EMOCITI

Europe for the Hearts and Minds: The Role of the News Media and Emotions in Creating European Citizens

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'In times of ailing public support and claims of a legitimacy deficit, one of the most crucial tasks of the EU is to find out if its citizens consider themselves European, i.e. are willing to be active European citizens. This task will be addressed by the Commission in 2013, the European Year of Citizens, which aims at creating awareness of EU citizenship rights. Whether there is an evolution of the European public into a society of active European citizens, however, also depends on how the media cover the EU every day. Research suggests that, beyond providing information, it is the media’s potential to cause emotions that will significantly predict how “European” citizens feel and act. The role of emotions is thus one very important aspect of media influence in the EU citizenship context, but surprisingly a severely understudied one. Therefore, I propose two experiments that will study if and how emotions in the news media influence perceptions of European citizenship. Each experiment will be carried out in the UK, the Netherlands, France and Greece. I will first investigate, if emotion-eliciting new stories (e.g., an article about fear of financial losses) have stronger effects on European citizenship than stories that consist of only factual information. To specify this effect, I will also test, if this effects depends on whether positive (e.g., enthusiasm) or negative (e.g., anger) emotions are at play. I have a strong background in media effects research, and have investigated the role of emotions in political communication. This complements the Scientist in charge’s (Dr. Michael Bruter) expertise on European citizenship. The research will be conducted at The London School of Economics and Political Science, one of the world’s leading universities in the field of EU politics and political communication. This excellent training environment will ensure the successful execution of the project and will be vital for the development of my future academic career.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Experiments on the way emotion-eliciting news can change citizens' political perceptions and behaviour offer novel understanding. They indicate that positive emotional cues in the news create better emotional reactions and generate a positive influence on citizens' political behaviour.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

News media is known for having an effect on people's emotions and behaviours. Emotional cues present in the writing function as a catalyst and can increase the message's persuasiveness. This is particularly the case in EU news coverage during a time of economic crisis. Despite this, there have been only a few studies covering the effect of emotions on individuals and behaviour. Until just recently there were no studies on the role of emotions in the news media across countries and political issues.

The EU-funded project http://emociti.wordpress.com/about/ (EMOCITI) used survey experiments to examine if and how news stories that provoke emotions created changes in the political perceptions and behaviours of citizens. The surveys had a different scope according to country. In the United Kingdom, the range of positive and negative emotions concerning news articles about elderly care was examined. As a comparative aspect, the second experiment was conducted in the United States. It tested emotions with temporal orientation such as articles mentioning relief and anger verses those of hope and fear on the topics of elderly care and gun control.

Findings indicate that positive emotions are more likely than expected to predict media effects. Furthermore, after being exposed to a news article, respondents registered an emotional reaction that led to changes in opinions and behaviours.

A wide range of emotions were tested and an extensive list of moderator variables was used. The collected data can be useful in creating a typology of emotional cues. Results are also valuable to further develop the measurement of emotions and emotional traits in survey experiments.

EMOCITI's work will contribute to the further theoretical integration of emotions into the field of political communication. It can be further used as a roadmap for the inclusion of emotional cues in political campaigns in the EU and elsewhere.