A new EPRC study on the Visibility and Communication of Cohesion Policy in Online Media has been published by the European Parliament. Led by EPRC’s Carlos Mendez and John Bachtler, and Vasiliki Triga at the Cyprus University of Technology, the study employs a mixed methods approach to investigate media coverage, representations and user perceptions of cohesion policy in online media. The research draws on an original dataset of over 60,000 news articles and 100,000 user-generated comments. It also analyses social media – over 11,000 Facebook posts and over five million tweets on Twitter – and 13,000 EU press releases. The key conclusion is that cohesion policy visibility is relatively low in online media. Policy recommendations are provided to improve cohesion policy visibility in the media, particularly through citizen engagement.
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