/library/oar/handle/123456789/13769 2026-05-24T07:48:56Z 2026-05-24T07:48:56Z Magin, Melanie Russmann, Uta Vulcano, Rossella von Nostitz, Felix‐Christopher Wurst, Anna‐Katharina Gattermann, Katjana Alonso‐Muñoz, Laura Cristina Balaban, Delia Baranowski, Paweł Burai, Krisztina Cachia, Jean Claude Deželan, Tomaž Garaj, Michal Hermans, Babette Kallinikos, Konstantinos Kannasto, Elisa Kruschinski, Simon Lappas, Georgios Machado, Sara Macková, Alena Pospíšil Segesten, Anamaria Dutceac Skulte, Ilva Vučković, Milica Wal, Matt /library/oar/handle/123456789/146569 2026-05-19T12:56:28Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Faces of Europe : structural drivers of visual personalization in political parties’ Facebook campaigns Authors: Magin, Melanie; Russmann, Uta; Vulcano, Rossella; von Nostitz, Felix‐Christopher; Wurst, Anna‐Katharina; Gattermann, Katjana; Alonso‐Muñoz, Laura; Cristina Balaban, Delia; Baranowski, Paweł; Burai, Krisztina; Cachia, Jean Claude; Deželan, Tomaž; Garaj, Michal; Hermans, Babette; Kallinikos, Konstantinos; Kannasto, Elisa; Kruschinski, Simon; Lappas, Georgios; Machado, Sara; Macková, Alena Pospíšil; Segesten, Anamaria Dutceac; Skulte, Ilva; Vučković, Milica; Wal, Matt Abstract: Social media platforms have become central arenas for election campaigning, pushing political actors to adapt to their attention‐driven logics. One prominent strategy is visual personalization, reflecting the platforms’ person‐centered, image‐driven design. This study offers the first large‐scale, cross‐national analysis of how political parties across 23 EU countries strategically employed two dimensions of visual personalization—individualization and privatization—on Facebook during the 2024 European Parliament election campaign. It examines how their digital campaign output was shaped by two party‐level factors (populist vs. non‐populist status; government vs. opposition) and two country‐level factors (electoral systems; degree of authoritarianism). Based on a manual content analysis of 14,553 posts, we find that individualization was far more common than privatization and that party‐level characteristics exerted stronger influence than country‐level contexts. Populist and governing parties used more individualization. Privatization was more prevalent among non‐populist parties and in more liberal environments. These findings challenge assumptions about populist and authoritarian communication styles and make a theoretical contribution by demonstrating that visual personalization is a multidimensional phenomenon whose specific dimensions respond differently to structural incentives. Our results underscore the need to analytically separate individualization and privatization and to account for their distinct contextual drivers when assessing political personalization in digital environments.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/145746 2026-04-20T12:29:27Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The PiS and Fidesz approaches toward the European Union Abstract: This dissertation is a comparative study of the Fidesz party in Hungary and the PiS party in Poland in their approach towards the European Union and the Euroscepticism shown in several areas(Such as migration and rule of law), whilst exploring whether their nationalistic and conservative agendas come out in these areas. The study also investigated the Euroscepticism of both political parties regarding the EU and the extent of the Euroscepticism, including whether they use a hard or soft Euroscepticism. The study emphasises how PiS and Fidesz frequently portray the EU as a danger to national identity and sovereignty in the respective member states, even though they profit economically from membership. Finally, while both PiS and Fidesz benefit from EU membership, they feel that the EU challenges them with threats to sovereignty and unwanted policies that increase Eurosceptic sentiment towards the supranational organisation; thus, the research will reveal how their tactics are representative of a larger pattern of growing Euroscepticism in Eastern and Central Europe. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/145393 2026-04-08T06:35:05Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The Maltese media coverage of the 2022 national and 2024 European Parliament elections Abstract: This thesis examines how Maltese media framed the 2022 national election and the 2024 European Parliament election, with a particular focus on the portrayal of the European Union and whether the EP elections in Malta reflect second-order election dynamics. Despite Malta’s highly mediatised and politically parallel media environment, scholarly attention to the comparative framing of national and European elections remains limited. This study addresses this gap by analysing 61 news articles published during the three months before each election across three outlets representing distinct editorial orientations: One News (Labour Party), Net News (Nationalist Party) and Times of Malta (independent). Using qualitative content analysis guided by framing theory, the study identifies key patterns in value, conflict, issue, narrative, personalisation and emphasis framing. The findings reveal significant differences in how the two election types were represented. Partisan outlets domesticated both elections, but with different emphases: One News framed the EU as a cooperative partner validating Labour’s achievements, while Net News portrayed the EU as a moral authority through which the Nationalist Party could “restore” Malta’s reputation. By contrast, Times of Malta adopted a balanced, issue-oriented approach, offering factual and contextualised reporting with limited emotional or partisan framing. Across outlets, the 2024 EP elections were consistently framed as less consequential, receiving reduced interpretative depth and lower issue salience than the 2022 national election. Overall, the study provides new empirical insight into Maltese political communication, revealing how media framing reinforces national priorities while shaping public perceptions of the EU. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/145337 2026-04-06T10:09:26Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The recognition of the Armenian genocide by the EU institutions and its member states Abstract: “The axe forgets, but the tree remembers.” This proverb captures the enduring legacy of the Armenian Genocide, whose trauma continues to reverberate through generations. While the perpetrators have persistently denied the events as genocide, Armenians have carried the memory of their suffering as a central part of their collective identity. This enduring remembrance underscores the moral imperative of recognition: without acknowledgement, justice remains incomplete and historical wounds cannot fully heal. The Armenian experience demonstrates how memory resists erasure and calls on the international community to confront historical truth with integrity and responsibility. This dissertation examines how the topic of the Armenian Genocide is approached by the European Union (EU), analysing the recognition efforts or lack thereof of EU institutions and Member States (MS). Although historians widely agree that the mass killings and deportations of Armenians by the Young Turk government constitute genocide, political recognition remains contested, particularly within the EU’s institutional framework. The European Parliament (EP) has consistently and explicitly recognised the events as genocide since 1987, reaffirming this stance on multiple occasions, most notably in its 2015 centenary resolution. In contrast, the European Commission and the Council of the EU have adopted more cautious approaches, avoiding the term “genocide” and prioritising diplomatic relations and the EU’s complex partnership with Türkiye. Through document-based analysis of resolutions, debates, national parliamentary records and other primary data, this dissertation addresses two central research questions: whether the EP’s recognitions influence the positions of other EU institutions and MS, and whether MS shape the EU’s overall agenda on genocide recognition. The findings reveal a clear institutional divergence, and by applying a Multi-Level Governance (MLG) lens, the differences across the various levels of government became particularly noticeable. The EP acts as the EU’s normative and symbolic actor, invoking human rights and historical justice, while the Commission and Council operate as diplomatic actors constrained by realpolitik and strategic interests. MS similarly display diverse approaches, shaped by domestic politics, diaspora influence, memory politics, and foreign policy priorities. Overall, this research demonstrates that the EP’s influence on executive institutions is limited, largely because its resolutions are non-binding and because of the sensitivities of EU–Türkiye relations. The dissertation demonstrates that debates surrounding Armenian Genocide recognition illustrate the enduring tension between normative commitments and strategic interests in EU external action, while highlighting how historical memory is negotiated within a multi-layered governance system. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z