Do We Not Learn Anything from the Journalistic History? Media Coverage of Adopting the EU New Financial Perspective in Slovenia

Sa？etak This paper builds on previous media and journalism studies of media coverage of topics concerning the European Union (EU) and adopts more culturalist, bottom-up approach to media and journalism studies of the EU topics coverage and presents analysis of coverage of a new EU financial perspective discussion by Slovenian media. A textually oriented critical discourse analysis was used in order to find the inclusion/exclusion of meanings of this topic and to understand the selection of sources by specific Slovenian news media. Indepth interviews with journalists and their main sources were carried out in order to explain why journalists had covered this topic in a specific way(s). The study reveals differences in the EU coverage between elite and tabloid, and progovernment and opposition news media. Pro-government news media rely on government sources and exclude critical sources, background information and interpretations. Additional source-centred analyses, unlike previous studies in this area, show that this discourse is not based only on journalistic practices, but is also a reflection of government and party communication strategies. Domestication of EU topics is used to promote government and party politics; this leads to a further democratic deficit in the EU