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

news media
the media for the support of the floating voters, while newsmakers for
their part have become increasingly dependent on politicians and their
press officers for rapid news gathering and scoops. Therefore, the key
issue is who or what will activate politicians so that the news media will
be activated and European issues will consequently become newsworthy?
The wrr calls for a more visible strategic role for the Prime Minister
regarding eu issues as a measure to boost media interest. It would provide
eu issues with a (national) ‘face’ and create a fixed point of contact. eu
issues, for example, would figure regularly on the agenda of the Prime
Minister’s weekly Friday afternoon press conferences. Moreover, it would
force the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet to engage in communicative
discourses on Europe that are linked to the world in which ordinary
citizens live. These discourses would more readily find their way into
the media.
Preferenda could also force politicians and the media to pay more attention
to European issues, because they link eu issues directly to the public and
they would encourage politicians to position themselves on these issues as
well as expressing their views on the position of the Netherlands in the
European political community.
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If these changes were to be introduced in the Dutch political system, the
Dutch media could become an important legitimising link between Dutch
eu policy and citizens. The possible contribution of the media to input and
output legitimacy, to the improvement of accountability mechanisms and
identification processes with Europe as a political community, is discussed
below.
Output
News media offer politicians an effective channel to clarify the costs and
benefits of eu policies to the public but also to address defective eu policies.
In the longer term, this would increase the chances that the Dutch
public would no longer just passively support the eu, but also accept it in a
broader sense even if they do not always agree with specific policy choices.
The acceptability of eu policies would be enhanced if politicians were
more responsive to the desires and needs of those sections of the population
that do not directly enjoy the fruits of specific European measures and
policy choices.
Input
News media are crucial for providing political information, for highlighting
different opinions and views, and for influencing the political and