Can a focus on politicians make the EU seem more human?

Individual politicians and their messages increasingly matter for our interest and trust in politics. Think only of the political figures in your country and how they influence your opinion. But little is known how the personalization of politics works out in European Union politics. Do we find personalization of politics at the EU level and does this influence our opinion of the EU? With a wealth of empirical evidence communication researcher Katjana Gattermann concludes that personalization of EU politics is conditional upon institutional media and temporal contexts and so far has limited consequences for European citizens' awareness, trust and interest in EU politics.

The relationship between media and politics is of reciprocal nature in democratic societies. Media hold political actors publicly accountable, while politicians often seek media attention to inform their voters about their own achievements. When politicians increasingly become the main focus of political processes and key drivers of voters' choice, we call this the personalization of politics. It is well established in national-level politics, but less is known about this phenomenon in European Union politics.

Recent political developments suggest that such a trend is also underway on EU level, for example, the introduction of the so-called Spitzenkandidaten procedure for the 2014 European Parliament election. For the first time major European party families were encouraged to put forward top candidates to increase the interest in and awareness of the elections among European citizens. Could personalization make EU politics more accessible to its citizens?

Personalization with respect to institutions, media, politics, and citizens

In her new book, "The Personalization of Politics in the European Union," communication scientist Katjana Gattermann examines personalization with respect to institutions, media, politics, and citizens in the European Union. "Institutions are important because the formal personalization of rules and procedures enables media and ultimately citizens to hold responsible decisionmakers to account," she explains. Gattermann also calls it pertinent to understand the extent to which the media personalize their news from Brussels and Strasbourg. "News media are a crucial link between EU citizens and their representatives."

But politicians must also make themselves visible in the political debate. Gattermann argues that "if personalization does not occur in the behavior of politicians, the media will likely have a hard time to inform citizens about the achievements of their representatives. And if media do not pick up on more personalized behavior they fail to provide a link between representatives and those they represent."

Increased personalization depends on domestic media and electoral systems

Gattermann finds that institutional personalization, such as initiated by the Spitzenkandidaten procedure, is an important but not sufficient precondition for media to increasingly report about individual politicians because media personalization with respect to European Commissioners and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) fluctuates across country and over time.

This fluctuation has not obstructed personalization among politicians. The legislative behavior of MEPs is characterized by more personalization over time as measured by the amount of individual parliamentary questions they put forward. Moreover, a close analysis of Dutch MEPs shows that their legislative and social media behavior has become more intertwined over time. They have also become more effective in influencing the agenda of traditional and social media with their legislative activities.

These developments had limited consequences so far for European citizens. "I only found weak associations between media personalization and citizen trust in the EU at a general level," states Gattermann. "There is also limited support for a causal link between personalized political news and citizens' belief that the EU is responsive to their concerns." Results from a case study into news preferences of German voters suggest that citizens may express greater interest in personalized EU politics if they additionally have (prior) information about the background of EU politicians (e.g., function, party affiliation, expertise).