Effects of news media coverage on Eurosceptic voting: evidence from the 2009 European Parliamentary elections

Extant research is not very specific about when campaigns matter for vote choice. In this paper, we assess multiple influences of the media on vote choice in several countries based on European Parliamentary (EP) election campaign data from 21 countries. We rely on a two-wave panel voter survey (N=32,418), asking both vote intentions before the campaign and reported vote for 175 parties. We link these data to media content data of campaign coverage between the two waves in these countries (N=36,881). We conclude that, on average, the more positive the evaluations of the EU a voter is exposed to, the less likely s/he is to cast a vote for a Eurosceptic party. We also find indications of other media effects in countries with high dispersion of parties on EU issues. This suggests that the 2009 European election outcome was influenced by how the media covered EU-related news during the campaign.