Understanding Brussels Journalism: News Production in a Politicised Europe

This paper investigates how recent dramatic changes in EU politics, such as the rise of populism in many EU member states and Brexit, have influenced the work and output of Brussels correspondents. Some research into the role understanding, working conditions and approaches to covering EU affairs has been done in the past (Gavin, 2001; Gleissner & De Vreese, 2005; Raeymaeckers, Cosijn, & Deprez, 2007; Lecheler, 2008; Statham, 2008; Gattermann 2011; Martins, Lecheler, & De Vreese, 2012; Laursen, 2013), although this topic previously received little attention in academic research. Most of these studies, while insightful, have a relatively small N and/or a general approach to Brussels journalism, and are all built on assumptions regarding a pre-politicised European Union, where coverage is low in conflict, incivility and emotions. In this paper, we extend this research to determine particularities in the news production of Brussels correspondents that cover emerging issues in journalism research including a) the personalization of politics, b) emotions in political communication, c) stereotyping in media coverage, and d) digitalisation and fake news – as opposed to more traditional concepts. These topics are also not systematically covered in other prominent large-N survey such as the Worlds of Journalism Study (see http://www.worldsofjournalism.org/). Our approach is exploratory in nature with the aim to identify patterns in the news production process that vary across different types of media (broadcasting, newspapers, online-only), across different countries and media systems, as well as within the Brussels Press Corps along the lines of age, gender, working conditions and experience. Our data consists of a large-N survey with Brussels-based correspondents from all EU member states working for various media, which is currently in the field. We have built our own database of contact details, based on longitudinal media content analysis conducted on the occasion of European Parliament elections from 1999 to 2009 (see Banducci et al., 2014) for a sample of main newspapers and broadcasters in 27 EU countries (Croatia joined in 2013). Our initial sample is 555 journalists and our aim is to achieve a response rate of at least 20 percent. Our results will not only have important implications for research on comparative journalism but also for studies that deal with the communication of EU politics.