1st Edition
Mapping the European Public Sphere Institutions, Media and Civil Society
Mapping the European Public Sphere combines theoretical and empirical perspectives to address three relevant issues that are marking the European communicative landscape: the role of media and journalism in shaping the European debate, the function of public communication in promoting institutional activities, and the implications of processes of inclusion to and exclusion from the public sphere. The volume offers a timely reflection on the communicative arenas that are structuring the discourse on Europe and its future and provides a map of existing communicative spaces to provide a better understanding of the development of a European Public Sphere and to identify critical issues. Situated in a timely debate and providing well-grounded empirical evidence, the book will be particularly valuable to social scientists researching European integration issues. At the same time, the book is relevant to those actors who are studied in the research, in particular European institutions, media groups and NGOs.
Biography
Cristiano Bee, Department of Political International and Policy Studies, Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, University of Surrey, UK and Emanuela Bozzini, University of Trento, Italy.
'Formation of a European Public Sphere is a high priority for the European Commission. The democratic dialogue in Europe has to be stimulated and the communication gap between EU institutions and citizens seems to endanger the whole European project. This book offers fascinating and stimulating analyses of the role democratic institutions; media and organized civil society have in formation and nourishing of the European Public Sphere. It is essential reading for both Politicians, Citizens, and Scholars.' Thomas P. Boje, Roskilde University, Denmark and International Coordinator for the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence '...provides a long overdue discussion of the European public sphere which links the institutional realities of public communication in Europe, the practices of journalists and other media professionals and the role of civil society with innovative theoretical models and robust methodological approaches. Bringing together an impressive number of younger top researchers this book is to be recommended to all interested in cutting-edge knowledge of the making of European Public Sphere.' Klaus Eder, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany 'While the EU has been busy creating a system of "multi-level governance", public spheres in Europe remain stubbornly national. Cristiano Bee and Emanuela Bozzini have brought together key researchers from across the continent to provide an incisive and insightful examination of the role of the media and public communication in contemporary Europe. The empirical and theoretical material they present also throws light on the vital question of inclusion and exclusion in the public sphere. The work will interest academics, but also reaches out to European policy makers, commentators and NGOs. The collection is thus itself a significant contribution to a Europe-wide public and policy debate; to an emerging "public sphere".' Alan Scott, University of Innsbruck, Austria
