Speakers (European/
Global Public Sphere)
AUTHOR identity the variable additionally enables to dif-
Dennis Lichtenstein ferentiate between the kinds of speakers who
are given a voice in the collective construction of
KEYWORDS European identity.
speakers, transnationalization, public sphere, EU,
European Union, spokesperson REFERENCES/COMBINATION WITH OTHER
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Content analyses that examine the claims of
In research on the transnationalization of the speakers in transnational public spheres has
public sphere, speakers are coded in claim ana- been combined with interview studies with jour-
lysis (Adam, 2007; Koopmans & Statham, 2010) nalists, politicians, and interest groups (Koop-
and in research on European identity (Lichten- mans & Statham, 2010).
stein & Eilders, 2015, 2019). Speakers are politici-
ans, societal actors or journalists who are given EXAMPLE STUDY:
voice in a news story. In claim analyses, a spea- Koopmans & Statham (2010)
ker directs, for instance, a thematic demand or
decision towards another actor. In research on INFORMATION ON KOOPMANS & STATHAM, 2010
European identity, speakers address an EU frame Authors: Ruud Koopmans, Paul Statham
in a news story. The variable “speaker” provides Research question/research interest: Analysis of
a broad categorization of the first or most im- the visibility of the EU level in the transnational
portant speaker in an article. He or she is more public sphere, the inclusiveness of public de-
precisely classified using further variables which mands, and public contestation regarding EU de-
target the actors’ degree of organization, his or cision making
her country of origin and his or her more detai- Object of analysis: National quality newspapers,
led function within the EU or other international popular press, regional papers from seven count-
institutions. ries
Timeframe of analysis: 1990–2002
FIELD OF APPLICATION/THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
In research on the transnationalization of the INFORMATION ABOUT VARIABLE
public sphere, speakers are coded to measure Variable name/definition: speakers
interactions between countries (horizontal “If a claim has more than one actor (e.g., a coali-
transnationalization) and to analyze the extent tion), the following priority rules apply: 1) actors
to which EU actors get a voice in the coverage of mentioned in the article as ‚leaders‘, ‚organizers‘,
national media outlets (vertical transnationali- ‚spokespersons‘, etc. have priority, unless, of
zation). They are also coded to analyze to which course, they do not make any claims; 2) organi-
extent civil society actors are heard compared zations, institutions or representatives thereof
to politicians. The share of EU and international (e.g., ‚National Organization of Peasants‘) have
speakers differs between countries, media out- priority over unorganized collectivities or indivi-
lets, and policy fields. In research on European duals (e.g., ‚peasants‘, ‚farmer X‘); 3) active actors
https://doi.org/10.34778/2zk
© 2021, the authors. This work is licensed under the “Creative Commons Attribution –
NonCommercial – NoDerivatives 4.0 International” license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) 1|2
or speakers have priority over passive audiences/
rank-and-file participants (e.g., if a party repre-
sentative addresses a crowd at a peace rally, the
party representative has priority). If there are
several actors or no actor at all who have priori-
ty according to these three criteria, the order in
which they are mentioned in the article decides
(with, again, the main headline as the start of the
article). If of one physical actor two functions are
mentioned, the highest level capacity in terms of
the scope variable (see below) is coded. E.g., if
the article says “Portuguese prime minister and
current Chair of the EU Presidency Guttierez”
would be code as “EU presidency” even if Portu-
guese prime minister would be mentioned first.
However, the precondition would be that the EU
presidency function is really mentioned in the
article - that you know that the Portuguese pri-
me minister is present Chair of the Council is not
decisive, it should be explicitly mentioned. (…)
Only if two capacities are at the same scope le-
vel the rule is that the first mentioned is coded.”
(Haunss & Kohlmorgen, 2008, p. 18;
ht t p s : // w w w. re s earch ga t e. n e t /pu bl i c a t i -
on/236346735_Codebook_for_the_Analysis_of_
Political_Claims_in_Conflicts_on_Intellectual_
Property_Rights_in_Europe; in Anlehnung an
Koopmans, 2002)
Level of analysis: Claim
Scale level: Nominal
Reliability: 84%
REFERENCES
Koopmans, R. & Statham, P. (2010) (Eds.).
The Making of a European Public Sphere.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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