Good Europeans?

Television news narratives are sites where national and transnational identities are cultivated and mobilised. The question is not whether Swedish, Danish or British news stories about Europe are domesticated to fit national news bulletins, but how events are domesticated and how ‘we’ are made European by the programmes’ producers. The analysis of all European stories between 15-21 November 1999 in three national public service news bulletins indicate that viewers are offered different images of Europe during this week, and that journalists play active roles in constructing ‘themes’ which link together different types of news stories into narratives about ‘us’ and ‘them’. From these there emerged a Swedish ‘moralising global villager’, slightly superior but willing to adapt to changing international realities, an anxious and conscientious Danish ‘we’, trying to do its share despite its self-imposed limitations on EU cooperation, and an engaged humanitarian British ‘we’, who is global in scope but prefers to keep a distance from time consuming Euro-squabbles.