Research Information System
European Politics and Society, 2025 (Scopus)
The recent crises of the EU fostered different manifestations of the European identity, implying various interpretations of the ‘what it means to be European’ because of the incremental salience and politicization of European affairs. Therefore, identity construction played an instrumental role in achieving European in-group identification among European citizens to bear the dramatic repercussions of the crises. Yet, such a process does not follow a monolithic pattern of identity construction throughout the different crises. Based on such a premise, this research examines the differences in how European identity is depicted in German media during the Euro and refugee crises. It conducts a critical discourse analysis of the newspaper articles published by the three prominent German news outlets, Bild, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), and Die Welt. We argue that discourses articulated within the German media on the reinforcement of compliance with the attained values and the norms of the European identity created idiosyncratically an intra-group differentiation within the in-group of the European identity.