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

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news media hand they have a clearly defined responsibility to provide the public with impartial information on European issues, and their relationship with professional politicians is even of a somewhat ‘symbiotic’ nature. On the other hand, however, they also have their own specific interests and considerations which are increasingly market-oriented (Pels 2007: 19-20; De Vreese 2007). In the face of this ambiguous position, it would be both unproductive and undesirable to make the news media directly responsible for the improvement of both the quantitative and qualitative media coverage of eu issues. The requisite incentives should indeed come from Dutch politicians themselves. As Kleinnijenhuis states: ‘The political logic requires politicians to anticipate the media logic’ (Kleinnijenhuis 2003: 177). If politicians provide the right incentives by responding more actively to the logic of action, opportunities and possibilities of the media, European issues will become a part of everyday journalistic practice. However, this will require considerable changes in the way in which politicians and administrators have dealt with European issues up until now. 6.4 perspectives for politicians and policy makers In chapters 3 and 4, the wrr proposed several measures which might encourage politicians and policy makers to increase the visibility and substantive profile of European issues in the national political system. Two of these proposals, namely the shifting of the overall political responsibility for eu policy to the Prime Minister and the preferendum instrument, could, in the view of the wrr, significantly increase the newsworthiness of eu issues. 143 6.4.1 strategic role for the prime minister A more visible strategic role for the Prime Minister on general government policy concerning European issues may offer interesting opportunities for increased and improved media coverage on Dutch eu policy. Firstly, it is a way to personalise and to ‘nationalise’ European issues, by literally providing Dutch eu policy with a ‘face’. Secondly, it offers an opportunity to link ‘Brussels’ directly with ‘The Hague’ via the Prime Minister, making it easier for the media to provide insight into the specific Dutch input at the European level and into the impact of eu policy on Dutch politics and society. In short, it would make it easier to cover European issues as newsworthy, in turn making them more interesting and appealing to the public. Thirdly, the proposed role for the Prime Minister offers a way to open up the European decision-making process to the media and the public. Journalists would thus have a single point of access via the Prime Minister, to reduce the risk of them becoming entangled in what is often perceived as an impenetrable
ediscovering europe in the netherlands decision-making process. This would also make it easier for the media to highlight political responsibilities and to critically monitor politicians. This would enable the media to fulfil their public functions with respect to European issues more effectively and to make an indirect contribution to the improved legitimisation of Dutch eu policy. Increased media coverage as a result of the Dutch Prime Minister taking the lead on eu issues might open up existing as well as new channels for political representation, provide the media with better opportunities to control politicians which in turn may also increase the acceptability of European policies. Increased quantitative media attention for eu policy would in turn challenge the Prime Minister to develop a communicative discourse on Europe which is appealing and persuasive to citizens and much less coloured by the specifics of individual European policy dossiers. It would also encourage the Prime Minister – and his Cabinet – to position themselves more substantively on European issues, on what is at stake (for the Netherlands), on the goals they are seeking to achieve and on the appropriate strategies. 144 6.4.2 preferenda What are the expected effects of the proposed preferendum instrument on media coverage? The newsworthiness of European issues put to the vote would increase tremendously as well as media attention. It is precisely because preferenda involve citizens directly in European issues that journalists would have stronger incentives to cover these issues. Preferenda could thus contribute directly to increasing the quantity of eu news. Just as important, however, are the indirect benefits: preferenda would force national politicians to position themselves in preferendum campaigns. This would offer an excellent opportunity to cover European issues in terms of the conflict between individuals and political parties on concrete grounds. By thus personalising and framing eu issues in terms of conflict, opportunities would be created to nationalise the European debate and to explicitly link national politicians to ‘Brussels’. This in turn would make European issues more interesting for the national media and contribute to a quantitative increase of eu news. Referendum experiences regarding the Constitutional Treaty confirm that a quantitative increase in media coverage did indeed occur (De Vreese 2007; Kleinnijenhuis, Takens and Van Atteveldt 2005). The quality did not noticeably improve, however. A substantive analysis of referendum campaign media coverage reveals that news reporting was not focussed on substantive debates concerning the contents of the Treaty. Instead, the quarrels in the ‘Yes’ camp and the failure to promote a uniform, clear and
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