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Framing Serbia: the effects of news framing on public support for EU enlargement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Sophie Lecheler  and
Claes H. De Vreese
Sophie Lecheler*
Affiliation:
Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Claes H. De Vreese
Affiliation:
Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
*
* E-mail: S.K.Lecheler@uva.nl
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Abstract

One of the most important activities of the European Union (EU) has been widening the Union, that is, enlargement. Tapping to what extent and why EU citizens support future enlargement rounds has become a popular endeavour among researchers and EU officials. During recent years, a number of studies have indicated that public support for EU integration is likely to also depend on how the national news media portray the EU. Based on an experimental survey design, we test the effects of two news frames on support for future Serbian EU candidacy. We find that exposure to news frames has considerable impact on general understanding of Serbian EU candidacy, issue interpretation, and policy support. This effect is moderated by political knowledge. Knowledgeable participants were able to express their thoughts on Serbian EU candidacy more elaborately, whereas low-knowledge individuals were overall more susceptible to framing effects. We discuss the implications of our findings for current debates such as Euroskepticism and decreasing public support for EU integration.

Keywords

mediaEU public opinionEU enlargementSerbiaframing effects
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 73 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2010

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