Framing Serbia: the effects of news framing on public support for EU enlargement

One of the most important activities of the European Union (EU) has been widening
the Union, that is, enlargement. Tapping to what extent and why EU citizens support
future enlargement rounds has become a popular endeavour among researchers and EU
officials. During recent years, a number of studies have indicated that public support
for EU integration is likely to also depend on how the national news media portray the
EU. Based on an experimental survey design, we test the effects of two news frames
on support for future Serbian EU candidacy. We find that exposure to news frames
has considerable impact on general understanding of Serbian EU candidacy, issue
interpretation, and policy support. This effect is moderated by political knowledge.
Knowledgeable participants were able to express their thoughts on Serbian EU candidacy
more elaborately, whereas low-knowledge individuals were overall more susceptible
to framing effects. We discuss the implications of our findings for current debates
such as Euroskepticism and decreasing public support for EU integration.