Orchestrating the Debate on the EU Constitution: The Representation of Social Actors in Polish and French Quality Press.

National media focused on "general political information" are considered to be a central vehicle for the articulation of a wide range of actors' claims on European issues. This paper assesses the conditions of such articulations from a media-sociological and discourse analytical perspective. It compares the highly polarized debates on the EU Constitution in two Polish and two French major "quality press" outlets, scrutinizing frames, sources and actor representations. The paper finds that news production mechanisms and discursive practices disadvantage bottom-up contributions and favor nation-centered perspectives. Polish and French media present the EU Constitutional process as a matter concerning only national politicians, experts and intellectuals. Societal actors are marginalized. Instead, they use alternative formats, such as commentary functions in newspapers' online editions. The findings illuminate a lack of inclusiveness of the traditional quality press and point to the limits of the creation of a European public sphere. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]