News media representations of a common EU foreign and security policy: a cross-national content analysis of CFSP coverage in national quality newspapers

This study is a cross-national comparative content analysis of the broadsheet press coverage of EU Common Foreign and Security issues (n=1453) focusing on the presence of indicators of a European Public Sphere. Specifically, we investigated the visibility of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) stories, featuring actors, the tone of coverage and the presence of ‘risk’ and ‘opportunity’ frames. We found that CFSP was more visible in broadsheets during key events. In terms of actors in the news, coverage was primarily Europeanized. When evaluative, CFSP news had a distinctive, positive dimension, especially with reference to the European Union (EU) as an entity. CFSP issues were more frequently framed in terms of ‘opportunity’ rather than in terms of ‘risk’. Our findings suggest that the news coverage of CFSP is truly different from the coverage of EU affairs in general. Implications for the formation of public opinion and the legitimacy of CFSP are discussed.