Hajo G. Boomgaarden, born in Aurich, Germany, in 1977. Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Associate Professor for Political Communication, University of Amsterdam.
Fellow (1 September 2012 – 30 June 2013)
Information, Communication and Satisfaction with EU Democracy
The European Union (EU) allegedly suffers from a democratic deficit. Debates of the democratic deficit are frequently linked to a communicative deficit of the Union; the media may provide legitimacy to EU politics. It is assumed that the way European Union politics is communicated (or rather non-communicated) is reflective of the complex and non-transparent decision-making process between EU institutions. It will be vital for the future of European integration to address the democratic and related communication deficit. This study focuses on the relationships between information, communication and public satisfaction with EU democracy. We live in a highly mediatized world, in which information about political events is strongly mediated. This is even more true for distant policies such as the EU. A major contribution of the study lies in integrating different conceptualizations of information, such as consumption of media contents, the information environment and an active engagement in information seeking.
Selected Publications
Boomgaarden, H.G., Schuck, A.R.T., Elenbaas, M., & de Vreese, C.H. (2011). Mapping EU attitudes: Conceptual and empirical dimensions of euroskepticism and EU support. European Union Politics, 12(2) 241-266.
Boomgaarden, H.G., Vliegenthart, R., Schuck, A.R.T., de Vreese, C.H. (2010). News on the move: Exogenous events and news coverage of the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy, 17(4), 506-526.
Boomgaarden, H.G., & Vliegenthart, R. (2009). How news content influences anti-immigration attitudes: Germany, 1993-2005. European Journal of Political Research, 48(4), 516-542.