This paper seeks to understand whether the colonial legacy of two British Commonwealth member countries, Canada and New Zealand, acts as a filter to shape how those countries view the EU and its reaction to the most recent crises (sovereign Euro Debt crisis, Brexit/Grexit, and migration crisis). Although the EU rates as an important trading partner for both Canada and New Zealand, the study aims to understand whether the traditional relationship with Britain influences how the EU is portrayed in their news media discourses. Apart from their common Anglo heritage, both countries share a number of similarities. They are strong agriculture countries who felt ‘abandoned’ by Britain when it joined the EEC. Both have ‘big brothers’ – the US and Australia – as influential neighbours. Both have retained their on-going links to the UK establishment, not lastly connections to the British media (including news agencies, individual outlets and newsmakers).
Our first hypothesis is that the more 'British' the identity of the country under study and the more reliant it is on the British news sources, the more Eurosceptic its media. Yet, the media links to the UK sources are fading in both countries due to a changing media preferences to acquire news from the US sources. Our second hypothesis is that the more US sources are used to report the EU, the more Euro-distant and US-focused are the frames of the EU.
The findings are significant for EU public diplomacy. Images of European integration presented through Euro-sceptic (UK) or Euro-distant (US) media lenses will serve as “road maps” and “focal points” (Goldstein and Keohane 1993) prompting third-country general public and policy-makers how to define the EU, how to relate to it, how to assess its crises and which actions to choose.
