The paper analyzes the relationship between Portuguese newspapers coverage of the European Union and the evolution of Portuguese public opinion about EU and European issues. The articulation between those two levels of discourse is based on a content analysis of all texts related to Europe published by four main national newspapers during the twelve most relevant periods between 1985 and 2004, data from surveys such as Eurobarometer, and interviews with a sample of Portuguese people with different educational levels. The paper concludes that, despite deep social inequalities among the population, there is to some extent a correspondence between the representations of the EU conveyed by newspapers and public opinion. Highly educated individuals are more likely to share newspapers representations of EU.
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