Interested but not Engaged: How Europe's Media Cover Brexit

DOI: 10.60625/risj-9vzf-5a49

What do the media of other EU member countries consider to be important as the UK negotiates being the first country to leave the EU? How much and what kind of national self-interest does the Brexit decision trigger? What do European media think about Brexit and the UK’s way of dealing with it? These are some of the questions that Alexandra Borchardt, Felix M. Simon and Diego Bironzo answer in this Reuters Institute and Prime Research report.

Brexit is less than 300 days away and, perhaps unsurprisingly, European media take great interest in the fate of the United Kingdom and the current state of the negotiations between the country and the EU. Yet, despite the UK’s departure into the unknown, Europe’s media appear mostly unconcerned about the UK leaving the bloc. Instead, the newest report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism shows a European press which is attentive to but not agitated by Brexit. While the coverage is shaped by national perspectives, the overriding impression is that of a largely homogenous and objective attitude towards one of the most important developments in recent European history.