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NEWSLETTER #7
June 2024

FEATURED: MEDIATIZED EU holds civic discussions in seven project countries

The MEDIATIZED EU partner teams have held deliberative discussions with groups of academics, students, journalists and civil society actors interested in the European Union in Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Georgia and Spain, in April and May 2024. In order to share key project findings with the broader public audiences, the teams presented the results of all phases of research —media analysis, elite interviews, and population surveys— to the participants, who then engaged in an inspiring debate about each of the countries’ processes of Europeanization and about the EU’s present and future.

The civic discussion is a key component of the project, a deliberative methodological approach that has not only enabled the teams to share their research findings with the public, but has also enriched the project results with the participants’ opinions and reflections on MEDIATIZED EU research, as well as on their country’s European integration paths. Now, the outcomes of each discussion are being compiled and, together with other research findings, incorporated into recommendations for policy-makers at the national and EU levels —the current task at hand.

Population surveys: what do Europeans think of European integration?

The project’s final research phase completes the triangle of media-political elite-public with a survey conducted in all seven project countries. The goal was to grasp the public perception of Europeanization in representative samples of about 1,000 people in each country. Detailed findings and analysis will be published soon, but highlights show an overwhelmingly favourable attitude towards EU integration, with some exceptions, nuances, and contingencies that we are unpacking. Here’s a teaser:

The surveys found diverse but generally positive views of EU integration amidst the public, across the seven countries. In Belgium, 46.8% support integration, with notable differences between French-speakers (50.6%) and Flemish-speakers (43.4%), as well as between men (52%) and women (41%). Respondents in Estonia show strong support for EU membership (75%), though opinions on the need for flexible alliances vary significantly between  .

 

In Georgia, an impressive 81.5% of the population are positive about potential EU membership, particularly among the younger, educated, and culturally exposed respondents. Most Hungarians express a pragmatic view of EU benefits such as economic support and security, but a significant portion also advocate for an exit to preserve national identity.

 

In Ireland, respondents expressed a strong level of trust in EU institutions: 47.9% trust the European Commission, and 46.8% trust the European Parliament. 72% were either positive or neutral about deeper EU integration (35.7% in favour, 36.3% neutral), with support for further integration more prevalent among the younger population, women, those with higher levels of education and politically left-leaning.

In Portugal, 86.8% see benefits in EU membership, and while 51.5% favour deeper integration, 27.8% are neutral and 20.6% think it has gone too far. Political stance, income, and knowledge of the EU influence opinions. In Spain, 60% favour further integration, with support more prevalent among the educated, women, and politically left-leaning individuals, compared to the centre or right-wing individuals.

Stay tuned for the breakdown of the survey results and our in-depth analysis!

MEDIATIZED EU teams engage with the media and disseminate research results

In the last six months, MEDIATIZED EU research was featured in a number of high-level events, international conferences, and interviews, with team members providing expert analysis in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the mass protests in Georgia.

Keynote speaker: Federica Mogherini, Former High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Rector of the College of Europe. Credit: Kyran O’Brien, DCU.

On January 30, Project Coordinator and Associate Professor in Digital Media and Society at Dublin City University Dr. Tanya Lokot participated in a panel discussion about the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on EU foreign and security policy at DCU. The event, “EU Foreign & Security Policy: Two Years after Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”, hosted by the DCU Brexit Institute, featured a keynote speech by Federica Mogherini, Former High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Rector of the College of Europe.

 

On April 3-6, Dr. Maria Raquel Freire, Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and  Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), Portugal, participated in the 65th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, themed “Putting Relationality at the Centre of International Studies”, in San Francisco, United States. She presented a paper she co-authored with Sofia José Santos, Moara Assis Crivelente and Luiza Almeida Bezerra, titled “Media representations and foreign policy: The case of the war in Ukraine in Portuguese mediascape”.

 

Dr. Lia (Lika) Tsuladze, Executive Director of the Center for Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Sociology at Tbilisi State University, gave an interview on May 10 to Radio Liberty (Radio Tavisupleba), when she discussed the MEDIATIZED EU project findings and her previous research on Europeanization, in the context of the ongoing anti-government protests in Georgia, in the program titled “Morning Talks on Foreign Policy: De-Europeanization in the Name of Europeanization”.

 

Dr. Tsuladze also participated in the Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) at Columbia University, United States, between May 16 and 18, with two panels. In the first panel, she presented a paper titled “Tracing Georgia’s de-Europeanization: Discursive Opposition to the EU and its Escalation after Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”. The second panel was a special event titled “Georgia’s Euromaidan? Making Sense of Mass Protests in Georgia”, in which she discussed the current situation in the country.

Dr. Tanya Lokot in the 10th Lviv Media Forum in Ukraine. Image: Ira Sereda / Lviv Media Forum

Also on May 16-18, 2024, Dr. Lokot joined another high-profile panel titled “Do Nations Fail to Fight Disinformation?”, at the 10th Lviv Media Forum in Lviv, Ukraine. She discussed MEDIATIZED EU insights about dominant anti-EU discourses in European media and the role of political elites and state policies in both enabling and pre-empting the circulation of manipulative narratives about the European project.

 

Dr. Holger Mölder, Associate Professor of International Relations at Tallinn University of Technology, has also given interviews on May 26 and June 6, 2024, to Euroopa – The European podcast. The programme is produced in cooperation with the European radio network Euranet Plus and Kuku Radio, and covers pressing matters of the European Union. In these interviews, Dr. Mölder has discussed NATO, Ukraine, and Russia, and the MEDIATIZED EU project, covering the results of the Estonian case-study.

 

Finally, Dr. Tsuladze has continued to contribute her analysis on recent developments in Georgia. She gave a keynote speech on May 31 titled “Georgia’s Contested European Trajectory: Instrumentalisation of Europeanisation Discourses by Political and Media Actors”, in the Third Oxford-Georgia Forum at the Oxford University in England. On June 6, together with three other experts, Dr. Tsuladze spoke on the BBC’s program “The Inquiry”, under the topic “Is Georgia turning its back on Europe?”.

MEDIATIZED EU gears up for the project’s final semester

The MEDIATIZED EU teams have completed all the phases of research – media analysis, elite interviews, and population surveys – and deliberated on the preliminary results in civic fora in all countries. Now, the teams are producing further outputs to continue disseminating the research and engaging both with the public and with policy-makers at the national and EU levels. In particular, the teams are preparing policy recommendations, drafting an edited volume, and planning the final international conference. Moreover, we will soon publish research summaries covering all research stages on our website to facilitate knowledge exchange and provide easy access to research results. Follow and engage with us in our project’s final stretch!