Political Communication About Europe on the Internet During the 2004 European Parliament Election Campaign in Nine Eu Member States

This article considers the possibility of a European public sphere contributing to a reduction of the so-called ‘democratic deficit’ through engagement of citizens in the European project and enhancing processes of identification beyond the local or national environment. We elaborate on our interpretation of the European public sphere, emphasizing that political actors, including citizens, are engaged in political communication about Europe, either directly or indirectly through media or Internet-based representations. The study presented in this article investigates the extent of Europeanization of political communication on the Internet by measuring the visibility of communication about Europe on websites produced by various political actors in nine EU member states in the context of the 2004 European Parliament election. Two-thirds of the websites included in the study actually had European Parliamentary election-related content on the front page at the time of the election; a percentage we consider relatively low because of the search strategy followed. Actors addressed general European issues somewhat more frequently on their websites: in nearly three-quarters of cases, which can be considered an indicator of the existence of a European public sphere.