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This book explains how the media helped to invent the European Union as the supranational polity that we know today. Against normative EU scholarship, it tells the story of the rise of the Euro-journalists - pro-European advocacy journalists - within the post-war Western European media. The Euro-journalists pioneered a journalism which symbolically magnified the technocratic European Community as the embodiment of Europe. Normative research on the media and European integration has focused on how the media might help to construct a democratic and legitimate European Union. In contrast, this book aims to deconstruct how journalists - as part of Western European elites - played a key role in elite European identity building campaigns.
List of contents
Introduction.- The Media and the Many Europes.- The Emergence of the Euro-journalists.- The Rise of the Euro-narrative.- The Dominance of Euro-journalism.- Euro-journalism and the Emergence of a European Polity.- Conclusion: The Media, Politics and European Identity Building.
About the author
Martin Herzer holds a PhD in History from the European University Institute, Italy. He was a visiting doctoral student in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and a teaching fellow at the Centre d’Histoire at Sciences Po Paris.
Summary
This book explains how the media helped to invent the European Union as the supranational polity that we know today. Against normative EU scholarship, it tells the story of the rise of the Euro-journalists – pro-European advocacy journalists – within the post-war Western European media. The Euro-journalists pioneered a journalism which symbolically magnified the technocratic European Community as the embodiment of Europe. Normative research on the media and European integration has focused on how the media might help to construct a democratic and legitimate European Union. In contrast, this book aims to deconstruct how journalists – as part of Western European elites – played a key role in elite European identity building campaigns.
Additional text
“The book is extremely well-structured with helpful introductory contexts to the various phases of Europeanisation as constructive enthusiasm for it moved from the margins in the 1950s to a hegemonic position in the 1970s. … Herzer’s timely contribution is laudably historical as befits a volume in this excellent series. … His book supplements this approach through insightful interviews with key contributors across four main countries: Germany, France, UK, and Italy.” (Martin Conboy, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 57 (3), 2022)
“It provides a rich and detailed insight into European journalism history against the background of European integration history while also adding to our understanding of present day EU–media relations. … Herzer’s book is a time travel companion well recommended.” (Carolin Rüger, JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies, August 28, 2020)
Report
"The book is extremely well-structured with helpful introductory contexts to the various phases of Europeanisation as constructive enthusiasm for it moved from the margins in the 1950s to a hegemonic position in the 1970s. ... Herzer's timely contribution is laudably historical as befits a volume in this excellent series. ... His book supplements this approach through insightful interviews with key contributors across four main countries: Germany, France, UK, and Italy." (Martin Conboy, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 57 (3), 2022)
"It provides a rich and detailed insight into European journalism history against the background of European integration history while also adding to our understanding of present day EU-media relations. ... Herzer's book is a time travel companion well recommended." (Carolin Rüger, JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies, August 28, 2020)
