The article reviews current research on the way that the EU engages with journalists. It also looks at the sort of coverage that Europe receives in the press and on television, and at the likely impact of such reports. The article suggests that a number of factors explain the rather negative coverage that Europe receives. These include tension between the EU and journalists on the Brussels news beat, a lack of commitment to effective news management on the part of European institutions, and the intrinsic news worthiness of some of the more prominent stories that have emerged in recent times. The impact on the public of this coverage is under-researched, but what little evidence there is tends to suggest that television news stories may be more significant than press coverage. The article closes with an exploration of a prospective research agenda on ‘the media and Europe’.
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