A truly European contest? Transnational media reporting on political parties’ electoral performances across EU member states

How does the media report about of European Parliament (EP) elections? Despite the supranational nature of EP elections, media reporting on the election results often focuses on the electoral performance of domestic parties. In this paper, we ask whether and how the media also covers election results of parties in other EU member states and investigate this phenomenon by combining theoretical stipulations regarding news values, politicization of EU integration and the horizontal Europeanization of national public spheres. Based on a content analysis of 64 newspapers in 16 member states following the 2019 EP election, we find that a significant share of media reporting addresses the election results in other EU member states. Using a spatial lag model, we argue that spatial and cultural proximity between countries and the news value of individual parties (and their electoral success) affect whether foreign media outlets report on the results of those parties. Additionally, populist parties are more likely to be reported upon transnationally compared to other parties. The findings indicate that national media create a limited European public sphere: while EP elections are not fully treated as supranational events, the media does cover election results from other EU member states. Yet, the coverage is likely to be biased towards spectacular und surprising results of parties with (mostly) polarized issue positions.