Presentations of Europe on political party websites during the 2004 EP election campaign

Os, Renée van (author), Wester, Fred (author), Jankowski, Nicholas W. (author)

In this article we explore the online communicative practices of French, British and Dutch political parties during the 2004 European Parliament election campaign. It is through the manner in which Europe is presented on party websites that political parties' view on what constitutes "Europe" becomes manifest. It is argued that the existence of common understandings of what constitutes "Europe" being shared among political parties from various EUmember states can be considered an indicator of Europeanisation of politicalcommunication and, subsequently, of a European public sphere. This article elaborates on the national and cross-national differences and similarities regarding the manner in which Europe is presented in the content of political party websites. We report on two presentations: (1) the focus (European versus national) in which the issue domains interests, identity and values are mentioned in parties' online communication about Europe, and (2) the attitude towards Europe (positive versus negative) expressed by these parties. Cross-national similarities in parties' online communication about Europe were observed among the liberal parties, the sovereign and extreme right-wing parties, and the green parties. More diversity was observed among the social democratic parties and centre-right parties.

• Language: Slovenian
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2007
• Number of pages: Str. 63-81
• Numbering: Vol. 14, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-75234
• UDC: 659.3
• ISSN on article: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 26331485
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Javnost = The public
• Shortened title: Javnost
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis, European Institute for Communication and Culture
• ISSN: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40119808

Secondary language

• Language: Unknown

Abstract

Članek obravnava predstave o Evropi v spletnih komunikacijskih praksah francoskih, britanskih in nizozemskih političnih strank v predvolilnih kampanjah za evropske parlamentarne volitve 2004. Obstoj skupnega razumevanja političnih strank, kaj konstituira "Evropo", bi lahko imeli za indikator evropeizacije političnega komuniciranja in nastajanja evropske javne sfere. Predstavljene so nacionalne in mednarodne razlike in podobnosti v načinih, kako stranke na spletnih straneh predstavljajo Evropo. Poročamo o dveh vrstah obravnavanja Evrope: (1) o poudarjanju evropskega oz. nacionalnega v predstavljanju interesov, identitete in vrednot ter (2) vrednotnih stališčih do Evrope.