Contesting Europe: Exploring Euroscepticism in Online Media Coverage [Paperback]

Investigates the way politicians and citizens evaluated the European Union and the process of European integration in public debates during the 2009 European Parliament elections.Investigates the way politicians and citizens evaluated the European Union and the process of European integration in public debates during the 2009 European Parliament elections. The authors present detailed, rigorous analysis of citizens' online response to news stories, and reveal new evidence about the dynamic nature of online contestation of Europe and the degree of convergence towards Euroscepticism. Such convergence provides new challenges for democratic representation in the EU, and insight into the public basis for a legitimate European Union.Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables viiList of Abbreviations xiContributors xiiiAcknowledgements xviPreface xviiChapter One: Political Contestation and European Integration:A Public Sphere Approach 1Chapter Two: A Comparative Mixed-Methods Approach of OnlineEU Polity Contestation 21Chapter Three: Contesting Europe: Towards Convergence? 37Chapter Four: The Mainstreaming of Euroscepticism in Austria:EP Campaigning Between Media Populism and Far Right Extremism 61Chapter Five: EU Polity Contestation in France and French-Speaking Belgium:The Bounded Impact of a ReferendumAmandine Crespy and Olga Fimin 79Chapter Six: Contending European Integration in Germany:From Permissive Consensus to Moderate Euroscepticism 101Chapter Seven: Reflecting a Morose Political Climate:EU Polity Contestation in HungaryMaria Heller, Tam?s Kohut and Borb?la Kriza 119Chapter Eight: The Netherlands:Reliving the 2005 Referendum on the Constitutional Treaty? 137Chapter Nine: The European Other:The EU as External Threat in the Polish Online DebateNatasza StyczyDska 155Chapter Ten: The UK: A Case of Extraordinary Euroscepticism 173Chapter Eleven: The Limited Convergence in EU Polity Contestation:Implications for Democracy 195Appendices 205Bibliography 225Index 259Pietl“V