Lost in transmission : evaluating internet effects on citizens’attitudes towards the European Union in times of crisis

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that citizens' attitudes towards the European Union (EU) are influenced by media coverage of EU institutions and policies. To date, empirical studies have investigated the effects of TV and newspaper consumption on euro-skepticism. However, the role of the Internet remains under-explored. In this study we combine data on broadband availability with respondent geo-location data from the 2011 Irish National Election Study, which allows us to measure whether respondents live in an area with broadband coverage. We use this dataset to perform a quasi-experimental analysis that identifies the effect of online news-gathering on citizens' evaluations of the extent to which the European Union and the Euro are culpable for the current economic crisis. To allow for heterogeneous treatment effects, we implement local average response functions (LARF) in our analysis. We find that those citizens who source political information online are more prone to blame the EU for (mis)managing the current economic crisis than those who do not.