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

diagnosis
it would have that a debate (albeit a limited one) eventually took place in
the Netherlands on the merits of the Directive at all (Pelkmans and Van
Kessel 2007).
Communication studies along with the case studies used for this report
also show that the public’s views concerning the results of European policy
outcomes do not depend directly on the content or the costs and benefits of
that policy, but are partly influenced by the ways and the context in which
they receive and filter information about those results (Prast 2007). People
are more receptive to (media) information which fits within their existing
personal frame of reference (Zaller 1992). If they can be convinced of the
eu’s image as that of an organisation obsessed with rules or one that
devours money, they will be receptive to any information which confirms
that image, but may create a mental block concerning information that
undermines that image. This means that politicians and administrators
have a particular responsibility to convey the results of their eu policy to
the public in an appealing way, and also to take citizens’ concerns about
that policy seriously. As Schmidt demonstrates, however, in a decentralised
and fragmented political system such as the Netherlands, this
vital communicative skill is only developed on a very insubstantial level
(Schmidt 2006). Regarding the physical introduction of the euro, for
example, citizens concerns about increased levels of inflation were initially
ignored by the politicians. The fact that the introduction of the euro
occurred during an economic recession, and amidst growing distrust of
the political and administrative elites, was also evidently not taken into
account in their assessment of the public’s reaction (Engelen 2007).
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The traditional absence of debate on Europe and the low priority given to
Dutch eu policy by politicians are also reflected in the media’s reporting
on the eu which is much less in the Netherlands than in other member
states (De Vreese 2007). The cyclical nature of that reporting accentuates
this: during European elections and referenda on Europe, there is a brief
flurry of media attention, whereas before and after these events it is largely
absent (Norris 2000; De Vreese 2001, 2007). One explanation for this is
that the principal actors and points of dispute are relatively unfamiliar to
politicians and public alike, and the absence of ‘fights’ and ‘faces’ does not
fit in with the modern news media’s logic of action. In the words of De
Vreese (2007: 21): ‘If European issues are treated as political second-rate
issues the result will be a third-rate media coverage and no public debate’.
Comparative research confirms that Dutch newspapers devoted relatively
little attention to European elections in 1999 and 2004. This gives rise to a
vicious circle: the lack of public and political debate means the media will
be less inclined to report on a given topic, while the absence of reporting in