Volume 32, Issue 3

In recent years, the European Union (EU) has become more and more important in the lives of Europeans due to its growing authority in policy-making. In contrast to that, there still are several shortcomings in our knowledge of how European institutions, political processes, and events are presented in the media. This paper focuses on the coverage of the elections of the European Parliament (EP) because of two contradictory developments. Although the relevance of the EP to EU decision-making has considerably increased since 1979, voter interest and voter turnout at EP elections has been declining. Against this backdrop the paper (a) investigates the long-term development of EP election coverage in German newspapers and (b) compares EP and national election campaign coverage. Based on a content analysis of the coverage of four German quality newspapers of all six European election campaigns that took place since 1979, the analysis shows that there has not been an increase in EP election coverage, that EP elections were covered much less frequently than national elections, that, like in national elections, there was a trend towards more subjectivity in EP election coverage, that EP elections were looked at from a mainly national perspective, and that the degree of personalization was lower in EP than in national election coverage. In addition, explicit assessments of the EP's political relevance gave a better picture of the real development than one would expect from the analysis of the mere amount of coverage.

Media Governance: New ways to regulate the media (Leen d'haenens) The New Institutionalism as a theoretical foundation of media governance (Patrick Donges) Media Governance as a horizontal extension of Media Regulation: The importance of Self- and Co-Regulation (Manuel Puppis) Media Concentration and Media Governance (Werner A. Meier, Irene Perrin) Regulatory choices in Communication Governance (Michael Latzer) The state as a key success factor for Self-Regulation? Empirical evidence in brief (Matthias Künzler) Co-Regulation in European Union member states (Thorsten Held)

Recent developments in politics, the media, and society have stressed the rising importance of public communication from the government about policies not yet been adopted by Parliament. Government communication professionals and journalists are key figures in this process but conflicting interests mark a tense relationship. Up until now, few empirical studies have been conducted to shed light on the opinions of both professions concerning ‘Communication about Not yet Adopted Policy’ (CNAP). We studied the issue in both the Netherlands and Belgium because research has shown that these countries stand out in regard to debating and reflecting on CNAP. This article maps recent Dutch empirical research and a more elaborated Belgian study, and shows that CNAP is generally accepted by government communication professionals and journalists. Moreover, the Belgian study shows the respondents' opinions regarding the acceptance of CNAP, their arguments, and the conditions CNAP must meet.

Lilleker, D. G. (2006). Key concepts in political communication. London: Sage. ISBN 1412918315 (paperback, hardcover) (209 pp.) (Peter van Aelst) Servaes, J. and Carpentier, N. (Eds.) (2006). Towards a sustainable information society. Bristol: Intellect. ISBN 9781841501338 (paperback) (Cees J. Hamelink) Roth, Lorna. (2005). Something in the air: The story of the First Peoples television broadcasting in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0773528567 (hardcover) (283 p.) (Cees J. Hamelink)