The Berlin Forum on Global Politics has just released a collaborative, inter-disciplinary collection of essays on the ongoing free-trade agreement negotiations between the United States and the European Union:
„The free trade agreement (TAFTA | TTIP) currently being negotiated between the United States and the European Union has the potential to significantly impact the lives of people on both sides of the Atlantic and across the world. Because it is crucial to broaden the debate on this topic of global importance, the Berlin Forum on Global Politics, in collaboration with the Internet & Society Collaboratory and FutureChallenges.org of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, decided to send out an international call for papers in order to collect a strong plurality of views on TAFTA | TTIP.
The result is an open knowledge publication, freely accessible under its Creative Commons license, which includes 22 articles written by a multitude of well-informed global stakeholders, members of civil society, academia, think tanks, consumer and activist groups, and business organizations.“
An online format of the publication is available here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_JwAVpWmqN4U3FQX3RGQjRXem8/edit
Full disclosure: Yours truly is one of the contributors. My article can be found on page 34 and deals with the question of media coverage and the basis for public deliberation of TTIP in the U.S. It’s titled: Counting on the American Public to Be Informed on the TTIP Talks? – Don’t Hold Your Breath“ and the abstract reads as follows:
„This essay discusses American mainstream news coverage of the TAFTA | TTIP negotiation process between the U.S. and the E.U. in three consecutive steps: First, it tests the hypotheses that coverage will be very limited, both in overall references to the topic, as well as the content of news reports. An empirical analysis of news content generated by leading U.S. news organizations subsequently reveals that both of these hypotheses can be tentatively verified. Secondly, various media biases are presented as possible explanations for this lack in news coverage. Thirdly, the essay offers suggestions for how to increase news media interest and public awareness of the TAFTA | TTIP negotiation process.“
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