Reporting (in) Europe - Heuristic Remarks on Old and New Research on 'European Journalism'

This paper offers a systematic analysis of the journalism in Europe and examines whether such journalism can be conceptualized as European. While European economic and political integration has considerably advanced since the 1990's, in communication terms Europe still remains a great challenge. In order to approach this challenge, the author focuses his study on the 'social system' of journalism in various EU member states. He uses an adequately differentiated heuristic model to analyze four interrelated media contexts: standard context related to media systems, structure context related to media institutions, function context related to media content, and role context related to media professionals. Motivated by the observation of a 'crises of civic communication' within the EU and by the lack of journalistic formal and structural uniformity, the author ultimately attempts to group different journalism models in Europe. In conclusion, considering complexity and sensitivity of its multiple contexts, the author suggests that the process of European communicative integration should rather set its own differentiated standards, than compete with the uniforming standards of economic and political integration