Publications, Articles and Conference Papers
Publications (2) | Articles (7) | Conference Papers (25)
Publications
The EU Through the Eyes of the Asia-Pacific: public perceptions and media representations
Edited by Natalia Chaban and Martin Holland
NCRE Research Series No. 4
ISBN 0-473-10512-8
Cover (.pdf, 669 KB)
Full text ***updated*** (.pdf, 1.12 MB)
To order a hard copy of the publication, please contact the NCRE office at ncre@canterbury.ac.nz.
Section One: THE EU AND PUBLIC OPINION IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC
EU-Asia-Pacific interconnections and influences have grown significantly over the last decades. Considering the ‘Asian’ angle in the dialogue, the EU’s relations with principal and emerging partners in Asia have concentrated on trade, human rights dialogue, as well as programmes on economic, commercial and development cooperation. In recent years, security and political cooperation have contributed to a broader dialogue, involving new opportunities for diplomatic manoeuvre. A key aspect of the EU’s strategy towards Asia has been to strengthen further the mutual awareness between Europe and Asia and to reduce persisting stereotypes. What is needed is more than analyses of trade figures, tourist numbers, policy issues, common stances or areas of discord. Public opinion, in particular, has received almost no attention due to the conventional emphasis on the activities of political and business elites.
Section Two: THE EU IN THE MIRROR OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC MEDIA
The media plays a crucial role in civil society and public education and has the power to direct both elite and public perceptions and opinions. News media is argued to be a principal source of information on foreign events and central to informing public opinion on international affairs. This section looks at the media’s role in informing understandings of the European Union in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand by analyzing the representations of the EU as an economic, political and social actor in national print and broadcast media. For the news items to be included in the sample they had to deal with events or situations in the EU outside the home country, or events in the home country in which EU takes part, or which are presented as having relevance to the EU situations. News on the EU is defined as stories mentioning the EU at least once, even marginally.
EU in the Views of Asia-Pacific Elites: Australia, New Zeland and Thailand
Martin Holland, Natalia Chaban, Jessica Bain, Katrina States and Paveena Sutthisripok
December 2005
NCRE Research Series No. 5
ISBN 0-473-10984-0
Full Publication (.pdf, 1.72 MB)
With its population approximating 450m people and its territory covering the space from the Atlantic Ocean to the Carpathian Mountains, the European Union (EU) is a new “giant” on the world stage. Neither a nationstate nor a regional organization, the EU is growing in importance as an international actor. Traditionally, it has been known as a global economic powerhouse and currently holds the status of a leading economy in the ‘troika’ of major regions of the world economy – Europe/ EU, North America, and the Asia-Pacific. Alongside this projection as an economic ”muscle”, the EU has more recently sought new and complementary roles on the world stage – as an audible voice in the international political arena, a skilful international negotiator, a power with a ‘soft’ touch, a model for international integration, and a possible counterbalance to the USA.
Yet, an absence of a ‘unified EU voice’ on certain important issues both internally and externally (such as the ratification of the EU Constitution and on the Iraq war) can result in a catalogue of diverse and sometimes contrasting roles ascribed to the EU by international observers. As a result, the EU - an ever-evolving new and unique entity closely observed around the globe - still appears to be profoundly misunderstood beyond its borders.
This report presents the executive summary of the understandings and meanings attached to the EU that currently exist among the national elites in three Asia- Pacific countries: Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. Ultimately, reflections from outside the European Union can contribute towards the expression of the shared ‘EU identity’, perhaps one of the most contested and challenging concepts in current EU discourse. Arguably, identifying the patterns of foreign actors’ perceptions at the elite level enhances the understanding of the conduct of foreign policy of a country.
Articles
Past imperfect, present continuous, future indefinite?: Images of Turkey in the context of the EU integration in Australian and New Zealand news media
Natalia Chaban, Katrina Stats, Jessica Bain, and Fiona Machin
Insight Turkey, December 2005.
Full text (.pdf, 106 KB)
This paper investigates how the news media of the two Australasian countries – Australia and New Zealand (NZ) – frame the images of Turkey against the images of the European Union (EU) in the context of an ongoing EU integration. Due to its newsworthy attributes (drama and conflict), news about Turkey in the context of EU integration successfully competed for attention among journalists and audiences in the two countries in 2004. The images created by news media have arguably brought the distant Turkey and EU closer to the interpersonal worlds of Australians and New Zealanders, informing and educating them on the latest developments in these remote foreign counterparts. The study derives its importance from the assumption that the revealed string of representations (analyzed using the cognitive semantics tool of conceptual metaphor) are likely to influence NZ and Australian public and elite opinions about the EU (as an important international counterpart to both NZ and Australia), and of Turkey (as a possible member of the EU).
Public Attitudes Toward the European Union in Australia and New Zealand
Martin Holland and Bradford S. Jones
Politik Im Netz, November 2005.
Full text to come.
Abstract to come.
“Constellation” or a “Giant Star”?: Perceptions of the European Union by New Zealand national elites
Natalia Chaban
Politik Im Netz, November 2005.
Full text to come.
An elite-driven project from its inception, the European Union (EU) could arguably discover additional perspectives of its self-image if it looks at itself through the eyes of international elites. This article focuses on the EU as New Zealand (NZ) ‘elites’ see it. As one of the first systematic overviews of NZ national elite perceptions of the EU, this paper provides insight into the links NZ elites have with the EU, as well as their personal knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes towards the EU.
Data for this research came from two projects – Rediscovering Europe: NZ Public, Elite and Media perceptions of the EU (2002-2004) and Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in Asia Pacific Region: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand (2004-2006). Both projects dealt with public and elite perceptions of the EU from outside the EU’s border, as well the role of the international media in shaping such perceptions.
New Zealand Newspapers’ Representations of EU Enlargement between January 2000 and May 2004
Natalia Chaban and Matthew Gibbons
Politik Im Netz, November 2005.
Full text to come.
The attention New Zealand (NZ) newspapers paid to European Union (EU) enlargement between 1 January 2000 and the end of May 2004 is studied. Coverage of EU enlargement in NZ newspapers proved to be very strongly affected by which company owned a particular title, and to a less extent by the paper’s circulation. APN’s New Zealand Herald, Allied Press’s Otago Daily Times, and Fourth Estate’s National Business Review provided a reasonable level and depth of EU enlargement coverage. In contrast, the INL/Fairfax titles, which included two major metropolitan papers, all contained very few stories on EU enlargement. Since INL/Fairfax newspapers are the only daily papers in large parts of NZ, many New Zealanders are likely to have been very poorly informed about the effects of EU enlargement.
How They See Us
Martin Holland
E!Sharp, November-December 2005, 52.
Full text (.pdf, 34 KB)
In the Asia-Pacific, the EU is only partially understood, with communication struggling to keep abreast of the dynamic pace of change... a conclusion perhaps not that dissimilar to the views of EU citizens.
Reading Europe: Representations of the European Union in the Australian Media
Katrina Stats
Forum, the La Trobe Political Science Journal, 2005. Accepted for publishing in next edition.
Full text (.pdf, 124 KB)
In May 2004, the European Union yet again loosened it waistband to make room for 10 new Member States and an additional 75 million citizens from Central and Eastern Europe. As the Union grows in width, it is also growing in economic power, political significance, and social influence both at a global level, and also in terms of its bilateral relations with third countries such as Australia.
The European Union has been Australia’s largest and most important economic partner for the past 15 years. It is our largest merchandise trading partner, our largest partner for trade in services, our principal source of import goods, and our leading investor. Yet, in spite of this clear importance to the national interest, our government has declared the EU to be ‘complex and difficult’, it is virtually invisible in local media, and is perceived as incomprehensible and esoteric by the Australian public, who find contemporary Europe easier to swallow if it comes in a pizza box or latte glass.
The media plays a crucial role in civil society and public education and has the power to direct both elite and public perceptions and opinions. This paper looks at the media’s role in informing understandings and misunderstandings of the European Union in Australia by analysing the representations of the EU as an economic, political and social actor in local print and broadcast media. The paper considers the dynamics of interest, reflected in the visibility and status accorded to EU news, as well as the dynamics of content in order to comment on the significance of media representations for the EU-Australia relationship.
When Enough is Enough? Dynamics of the EU Representations in Asia-Pacific Print Media
Natalia Chaban, Kim Se Na, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok
Asia-Pacific Journal of EU Studies, Vol.2(2), 2004, 173-193.
Full text (.pdf, 264 KB)
This study is a part of the research project “Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the European Union in Asia Pacific Region: A Comparative Study” which is broadly concerned with how information about the EU is organized and structured in media discourses in Australia, Korea, New Zealand, and Thailand, and focuses on how that information compares with public and elite perceptions of the EU in those countries. More specifically, this study draws on evidence relating to the flow and structure of EU news in print media in the four respective countries. To examine that, a systematic analytical approach featuring a set of formal characteristics of dynamics, length, placement, sources, leading topics, degree of centrality and foci of domesticity is employed. Data comes from the daily coverage of the EU in 20 influential regional dailies in the first half of 2004. Results of this research are viewed as a baseline from which to consider dominating images, perceptions and attitudes towards the EU in Asia-Pacific in a greater detail.
Conference Papers
The European Union in Metaphors: Images of the EU in the Asia-Pacific
Presented by Natalia Chaban
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok
The 20th IPSA World Congress, Fukuoka, Japan, July 9 – 13, 2006
Reflection on the Perceptions of Asian Media on the EU Integration
Presented by Paveena Sutthisripok
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Katrina Stats
Asian Regional Conference EU’s Experiences in Integration: A Model for ASEAN+3?, EU-China European Studies Centres Programme (ESCP), Shanghai, 6 - 7 January 2006
As ASEAN, and in the wider context, East Asia has been intensifying their regional cooperation, there is a growing number of comparative studies between Europe’s and Asia’s regional integration experiences and the lessons Asia can learn from the EU, the most successful regional organisation to date. However, the study on the reflection on the Asian perception of European integration is yet to be explored. Studying the Asian perceptions on the European integration will not only reveal another dimension of EU’s external identity, i.e. the EU’s role in being the model of regional integration, but also reflect the character of Asia, the region where it has been widely debated whether the common identity exist.
Acknowledging the power of media in influencing public perception, providing information to the elite, and hence influencing the formulation and conduct of foreign policy, my research paper proposes to examine the Asian views on the EU integration, through the eyes of the media, in one Northeast and one Southeast Asian country, Korea and Thailand. Using interdisciplinary methodology, the paper investigates the framing of the EU integration process in the media of the Asia Pacific in terms of political and socio-economic implications for the region. This paper is a part of the innovative, transnational research project, Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in the Asia Pacific Region: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand: A Comparative Study. Portrayals of EU enlargement from the daily coverage of the EU in 10 leading regional newspapers and 4 prime time television news in 2004 in Korea and Thailand are examined. It is hope that the paper will contribute a fresh angle to the studies of the EU and Asian integration process.
Seeing Europe Through the Eyes of Others: Asia-Pacific Perceptions of the European Union
Presented by Natalia Chaban
Paper co-authored by Martin Holland, Jessica Bain, Katrina Stats, Paveena Sutthisripok, and Fiona Machin
“Europe Inside Out”. IALIC 6th Annual Conference, Haute Ecole Francisoc Ferrer, Brussels, Belgium, December 9 – 11 2005
Full abstract text (.pdf, 95 KB)
In a variety of approaches studying the contested concept of Europe, what meaning does “European” take in the wide world? With the term “Europe” not easily definable inside the continent, how is Europe seen from the outside? Is it possible that reflections from the outside the European may more clearly identify and help define Europe than Europe itself? Addressing the conference theme “Europe and the Wider World”, this paper deals with the under-researched issue of the public perception of the European Union (EU) outside the Union’s border and the role of the international media in shaping such perception.
Perceptions of the EU in Asia-Pacific Region: Findings from a Survey of Public Opinion
Presented by Martin Holland
Paper co-authored by Natalia Chaban, Bradford S. Jones, and Kenneth Chan
“Multilateralism and Regionalism in Europe and Asia-Pacific”, Asia-Pacific EUSA conference, Tokyo, Japan, 8 – 10 December 2005
A Mediator on the World-Stage? How the EU's Commitment in Foreign Affairs is Portrayed by New Zealand & Australian Media
Presented by Maria Rogahn
Paper co-authored by Katrina Stats, Natalia Chaban, Jessica Bain, Martin Holland, and Paveena Sutthisripok
Designing the European Union, 4th International Workshop for Young Scholars (WISH), Université Paul Cézanne, Aix-Marseille III, France, 18 – 19 November 2005
Regional Cooperation and Identity in Asia
Presented by Martin Holland
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Fiona Machin, Kim Se Na and Paveena Sutthisripok
“EU-Asian Relations: State of affairs, problems, and perspectives”, NESCA conference, Macau, 11 – 12 November 2005
Lost in Translations?: Examining EU images in Thai and English Newspapers
Presented by Paveena Sutthisripok
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Katrina Stats
Language and Communication and Culture: Dialogs and Contexts in Focus, The School of Language and Communication at the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Bangkok, Thailand, 19 - 21 October, 2005
The European Union has increasingly become an important partner for Thailand. The forth largest trading partner, the EU at times has difficult economic relations with Thailand, particularly in issues relating to trade barriers. As Thailand is intensifying Asian cooperation, the political dialogue with the EU at the regional level through the ASEM process has become increasingly important. Understanding the perception of media, an influential agent in providing information to the public and policy makers , helps promote better understanding on the relationship.
In order to capture a range of meaning-construction processes by Thai people with regards to the EU as a new powerful partner, this paper studies EU images created by Thai newspapers, ‘Thai Rath’ and ‘Matichon’ and English newspapers, ‘Bangkok Post’ and ‘The Nation’ across the year 2004. Seeing that majority of international news comes from foreign sources, this paper will examine distinction between English and Thai images appeared in news items featured similar issues. A focus is given on news relating to the Fifth ASEM Summit and the EU’s ban on Thai exports, the issues which play prominent roles in the relationship. It will later discuss the differences in terms of its implications on Thailand’s dialogue with the EU.
From the Outside Looking In: Asia Pacific Perceptions of the European Union
Paper presented by Katrina Stats
Co-authored by Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, Fiona Machin, Kim Se Na and Paveena Sutthisripok
Designing the European Union, 4th International Workshop for Young Scholars, Australia, 18 - 19 November, 2005
As an elite-driven project from its inception, perhaps the most critical and challenging task currently facing the European Union is the task of building a meaningful and legitimate European identity accessible to and encompassing the general public. The construction of a shared European identity must come not only from the bottom up, engaging the people of Europe themselves as is widely acknowledged, but also from the inside out, establishing itself as an important and cohesive international actor in the minds of external interlocutors, and from the outside in, as reflected by perceptions of ‘Europeaness’ generated by the non-European ‘Other’.
With this in mind, in 2004, an international team of young researchers embarked on a two-year study of external perceptions of the European Union. Addressing a striking deficit of research in this area, Perceptions of the EU in the Asia Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand): A Comparative Study is designed to explore the nexus between media, public and elite perceptions of the EU in two Asian (Thailand and South Korea) and two Pacific (Australia and New Zealand) countries. The study has a tripartite structure and employs multiple methodologies to target each of these focus groups – it involves content analysis of local media sources, a broad public survey, and in-depth interviews with media, political and business elites. It is funded by a grant from the European Commission’s Directorate-General on Education and Culture, and involves researchers and research centres in each of the four participating Asia Pacific countries.
As this project draws to a close at the end of 2005, there will be important lessons from this research to be shared with the European Union. Employing the data generated by twelve months of comprehensive quantitative and qualitative media analysis of 20 leading daily newspapers and 8 television news bulletins, the results of 160 in-depth ‘elite’ interviews, and 1,600 public surveys across the region, this paper will examine how the EU is viewed - as a global political, social and economic actor - through the eyes of its Asia Pacific partners. This groundbreaking research will offer critical insights and an invaluable contribution to debate over the design of the Union, the construction of a European identity and questions of ‘What sort of Europe?’, as well as legal concerns and policy implications from a unique and, it is suggested, crucial perspective – from outside looking in.
Images of Turkey in ANZAC media: past imperfect, present continuous, future indefinite?
Presented by Natalia Chaban
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Katrina Stats and Fiona Machin
Australasian Political Studies Association Conference, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand, 28 - 30 September 2005
Proposal text (.pdf, 80 KB)
‘Trojan horse of Islam in Europe’? A ‘crucial geopolitical player’? A ‘poor and crowded Muslim nation clamouring on the doors of the Brussels’ club’? A ‘friendly voice at the table of the world's largest consumer bloc’? Images of Turkey in New Zealand (NZ) and Australian media are as diverse and intricate as the patterns of a Turkish carpet.
A country with an overwhelming population of 71 million people, a key strategic position, Muslim heritage, and a 40-year history of accession talks with the European Community, Turkey is currently stealing the limelight in worldwide media coverage of EU enlargement. This paper employs the results of the trans-national research project “Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in the Asia-Pacific”, to survey the images of Turkey (in the context of its relations with the EU) in NZ and Australian media. The portrayals of Turkey are traced in the daily coverage of the EU in 2004 in ten newspapers and four primetime television news bulletins in the two countries. The collected imagery is discussed in terms of its pragmatic implications for the dialogue between the ‘ANZAC’ community, Turkey, and the expanding EU.
Hiding in the Shadows: Images of the EU in the Media and Minds of the Asia-Pacific
Presented by Jessica Bain
Paper co-authored by Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok
European Consortium for Political Research, 3rd ECPR Conference, Budapest, 8-10 September 2005
With its latest enlargement, the European Union (EU) has grown not only in physical size, but also in its global influence and reach for many regions, including the countries in the Asia-Pacific. Despite the political and economic significance of these relationships however, public knowledge and awareness of the Union’s role, both internationally and in the region, is very low. This paper is a part of the innovative, transnational research project, Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in the Asia Pacific Region: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand: A Comparative Study, and specifically addresses the daily media attention given to the EU in 8 primetime television news bulletins through out 2004 in the four countries. The findings have been compared with the EU coverage by the regional print media – 20 leading newspapers, and additionally with the findings of the national public opinion surveys on the EU conducted in each of the countries in December 2004.. Using an interdisciplinary methodology, the paper investigates the volume and content of EU representations in Asia-Pacific television – the principal channel through which the international general public learns about the events and peoples of the EU.
A Rising Star? Asia Pacific Perceptions of the European Union
Presented by Katrina Stats
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Paveena Sutthisripok
European Consortium for Political Research, 3rd ECPR Conference, Budapest, 8-10 September 2005
Critically acclaimed by some as a cosmopolitan peacemaker and alternatively cast as a sinister, sovereignty-devouring, Frankenstein-like monster by others, the European Union plays many roles on the global stage to mixed reviews. Like any image-conscious celebrity, the EU is necessarily concerned about how it is perceived, not only by its own members, but also by its external interlocutors. Equally, its growing size and stature make it an influential economic actor and a potent political player for third countries and regions to both comprehend, communicate and critically evaluate.
With this is mind, an international research team spread across four countries – Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand – monitored local media coverage and surveyed public perceptions of the EU in each country during 2004 as part of a two-year, interdisciplinary study of external perceptions of the EU.
This paper considers how the EU was portrayed within two frames or roles – as an economic actor in the WTO and as a political performer in the context of the Kyoto Protocol. The paper considers quantitative and qualitative differences, as well as similarities, in the way the EU was portrayed and perceived by the four countries in the context of these two roles. It furthermore explores and comments on both the broader implications and possible consequences for the relationship between the EU and the countries of the Asia Pacific.
The European Union and the World: How the EU as a global actor is framed in Asia-Pacific Media
Presented by Jessica Bain
Paper co-authored by Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, Katrina Stats, and Paveena Sutthisripok
The European Union: Past And Future Enlargements, UACES 35th Annual Conference And 10th Research Conference, Zagreb, 5 - 7 September 2005
The European Union (EU) is increasingly becoming an important partner for many countries in the Asia-Pacific, in both political and economic terms, but few studies exist which examine the manner in which the EU is perceived internationally as a political entity. Using an interdisciplinary methodology, the paper investigates the framing of the EU as a global actor in the media of the Asia Pacific in terms of its political and diplomatic efforts in the region. This paper is a part of the innovative, transnational research project, Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in the Asia Pacific Region: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand: A Comparative Study. Daily coverage of the European Union was monitored in 20 prominent regional newspapers, and 8 primetime television news bulletins through out 2004.
Watching Europe Grow: EU Enlargment from an Asia-Pacific Perspective
Presented by Katrina Stats
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Paveena Sutthisripok
The European Union: Past And Future Enlargements, UACES 35th Annual Conference And 10th Research Conference, Zagreb, 5 - 7 September 2005
As the European Union grows in width, it is also gathering economic power, political significance and social influence at both the global level and also in terms of its bilateral relations with other regions and third countries. Thus, when the Union loosened its waistband to make room for 10 new Member States and an additional 75 million citizens in May 2004, the event was closely observed by the Asia Pacific and greeted with mixed responses.
In four countries from this region - Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and South Korea - an international team of researchers monitored the media coverage of this event and local responses to it as part of a two-year, interdisciplinary study of external perceptions of the EU. Communicating Europe has been identified as a major issue for the Union, internally contributing to the democratic deficit that has plagued its existence and externally impacting its relations with third states and other regions. Working from the premise that “we use the media to construct our version of what the world is like,” this research provides invaluable insight into the Asia Pacific’s version of the European Union and the EU-AP relationship.
This paper explores how EU enlargement was framed in 20 leading regional newspapers and 8 prime time television news bulletins of the Asia Pacific in 2004. It presents the results of a comparative analysis of the political, economic and social reportage in each of the four countries and considers the broader implications of the way the EU was communicated in the context of the enlargement to the Asia Pacific.
“Frenemies”?: Images of the US-EU Relations in Asia-Pacific Media
Natalia Chaban
The Biases of Media, 6th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association, Fordham University in New York City, 22 - 26 June 2005
Castells (1996: 145) described the ‘architecture and geometry of the informational/global economy’ as an asymmetrically interdependent phenomenon organized around three major regions – North America, Europe/EU, and the Asia-Pacific. Assuming the pivotal role of communication in the process of globalization, this paper aims to address the deficit of scholarly attention towards the international flow of political information among the three centres. In particular, this paper investigates accents and emphases in the portrayals of the USA and the European Union (EU) in the Asia-Pacific news media. This empirically driven interdisciplinary research offers a systematic analysis of news media production using a “social cognitive science” approach (Turner 2001) – a combination of cognitive and social sciences brought together under the umbrella of the study of meaning, reason, concept change, and concept formation.
The data comes from the trans-national research project ‘Asia-Pacific Perceptions of the EU – Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and South Korea: A Comparative Study”. Launched in January 2004, it monitors public and media discourses in the four countries investigating the EU images and perceptions. However, the EU representations have been often observed to appear in tandem with the US ones. Powerful voices in Asia-Pacific politics, the four countries have had close relations with the USA and the EU in economics, foreign and military affairs. In terms of trade, the EU and the USA are among top partners, leading investors and major sources of tourists for each country. On various international relations agendas – Kyoto Protocol, International Criminal Court, War in Iraq, etc. -- all four countries have sided with the US and the EU to varying degrees.
Presented by Asian-Pacific news media as a world’s ’soft’ power, the EU is often contrasted with a ‘hard liner’, the US. This depiction invokes images of a ‘good’ cop vs. a ‘bad’ one. Regretfully, instead of ‘teaming up’ in watching out the world order, the two powers are represented mostly in opposing terms. Using an analytical tool of the conceptual metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), this paper reveals a diligently supported by the news media imagery of the US-EU interactions. It ranges from ‘bickering’, ‘wrangles’, and ‘squabbles’ to ‘competition’, ‘rivalry’, ‘fighting’, ‘feud’, and even ‘war’ -- be it about War in Iraq, WTO trade liberalization disputes, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran’s nuclear program, or aid to the victims of Asian Tsunami. As a result, two sides are seen as ‘wounded’ and ‘in need of healing’. Although other conceptual metaphors occasionally enter the scene, (e.g., ‘family’, ‘romance’, ‘friendship’), they are outnumbered and outshined by this exaggeratedly negative ‘opposition continuum’.
September 11, a tragic reminder of how tightly the world is linked, caused an upsurge of international news worldwide – the outside world suddenly became worth to be known about, and the interest is far from waning. The representations of the US and the EU will stay on top of the news agenda in the Asia-Pacific, thus the biases embodied into the flow of international political communication deserve an on-going scrutiny. As a principle channel through which the public is informed about foreign countries, international news very often single-handedly shapes public knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards foreign countries, sometimes to the detriment of those countries. Moreover, news media is increasingly autonomous in its capacity to formulate and conduct foreign policy. Even though the discussed images are irrational, the implications of them on the region’s foreign policy are real and grave. Should the images of the ‘eternal fight’ between the two ‘giants’ cement, other regions may see that disagreement, rather than unity, is a ‘normal’ state of affairs between the two super-powers. In their turn, the third parties may consider instigating those ‘squabbles’ in order to achieve their own objectives, a dangerous perspective in an ever antagonizing world.
A ‘New Political Giant’ or an ‘Old Dwarf’: Metaphors in Constructing Images of the EU in Thai English Newspapers
Presented by Paveena Sutthisripok
Paper co-authored by Natalia Chaban
ASIALEX, Singapore, 1 - 3 June 2005
The European Union has increasingly become an important political force in the international arena. The combination of the political weight of its member states ensures that the internal politics of European integration inevitably have global impact and makes the EU one of the prominent world actors, both for the world regions and for the individual countries. The fourth largest trading partner to Thailand, the EU conducts its political communication with Thailand at the regional level, particular through the EU-ASEAN dialogue. With issues of Myanmar and the Asian values discourse being frictions in this dialogue, Thailand sees itself as a ‘bridge’ between Europe and Southeast Asia.
In order to capture a range of meaning-construction processes by Thai people with regards to the EU as a new powerful global political actor, this interdisciplinary paper studies the images of EU as a political unity created by Thai English newspapers “Bangkok Post” and “The Nation” during 2004. The media texts of these two international newspapers targeting elite and educated locals, and foreign readers are examined through the metaphorical categorizations which reveal patterns of conceptualization of the EU not otherwise noticed. Metaphor, as one of the tropes, is used to discover imagery which is later discussed in terms of its implications on Thailand’s dialogue with a new reshaped Europe.
Perceptions of the EU in the Asia-Pacific Region
Michael E. DeGolyer and Kenneth Chan
Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University
The International Conference “EU-Asia Relations: Building Multilateralism?”, Hong Kong Baptist University, 20 - 1 May 2005
The paper aims to introduce the methods, developments and early results of an on-going comparative survey of what Europe and particularly the European Union mean to citizens in the Asia-Pacific region. This project has grown from a pilot study in New Zealand under the auspices of the National Centre for Research on Europe into a cross-national research covering similar themes in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand. It aims to trace the image of Europe using public opinion surveys and media analysis, and to facilitate the debate on external perspectives on European integration. A similar project on Hong Kong and Macau is now under development by the Hong Kong Transition Project.
Framing EU Enlargement in Asia-Pacific Media
Presented by Paveena Sutthisripok
Paper co-authored by Jessica Bain, Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland, and Katrina Stats
The European Union and the World: Asia, Enlargement and Constitutional Change, Meeting of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) Research Committee 3 (RC-3) on European Unification (IPSA RC-3), Beijing, 5-6 May 2005
Full text (.pdf, 248 KB)
The European Union’s fifth enlargement in May 2004 increased the EU’s economic and political weight, making it a prominent actor in the international arena, including involvement with the Asia Pacific and with individual countries in the region. However, there is a deficit of studies into the information flow between a newly reshaped EU and the Asia-Pacific. This paper addresses challenges associated with the EU’s strategic process of long-term international image-construction. Using interdisciplinary methodology, the paper investigates the framing of the EU enlargement in the media of the Asia Pacific in terms of political and socio-economic implications for the region. This paper is a part of the innovative, transnational research project, Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in the Asia Pacific Region: Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand: A Comparative Study. Portrayals of EU enlargement from the daily coverage of the EU in 20 leading regional newspapers and 8 prime time television news in 2004 are examined.
Outside Looking In: EU Media Coverage: A Comparative Analysis of Australia, Korea, New Zealand and Thailand
Presented by Martin Holland
Paper co-authored by Natalia Chaban
EUSA 9th Biannual Conference, Austin, Texas, 31 March - 2 April 2005
The democratic deficit of communicating ‘Europe’ to its citizens has yet to be studied in the EU’s external relations. An imbalance between a growing capability of the EU as an international actor and mis- or under-representation of the EU in international media and public discourses could result in low expectations of the EU from its global partners. This paper offers a scholarly examination of the media perceptions findings and methodological base of a wider study of the EU’s external identity entitled -- “Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in the Asia-Pacific Region”. Both the comparative approach and the four-country case-study offer unique and original insights which serve as a necessary benchmark against which new studies focused on EU external perceptions may be located. The data provided here examines just one aspect of this wider project – print and TV media representation of the EU as a political actor in Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand for 2004.
Images of the EU In Asia-Pacific Media: A 4-Country Comparative Analysis
Presented by Natalia Chaban
Paper co-authored by Martin Holland
Shifting Boundaries of Sovereignty: Governance and Legitimacy in the European Union and Australasia, Canberra, 22 - 24 March 2005
This paper is based on the work of a nine-person international team led by New Zealand's National Centre for Research on Europe involving researchers from EU Studies Associations in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand. The findings of the first stage of this trans-national project "Public, elite and media perceptions of the EU in Asia Pacific region: Images of the EU in Asia-Pacific media" will be presented. Launched in January 200 4 by the NCRE, the project aims to identify, measure, compare and raise public awareness and extend knowledge of the EU within four countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Three stages of the project include monitoring the EU images in national print and television media in the region (daily coverage of the EU in 2004 in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Korea); surveying public opinion on the EU in the four countries; and examining national political, business, and media elite opinion. This two-year research project is funded through a € 142,000 grant from the Commission's Directorate-General on Education and Culture Jean Monnet Programme.
The paper will focus on the media analysis phase of the project and tests several sub-questions related to the comparative analysis of the EU media images including: the EU as an economic power: the EU in the field of social policy: and the EU as a political power. The paper will also address the methodological issues pertaining to a multilingual and mixed media cross-national study.
Reading Europe: Representations of the European Union in the Australian Media
Katrina Stats
Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 27 September 2004
In May this year, the European Union yet again loosened it waistband to make room for 10 new Member States and an additional 75 million citizens from Central and Eastern Europe. As the Union grows in width, it is also growing in economic power, political significance, and social influence both at a global level, and also in terms of its bilateral relations with third countries such as Australia.
The European Union has been Australia’s largest and most important economic partner for the past 12 years. It is our largest merchandise trading partner, our largest partner for trade in services, our principal source of import goods, and our leading investor. Yet, in spite of this clear importance to the national interest, our government has declared the EU to be ‘complex and difficult’, it is virtually invisible in local media, and is perceived as incomprehensible and esoteric by the Australian public, who find contemporary Europe easier to swallow if it comes in a pizza box or latte glass.
The media plays a crucial role in civil society and public education and has the power to direct both elite and public perceptions and opinions. This paper looks at the media’s role in informing understandings and misunderstandings of the European Union in Australia by analysing the representations of the EU as an economic, political and social actor in local print and broadcast media. The paper considers the dynamics of interest, reflected in the visibility and status accorded to EU news, as well as the dynamics of content in order to comment on the significance of media representations for the EU-Australia relationship.
Images of the EU as an Economic Partner for Asia-Pacific: Emerging Frames in National Media
Katrina Stats
Outside Looking In: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the EUropean Union from the Asia-Pacific Region, 2nd International Conference of the Asia-Pacific EU Studies Association, Christchurch, New Zealand, 9 - 11 September 2004
Although its primary motivation was to establish lasting peace in Europe, the European integration project has been largely driven by economic factors. Moreover, it has been driven at a striking pace; in just over 50 years, the fledgling European Coal and Steel Community has evolved into a Union comprising 25 nation-states and some 450 million citizens. The European Union today constitutes the largest single market in the world and, with the greatest combined GDP and a significant trade surplus, is the world's wealthiest region.
This paper draws on the ongoing research undertaken as part of a project being coordinated by the University of Canterbury entitled Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in the Asia Pacific Region: A Comparative Study. This research coincides with an exciting time of growth and expansion for the EU. As the EU swells in size, its power and position as a global economic actor is also enhanced, with significant ramifications for third countries and regions, and their economies. Yet, preliminary observations suggest that the growing profile of the EU as a powerful global economic agent is not adequately reflected in the local media of the Asia Pacific that feed both public and elite perceptions of the EU - despite its role as a major economic partner for the region.
This paper contrasts and analyses the frames of reference and types of representations of the European Union as an economic actor in the national media of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand. The paper explores points of convergence and divergence across the four countries, and considers ways to account for them. As well, the implications of such representations for the relationship with the EU are discussed.
Images of the EU in the Area of Social Policy for Asia-Pacific: Emerging Frames in National Media
Se Na Kim
Outside Looking In: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the EUropean Union from the Asia-Pacific Region, 2nd International Conference of the Asia-Pacific EU Studies Association, Christchurch, New Zealand, 9 - 11 September 2004
The EU is an important economic and political partner for many countries and regions in the world. Observers note that the presence and influence of the EU in the Asia-Pacific has grown substantially in the last 20 year. Despite of the growing significance of the EU to the region, there are certain overlooked areas in the scholarship of EU -- Asia-Pacific relations. One of them is the study of the EU in terms of its perceptions, images and attitudes in this part of the world.
This paper aims to address this deficit in the scholarship via analyzing the latent intensive mechanisms employed by print news media of the four Asia-Pacific countries -- Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand -- to form the images of the EU. More specifically, this study looks at the content of EU images created via representing the EU social policy. This aspect of the EU imagery occupies a visible place in the international media representations, although this place is not as prominent as the portrayals of the EU as an economic and political counterpart to the region. The leading assumption of this paper is that the representations of a foreign partner in media contributes to the increase of knowledge and understanding of other peoples, of their cultures and traditions.
Overcoming the shortage of models that make sense of the imagery, this study employs an interpretive instrument revealing the content of image-formation. Operating within the political cognition perspective (Neuman et al. 1992), this research uses its central concept - the notion of schema or simplifying maps of how political facts and figures can be organized in a meaningful whole (Graber 1984).
The findings reflect the varying levels of inclusion and the differing prevailing representations of the EU social policy issues in the four national news media in the Asia-Pacific region. The results provide a baseline from which to identify the extent to which EU social affairs images are viewed as related and significant to the readership in the region.
Images of the EU as a Political Partner for Asia-Pacific: Emerging Frames in National Media
Paveena Sutthisripok
Outside Looking In: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the European Union from the Asia-Pacific Region, 2nd International Conference of the Asia-Pacific EU Studies Association, Christchurch, New Zealand, 9 - 11 September 2004
The European Union has increasingly become an important political force in the international arena. The combination of political weights of member states makes internal politics of the European integration inevitably have global impact. The EU is also forming a complex network of relations with countries, regions and international organisations in order to meet its aspiration of becoming one of the prominent world actors.
This abstract is for the presentation 'Images of the EU as a Political Partner for Asia-Pacific: Emerging Frames in National Media.' The preliminary assumption is that although there is a certain degree of visibility of the political representation of the EU in local media in the Asia-Pacific, the current level of presentation is not adequate to fully capture the dynamism of the EU's political affairs. Also, evaluations of the EU may not be often made but when they happen, they tend to have negative connotation to the EU.
The presentation compares and contrasts propositions, the frames of references and types of representation of the EU as a political actor in the national media of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand. The presentation aims to find similarities and differences in the finding of the four countries and their implications on the relationship between the EU and Asia-Pacific countries.
When Enough is Enough: Dynamics of the EU Representations in Asia-Pacific Media
Natalia Chaban
Outside Looking In: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the EUropean Union from the Asia-Pacific Region, 2nd International Conference of the Asia-Pacific EU Studies Association, Christchurch, New Zealand, 9 - 11 September 2004
To address a striking absence of data on perceptions towards the EU in third countries, recently launched research project Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in Asia Pacific Region aims to identify, measure and raise public awareness and extend knowledge of the European Union within four countries of the Asia-Pacific region - Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand. Based on a wide-range of multidisciplinary research and monitoring methods, this two year project aims to meet several objectives in the four respective countries: monitoring the EU images in the most popular national newspapers and prime time TV news bulletins (daily coverage of the EU in 2004); surveying public opinion on the EU; and detecting national political, business, and media elite's opinion. The presented paper introduces the findings of the first stage of the comparative trans-national research project - analysis of the EU representations created and supported by the national media in four countries listed. It is broadly concerned with the visibility of the EU images in the daily coverage of the 20 most influential newspapers in four Asia-Pacific countries during 6 month period - January - June 2004. The newspapers monitored during the project are Herald-Sun, Sydney Morning Herald, West Australian, The Australian, and The Australian Financial Review from Australia; The New Zealand Herald, The Waikato Times, The Dominion Post, The Press, and The Otago Daily Times from New Zealand, Cho-sun, Dong-A, Joong-Ang, Metro, and Korea Times from South Korea; and Thai Rath, Matichon, Manager, Bangkok Post, and The Nation from Thailand.
More specifically, this paper intends to trace and compare the visibility and degree of contextualization of the EU images within the four national media discourses. This is examined via the application of a comparable set of variables which includes the categories of the "surface" coding, or the formal characteristics of the amount of coverage, i.e., volume, dynamics, length, placement, and sources of news stories. Attention is also paid to the categories of the "in-depth" coding -- the characteristics of the degree of centrality and the focus of domesticity. It would appear that there are important cross-nation differences in the visibility and contextualization of the EU in print news in the four Asia-Pacific countries. The leading assumption of this research is that subtle but nevertheless powerful effects of mass media may lie in their selection and presentation of certain issues (and nonpresentation of the other issues) (Roessler 1999). Media visibility of an issue does not guarantee the incorporation of that issue either into daily agenda of the general public or into the decision making process by the elites. Nevertheless, the analysis of the EU visibility in print media of the four countries explicates the educational and informational roles of media. Media visibility influences the perceived salience of the issues and conditions citizens' valid participation in the domestic debate on foreign policy.
The Power of Television News: Images of the EU Asia-Pacific Broadcast Media
Jessica Bain
Outside Looking In: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the EUropean Union from the Asia-Pacific Region, 2nd International Conference of the Asia-Pacific EU Studies Association, Christchurch, New Zealand, 9 - 11 September 2004
The power of media has been described as "undeniable" (van Dijk, 2001) in its ability to influence the public agenda, and this is particularly the case for the power of television. Television viewing is the most popular leisure activity in the world, and television news bulletins are among networks' most highly rated programmes. For many people, television news provides their only source of information about the outside world, and the accessibility of television allows it to play a key role in educating the public about foreign issues, and it thus is able to influence the public policy debate. This influence is assumed to be greater in the case of foreign news as the majority of the public have little or no personal involvement in foreign events, and are thus reliant on the news for their information (Gavin, 2000). It is against the background of the assumed power of television news that this study examines the images of the EU that appear in the Asia-Pacific television news bulletins.
The presented paper draws on the findings from the first six months of the television news analysis of 2004, from the countries involved in the Asia-Pacific Project being undertaken by four EU studies associations in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand and Korea: EUSANZ, CESAA, EUSA Thai and EUSA Korea. The primetime news bulletins on the following outlets are monitored: ABC and Channel 9 in Australia; KBS and MBC in Korea; TV1 and TV3 in New Zealand; and ITV and Channel 7 in Thailand.
The paper focuses on both formal and content characteristics of the daily coverage of EU images on television news. The formal characteristics coded are the volume of news, source of the news information, the focus of domesticity, the degree of EU representation, the length and placement of the item. The content characteristics coded are the topic, EU and domestic actors involved and their actions, the information input, the character of news, the attitude of journalists, and the evaluation. The findings thus far indicate that there are parallels between the four countries in the overall coverage trends, as well as in the leading EU images created by the primetime television bulletins.