The Schengen Exam. In Search of the European Public Sphere

The Schengen Exam. In Search of the European Public Sphere focuses on the Romanian public sphere and its connectivity to European issues. The public sphere is interconnected to other essential processes, such as establishing legitimacy, public opinion formation, ensuring representation of all positions and opinions, collective identity formation, and deliberation processes. The author tests the viability of the concept of "Europeanized public spheres" in the particular context of the negotiations for Romania's accession to the Schengen area of free movement. As result of a research project carried out between 10th of January and 22nd of March 2011 by The Centre of Research in Communication, at the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations (The National School of Administrative and Political Studies, Bucharest), the book addresses the following areas: the coverage of the Schengen subject in foreign mass-media, media coverage and framing in Romania, the public perception on the matter and the opinion of Romanian high profile actors involved in European affairs. Overall, the entire research indicates a predominantly local, national perspective when dealing with the Schengen affair, thus suggesting that the Romanian public sphere is largely disconnected, even isolated from EU trends.