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Abstract
The Union’s global climate change policy has been widely seen as an expression of its normative power, where it is committed to act through multilateral frameworks in order to tackle the effects of changes in the climate and safeguard the future of people around the world. Internally, the EU’s approach to climate change is complemented by high levels of support from citizens. This article explores another internal source of support for the EU’s leadership in global climate change policy, namely the media. The focus here is on the transnational media’s reporting and coverage of the Copenhagen summit, which is widely considered to be one of the key points in the development of global climate change policy. The article shows that within the ‘Brussels bubble,’ the transnational media supported through its reporting the EU’s ambitious agenda in global climate change policy around the time of the Copenhagen summit.
Notes
1. In this article, the term ‘media’ is used mostly as a singular noun to express the aggregate of journalists and publications — together with the underlying communities and institutions they create. ‘Media’ is also rarely used throughout the text as a plural noun to refer to the plurality of publications within the transnational landscape.
2. Transnational media are considered here to aim to transcend national boundaries and address audiences in more than one EU member state.
3. The FT refers here to its European edition which should be distinguished from the British edition. It is mostly similar to the British version, but has a larger emphasis on European issues.
4. Owned by the Economist Group.
5. Simultaneously, it tries to be a ‘paper of record,’ following closely and mapping the activity of the EU’s institutions.
6. Available at http://euobserver.com/static/about.
7. The similarity in coverage between the three publications adds validity to the comparative approach employed here. However, journalists writing for the EUObserver benefit from less stringent space restrictions — due to the nature of online media — which allow them to develop more detailed analyses. Articles published in EV very often also contain complex analyses because of its weekly publication cycle.
8. The interviews and questionnaires were conducted between April 2011 and March 2013. Since around two journalists from each publication in the sample covered the issue of climate change, this cross-section paints a reliable picture. Interviewee list: (1) Freelancer and Financial Times, interview and questionnaire, Brussels, 8 April 2011. (2) Freelancer and EUOberver.com, interview and questionnaire, Brussels, 12 April 2011. (3) Freelancer and European Voice, interview and questionnaire, Brussels, 9 April 2011. (4) European Voice, interview and questionnaire, 26 March 2013. (5) Freelancer and EUOberver.com, questionnaire, 26 March 2013. (6) Financial Times, questionnaire, 27 March 2013.