National Orientations or a Common European Debate? The Representation of the Beginnings of the Greek and Euro Crisis in German and Spanish Quality Press

Abstract

Researching the case of the transnational European conflict around the Greek and Euro crisis, this article explores whether and to what extent the media representations of the very early stages of the crisis in 2009/10 in the German and Spanish quality press feature “national orientations” or indicate a Europeanised, common European debate. Based on a content analysis of the news coverage of German and Spanish quality newspapers, the analysis reveals a multidimensional picture of the news coverage; it is Europeanised and shaped by national orientations at the same time. The transnational politicisation of European politics fosters the simultaneous visibility of issues of common concern across national borders. Furthermore, Europe or the European Union as a collective body and reference object for identification is highly visible. But transnational integrated speaker ensembles and a common European debate remain demanding. The media in Germany and Spain still feature national orientations with respect to the speakers cited in the news and with respect to the frames and viewpoints on the crisis phenomena.

KEYWORDS:

• Greek and Euro crisis
• politicisation
• European public sphere
• national orientations
• Germany
• Spain
• quality newspapers
• comparative content analysis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This article is based on the author’s dissertation “Europäische Vielfalt und nationales Indexing in der Berichterstattung und Kommentierung zur Griechenland- und Euro-Krise. Zur Rolle von Medien in Deutschland und Spanien für Europäische Öffentlichkeit” [European Diversity and National Indexing in the News Coverage and Commentaries on the Greek and Euro Crisis. The Role of the Media in Germany and Spain for a European Public Sphere], Freie Universität Berlin, 2014.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Used as an acronym for the economic, financial and political problems of the EU member state Greece in the course of the so-called third wave of the global economic and financial crisis (Dyson 2010), often also called the “public debt crisis”.

2. Used as an acronym for the economic and financial crisis of the member states of the EU, especially the crisis within the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in the course of the problems around Greece and the third wave of the financial crisis, also called the “European public debt crisis”.

3. Tobler terms this antipole of Europeanisation as nationalisation: “Of course this dimension model can be used not only to analyse the scope, overlap, interlacing or permeation as forms of transnationalisation or Europeanisation, but also to measure the antipode: nationalization” (2010b, 64).

4. Moreover, these papers rank highest on circulation figures within this media segment in the two countries. See data IVW 2/2010. Accessed November 17, 2013, http://daten.ivw.eu/index.php?menuid=1&u=&p= and data Oficina de Justificación de la Difusión (OJD), http://www.introl.es/medios-controlados/.

5. The access to the four daily newspapers per country was carried out on the basis of the electronic archives LexisNexis, Factiva and Biblionet. Altogether, articles of political news coverage, opinion, economic and financial coverage and the comments of the daily newspapers were included.

6. The journalistic commentaries of the newspapers will be considered in this article only at the level of the total population of articles. The total population is the basis of analysis for the assessment of synchronicity of issue cycles. All other analyses in this article are based on the sampled news coverage of the papers. The full code book of the study is documented in Heft (2016).

7. The coding of addressees and object actors resembles the approach for measuring speakers. For addressees or object actors of treatment recommendations, the actor scope, nationality and social function are measured in a relational manner (for the method of relational claims analysis, see Koopmans and Statham 1999; Koopmans 2002).

8. For the measurement of similarity or difference by frame elements and, partly, for positions exemplary for the debate around the constitution, see Vetters (2008); for the accession of Turkey, see Wimmel (2006); for the conflict around Haider, see van de Steeg (2006); for genetic food and military interventions, see Wessler et al. (2008); for the debate around harmonisation of taxes, see Tobler (2010a); and for general conflict lines regarding EU integration, see Pfetsch, Adam, and Eschner (2008).

9. For a related approach, see Engelmann (2009, 94) or Tobler (2010a), who operationalises community constructions by the item/object which is considered endangered in a debate.

10. See Brüggemann et al. (2006), Wessler et al. (2008) and subsequently Tobler (2010a); see also Kleinen-von Königslöw (2010).

11. The overall basis of the following analysis on synchronicity of issue cycles is the total population of 4053 articles on the Greek and Euro crisis in the media of both countries. The basis of the analysis on discourse participants, the framing of the crisis phenomena as well as community references and collective identifications are 2968 statements of cited speakers in the coverage of the German newspapers and 1876 statements in the Spanish ones.

12. A total of 372 (7.7 per cent) of the altogether 4844 coded statements include at least one reference to a “we”. Per statement it was possible to code up to three “we” references (multiple mentions).

13. The total of 4844 statements of cited speakers splits into a share of 2594 statements on treatment recommendations, 1100 problem definitions or causal interpretations and 1150 consequences and justifications.

14. A field of treatment recommendations has been considered as central if a minimum of five per cent of the media coverage referred to it. The various, partly disparate arguments on crisis solutions have been attributed to a range of more abstract fields of solutions.

15. Excluded are measures that cannot be alluded plausibly to a state-centric or supranational perspective (for the classification of the particular solutions on the conflict poles, see Heft (2016)).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Annett Heft

Annett Heft (corresponding author) is a Research Associate in the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.