Trepidation about Trump in Europe.

• Position: Mass Media - Brief article

As Donald Trump assumed the presidency of the U.S., researchers at the University of Oregon, Eugene, wondered how the European media saw the change in American leadership. Journalism doctoral student Thomas Schmidt, a native of Austria, sought answers by collaborating with

11 media research institutes that make up the European Journalism Observatory.

In a nutshell, Schmidt and colleagues found that European media outlets felt Trump will undermine the European Union through deals with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin. They found "a level of trepidation and concern towards the incoming American president that is probably unparalleled in recent history.

"I found it fascinating to hear from countries as different as Portugal and Ukraine," says Schmidt, a former reporter for Austria's second-largest daily newspaper. "This is not a perspective you often get in U.S. media. All these reports really demonstrate how deeply media in other countries follow developments here in the U.S., and they also show how the strength and value of looking at media coverage in a comparative view."

The OU School of Journalism and...