Can a focus on politicians make the EU seem more human?

Individual politicians and their messages increasingly matter for our interest and trust in politics. Think only of the political figures in your country and how they influence your opinion. But little is known how the personalization of politics works out in European Union politics. Do we find personalization of politics at the EU level and does this influence our opinion of the EU? With a wealth of empirical evidence communication researcher Katjana Gattermann concludes that personalization of EU politics is conditional upon institutional media and temporal contexts and so far has limited consequences for European citizens' awareness, trust and interest in EU politics.