Mirroring or Setting the Political Agenda? The Role of the Media in the Eurosceptic Debate

From the opinion-swinging British tabloids which have become synonymous with anti-EU sentiment, especially during the ‘Brexit year’ of 2016, to the Commission’s Euromyths-busting service, dedicated to counteract Eurosceptic inaccuracies in media reporting, the message is clear: Euroscepticism in the media is a force to be reckoned with. But does this also mean that EU politics is hostage to media reporting? Are media responsible for the rise of Euroscepticism? Placing the rich empirical literature on Euroscepticism and the media in the context of mediatization and democratic public sphere norms, this chapter argues that media-driven EU contestation can be an indicator of a healthy European public sphere. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in The Routledge Handbook of Euroscepticism on 27.07.2017, available online: http://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Euroscepticism/Leruth-Startin-Usherwood/p/book/978113878474