Premium
Absent yet popular? Explaining news visibility of M embers of the E uropean P arliament
Author(s) -
Gattermann Katjana,
Vasilopoulou Sofia
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.12071
Subject(s) - visibility , context (archaeology) , politics , attendance , legislature , political science , news media , journalism , advertising , law , business , history , archaeology , optics , physics
Abstract M embers of the E uropean P arliament ( MEP s) represent their citizens in E uropean U nion policy making, having the power to approve, amend or reject the near majority of legislation. The media inform EU citizens about their representatives and are able to hold them publicly accountable. However, we know little about whether, and to what extent, MEP s are visible in the news. This study investigates the visibility of MEP s in national broadsheets in B ritain, F rance, the N etherlands, G ermany and I taly. It seeks to explain individual‐level variation by employing an original dataset of news visibility of 302 MEP s over a period of 25 months ( S eptember 2009– S eptember 2011) and tests the applicability of the news values and mirror theories in the context of supranational politics. The results show that political office, length of tenure and domestic party leadership have a positive effect. Legislative activities have a mixed effect on MEP news visibility. Attendance negatively affects news visibility, while non‐attached MEP s receive more news coverage. In short, despite the core supranational nature of EP legislative politics, MEP news visibility primarily depends on journalists’ domestic considerations. This informs both our understanding of MEP parliamentary behaviour and journalism studies in the context of the EU .