Section two: The EU in the mirror of the Asia-Pacific media

Abstract

The media plays a crucial role in civil society and public education and has the power to direct both elite and public perceptions and opinions. News media is argued to be a principal source of information on foreign events and central to informing public opinion on international affairs. This section looks at the media’s role in informing understandings of the European Union in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand by analyzing the representations of the EU as an economic, political and social actor in national print and broadcast media. For the news items to be included in the sample they had to deal with events or situations in the EU outside the home country, or events in the home country in which EU takes part, or which are presented as having relevance to the EU situations. News on the EU is defined as stories mentioning the EU at least once, even marginally.