Past projects

Concluded projects


MSCA-IF 2019-2021 (841111)

Abstract: 

How do the media report EU affairs, and to what extent may such coverage shape public attitudes and behavior towards integration? MEDPOL aim is twofold: to investigate how media coverage of the EU has evolved since the signature of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 until today, and to assess the impact of news content and frames on political attitudes and behavior towards the EU in different member states. Drawing on various disciplines - Political Science, Communication Studies and Political Economy - the project follows a mixed methods approach grounded on agenda-setting and framing theories. It consists of a qualitative and quantitative analysis of media content in four states: Italy, Portugal, Spain and France. Manual and automated coding of press content and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques will be used to analyse large amounts of textual data while maintaining rigorous methodological standards. MEDPOL brings together content analysis, electoral data and open-access social and economic indicators in order to analyse how issue visibility and media framing may influence electoral behavior in different countries and social groups.  Findings will further our understanding of how certain terms or sentences have been used to frame EU affairs and to express different ideas about the EU. MEDPOL analyses how these frames emerge and evolve over time, and through which mechanisms they may compete with each other and contribute to political polarisation. Finally, MEDPOL contributes to the diffusion of content analysis  techniques, mixed methods and interdisciplinary approaches devoted to understand the role of the media as a political actor.


Eds: Benedetta Voltolini (King’s College London), Michal Natorski (Maastricht University), Colin Hay (Sciences Po Paris)

The Book on Crisis and Politicisation has been published as a result of the project 


An increasing number of young people see no point in voting. This phenomenon puts democracy in danger, as governments are elected by a group that does not represent the population as a whole. A study carried out by the Warwick Policy Lab (WPL) shows that providing young people (18-24 years old) with clear and concise information about the elections increases electoral participation rates from 14% to 28%. On the other hand, not everyone is receptive to these messages. 

The results make the case for the promotion of political literacy and the development of diverse communication strategies in order to reconnect young people with politics. The study consisted of a social experiment (randomised control trial, or RCT) where young voters received non-partisan information about the 2015 GeneralElections and about the importance of voting. A description of the experiment and the results can be found at the bottom of the page (see WPL_Pol_brief_RCT_Rev_11042016.pdf)


  • Evolution and change of international institutions

My research focuses on the design and evolution of international institutions throughout the world and across various policy areas. Such rules are not neutrally

devised, but emerge from competition among political and social actors. They are therefore subject to variation and change. I adopt a qualitative approach to analyse why and through which mechanisms institutions are created and how they change over time. I usually adopt a comparative research design based on primary (archive research, semi-structured interviews) and secondary data. My works encompass the following domains: European Union politics and policy-making processes, international security and Brazilian foreign policy. Some general questions I seek to answer are:



Center for Contemporary History, Getulio Vargas Foundation (CPDOC/FGV)