be focusing on the influential aspects of the techniques and whether such techniques impose a positive or negative influence on building European identity. In other words this paper will focus on media techniques building European identity and whether they shape it positively or negatively. To this end the paper will begin first by briefly defining European identity, followed by definitions of the media types and techniques we will be examining. Second, we will look at various media techniques used across Europe regarding European identity, giving an analysis of each technique. Finally, we will ascertain whether certain media techniques deliver a more positive or negative view on European identity.

European Identity

European identity has been defined in many ways by many scholars, with no concrete conceptualization of the term. Given that the definition of European identity can vary depending on context, we will define it using the four freedoms set in the Treaty of Rome (Casale, 2014). The free movement of goods, services, capital and persons are known as the four freedoms (Casale, 2014). The idea was that this free movement would promote European integration, thus creating a European identity. This is what was envisioned with the signing of the Treaty of Rome, however, it is unclear if this has happened. These four freedoms were later extend in the Maastricht Treaty, under the Single European Act: “the freedom to move and reside anywhere in European Union; the right of all EU citizens to vote and to be a candidate in all European elections; the right of EU citizens to enjoy consular and diplomatic protection by the foreign services of other member states; and the right of EU citizens to write a petition to European Parliament.” (Bebic, Erakovic Vuckovic 2017, p.25). Bruter (2003 p.1150) says European identity has two components: culture and civic. The four freedoms are seated on the civic side of the divide and by partaking in these freedoms you would indirectly be engaging with the “European Culture” component, which would theoretically create the European identity. Similarly, Bachofer (2014, p.4) divides European identity in two parts: Demotic and Ethnic, the former meaning a political, subjective identification with the EU and the latter meaning a cultural, objective identification with Europe. European identity can therefore be surmised as having a holistic sense of culture and supra-national amenities.

Media and techniques

The media types we will be focusing on are newspaper and social media. Newspaper is a printed publication, typically containing news, articles and advertisements. Social media is often defined as Web 2.0 platforms that enable social interactions among users; content (co)creation, including text, videos, or pictures; and the sharing of status updates and news (Mergel and Bretschneider, 2013: 390). Social media platforms are also defined as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (Boyd, Ellison, 2007, p.211). The techniques we will be focusing on are top-down methods and framing. Top-down methods are a form of hierarchical structure, where messages are constructed by the highest-ranking officials, these officials control the flow of information which is used to complete a task; in the context of this paper the highest-ranking officials are the elite and institutions which often aim to set and control political systems (Lister, 2019) (Bruter, 2003, p.1149). “Framing refers to the process of selecting, organizing and placing emphasis on certain aspects of an issue or event at the expense of others, in such a way that it can be portrayed in very different ways.” (Triga & Vadratsikas, 2017, p.9).

Building European Identity

To discuss the influence of media on European identity, we will begin with Bruter (2003, p.1150) and his experimental study which sought to understand the effects of top-down messages on European identity; whether they be institutional symbols of a political system or news conveyed by the mass media about the political system. The experiment was conducted in France, Britain and the Netherlands for comparative purposes and the participants vary in age and socio-economic demographics (Bruter, 2003, p.1157). “The experimental stimulus took the form of a fake newspaper extract on Europe, comprising several articles and several photographs. There were two versions of the articles, one in which all the articles reported good news on Europe (e.g., good economic news, international and diplomatic successes for the EU, etc.) and the other in which all the articles reported bad news on Europe (e.g., news on bureaucratic chaos, poor economic performance of the Euro, etc.) Similarly, there were two versions of the photographs included in the newspaper. One of them was a set of photographs representing or including symbols of European integration (flag, passport, etc.), and the other set included placebo photographs (landscapes, people, etc.).” (Bruter, 2003, p.1157). Each location was divided into four groups and each received a different version of the newspaper (Bruter, 2003, p.1158). Two surveys were conducted to measure European identity, the first survey was pre-experiment and the second survey was post-experiment, this was done to see if the portrayal of good or bad news on European integration would affect the respondents sense of European identity (Bruter, 2003, p.1157).

The results of the experiment show that European identity is influenced by messages from the media and the use of symbols (Bruter, 2003, p.1160). The exposure to good or bad news on Europe and the exposure or non-exposure to symbols on European integration did in fact have a varying effect on European identity over time (Bruter, 2003, p.1160). As a result of the top-down messages, European identity was unexpectedly high when participants were exposed to both good news of Europe and symbols of European unity (Bruter, 2003, p.1160). This shows that positive or negative messages from the elite or institutions can influence and build or destroy European identity.

Similarly, Ejaz, Bräuer & Wolling (2017) also looked at exposure to EU related media and its effect on European identity. They conducted secondary data analysis on previous Eurobarometer surveys, consisting of data from the 28 EU member states (Ejaz, Bräuer & Wolling, 2017, p.45). In their study they found a small but highly significant positive effect: the higher the exposure to news about the EU, the stronger the European Identity (Ejaz, Bräuer & Wolling, 2017, p.47). This positive relationship between media use and identity was observed in all European countries (Ejaz, Bräuer & Wolling, 2017, p.47). They found that if the initial exposure to news on the EU was not explicitly negative then further exposure, without the need for cognitive processing, would only strengthen European identity (Ejaz, Bräuer & Wolling, 2017, p.44)

Next is the study by Bebic, Erakovic and Vuckovic (2017), which looks at social media and their role in building and maintaining European identity. They explore the unmediated, interactive and without the limits of time and space nature of social media (Bebic, Erakovic & Vuckovic, 2017, p.25). They conducted in-depth interviews with 25 participants from all over the EU, the interviews were divided into four sets of questions; we will be looking at the third set of questions which focuses on the role of social media in building and sustaining European identity (Bebic, Erakovic & Vuckovic, 2017, p.29). For the third set of questions they assumed that the use of social media platforms for communication with friends abroad, use of foreign languages and information on state of affairs in the EU and other member states could influence a sense of belonging to the European identity (Bebic, Erakovic & Vuckovic, 2017, p.33).

In this section they discovered that the main online activities of the respondents included the reading of domestic, EU and international news, communicating, leisure time, studying, job-related researches and social networking (Bebic, Erakovic & Vuckovic, 2017, p.33). They found that the interviewees maintained strong and weak ties with like-mind people abroad, using various platforms to keep in touch (Bebic, Erakovic & Vuckovic, 2017, p.33). The interviewees found that this type of connectivity strengthened their sense of European identity (Bebic, Erakovic & Vuckovic, 2017, p.33). One interviewee stated that without the use of social media, especially in his home country, he would not feel any connection to European identity (Bebic, Erakovic & Vuckovic, 2017, p.33) This shows that for those who do travel across the EU and use social media platforms to stay connected to friends abroad and informed about other member states, are in fact influenced positively by social media in regards to European identity. In this case social media does play a role in building European identity.

Finally, we look at La Barbera’s (2015) investigation on the effects of framing the EU as a common project vs. a common heritage. These two frames are representative of the civic and cultural aspects of European identity (Triga & Vadratsikas, 2017, p.13). La Barbera (2015, p.617) conducted three experiments to test this question; the third experiment will be our focus as it pertains to the frames effects on the strength of European identity. In this experiment the participants read 5 articles framed on both sides of the argument and evaluated them on a scale from 1-10, from least to most European identity (La Barbera, 2015, p.622). The articles were framed on a common project vs. a common heritage with a focus on EU integration and enlargement (La Barbera, 2015, p.623). The results showed that the framing of EU related news did have an effect on European identity, in this case it was a strong positive effect with the civic side having more influence (La Barbera, 2015, p.624). From this study we see that framing of EU related media can have an influence on European identity.

Conclusion

Based on the literature studied we can conclude that media does play a role in building European identity. Most notably, social media seemed to have the widest reach, encompassing a large sphere of influence for building and maintaining European identity. This was seen in its many platforms and applications and its vast active use across ages and countries. However, given the minimal research on the media building European identity, it is difficult to accurately ascertain which media technique has the strongest most positive or negative effect on European identity. Without a thorough comparative analysis on media techniques this is nearly impossible. Furthermore, the studies revealed that each media and media technique examined showed significant effects on building and influencing one’s view on European identity. It would seem that the media techniques are all effective and the positive or negative factor is dependent on the sender’s agenda.

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