Rediscovering Europe in the Netherlands - St Antony's College ...

news media
thy in their own right, such initiatives confirm yet again the notion that
‘Europe’ and eu policy are not considered integral elements of the regular
political and public arena.
Negative framing
When eu issues are indeed covered by the Dutch media, they tend to be
framed in negative terms. De Vreese (2003: 21-22) identifies five frameworks
in which news is generally couched. They involve a focus on:
1. controversy and conflict between individuals, groups, institutions and
countries;
2. personal, human and emotional aspects of a story;
3. responsibilities and causes;
4. moral or religious aspects;
5. economic consequences.
Research has shown that news items on European politics are often framed
as conflicts between eu institutions, member states and political parties
(De Vreese 2003, 2007). This provides a clear news angle, making it easier
to portray European politics in a lively and appealing way. This kind of
negative, conflict-based approach is exacerbated by the specific way in
which Dutch politicians position themselves vis-à-vis eu policy. As in
other member states, European issues sometimes conflict with traditional
party ideologies, which may lead to political parties becoming internally
divided (Hooghe and Marks 2005a). Dutch political elites lack explicitly
articulated views on Europe, a lack which is particularly felt when it comes
to well-substantiated and clearly worded arguments in favour of European
integration. Those who approach Europe in a negative way, e.g., by engaging
in the game of ‘blaming and shaming’ Brussels, thus end up having
much to gain: they meet very little resistance and can count on substantial
media exposure. Since many citizens’ views on Europe are not deeply
rooted, public opinion is highly susceptible to the views of these politicians.
This may also explain why – despite a relatively high level of public
support for the eu – a fairly short but intense flow of negative statements
by a small group of politicians in the news media concerning the size of the
Dutch contribution to the European budget was able to twice affect (in
1997 and around 2002-2003) a fairly rapid and major reversal in the perception
of the benefits of Dutch eu membership (Petter and Griffiths 2005).
141
The tendency to focus on the (perceived) negative aspects of European cooperation
and on contentious news is particularly strong in the Netherlands
(De Vreese 2007). According to ascor research, the Netherlands is
one of the top five countries (together with Finland, Great Britain, Portugal
and Greece) when it comes to negative coverage of eu issues. 2 Attention