Writing and speaking the European Union into existence

Författare

Helena Juric

Summary, in English

The EU is accused of having a democratic deficit and one of the reasons for that is the low number of turnouts in democratic elections and referendums. Voter turnout is oneof democracy’s most important indicators of health as it shows to whatextent voters practice their democratic right in a representative democracy. Voter participation is thus an accept of the rules of the representative democracy which points back to the idea of a social contract.1Even though discourse in the Danish EU debate claims that the EU is not properly communicated, Danish voter turnout at the latest EP elections in 2019 was one of the highest in the EU at 66%, compared to 56.32% in 2014.This thesis deals with the topics of discourse, communication, promotion of democracy as well asthe role of the media in a democracy and Danish participation in the 2019 European Parliament election.The aim of this thesis is to look at how the Danish Broadcasting Corporation's 18.30 news broadcast presented the 2019 European Parliament elections /in the month leading up to Election Day. Secondly, an analysis will be attempted of the role of the media in democracy and how voter participation was promoted during this timeframe.Based on a contextualization ofthe studies voices, a theoretical discussion on the public, identity and media and a critical discourse analysis, this thesis will provide a detailed study of DR's presentation of the 2019 EP elections in their 18.30 news broadcast. Using relevant methodological tools, particularly CDA and persuasion theory, the thesis concludes that DR did not promote candidate tests2in the news until three days prior to the election.Furthermore, the CDA indicates that environmental issues, external borders, migration and tech-related issues constitute the majority of EU-related discourse in the news.

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