The European Parliament in the News

This book analyzes the social legitimacy deficit of the European Parliament (EP) in the United Kingdom and Greece. It does so by considering it, partially, a communication deficit, and by addressing the relevant inadequacies of its communication and media relations performance. Following this approach, the book identifies and critically analyzes the problems that the European Parliament is facing in communicating and portraying itself to news websites in the United Kingdom and Greece, and offers potential solutions to the issues presented.

The book provides an initial comparison of the scale of the problems that the EP is facing in its communication and media relations performance in Greece and in the United Kingdom, focusing on a number of prominent, carefully selected, impartial or pro-European websites. The failures of the EP to secure adequate levels of visibility on these websites automatically signify serious basic weaknesses in its communication strategy. This bookidentifies those weaknesses, their causes, and presents solutions on how to solve them.

Therefore, this book is a must-read for students and scholars of political science and media communication, as well as policy-makers and practitioners interested in a better understanding of the European Parliament's social legitimacy and communication deficit.

Identifies basic weaknesses of the European Parliament's media relations and communication strategy Offers solutions to the issues and weaknesses presented Includes interviews with journalists that shed light on the production of online European Union news stories

Autorentext

Dimitrios Souliotis is a public communication expert. He has worked at the Greek Public Administration and the European Commission. He has teaching experience in the University of Central Lancashire, the University of Patras, the Greek National School of Public Administration and Local Government and the Training Institute for Public Administration. His professional and academic interests focus on mass media, public relations and government communication. He has participated in several academic international conferences and he has published relevant articles. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Journalism Studies and Communication Applications Lab, in the Department of Communication and Media Studies, The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. The European Parliament.- Chapter 3. European Parliament's Legitimacy: Conceptualisation and Empirical Assessment.- Chapter 4. European Parliament and The News Media.- Chapter 5. Content Analysis and Semi-Structured Interviews as Assessment Tools.- Chapter 6. European Parliament's Media Coverage in The News Websites.- Chapter 7. Assessment of The Media Relations Performance of The EPLO'S.- Chapter 8. Identification and Critical Analysis of The Problems in The Online Media Coverage and Media Relations Performance of The EP in Greece and in the UK.- Chapter 9. Identification of Potential Ways of Communicating the EP More Effectively in Greece and in the UK.- Chapter 10. Critical Analysis of The Potential Ways of Communicating the EP More Efficiently.- Chapter 11. Overall Conclusion.