Jürgen Wilke

It's the Debates, Stupid! How the Introduction of Televised Debates Changed the Portrayal of Chancellor Candidates in the German Press, 1949—2005

Media election campaign coverage is said to have changed fundamentally in recent decades. Among the trends identified are personalization, negativism, more interpretive coverage, deauthentication, and horse-race coverage. Usually, U.S. studies are cited as empirical evidence for these developments. Recent studies of European campaigns have shown, however, that the picture seems to be different there in various respects.This article argues that one of the reasons for the differences might be the lack of some central campaign events in European elections. Taking Germany as an example, it investigates how the introduction of American-style televised debates in 2002 and 2005 changed media coverage of the major candidates. On the basis of a long-term content analysis between 1949 and 2005, several dramatic effects of this new campaign event are shown.

Do the Candidates Matter? Long-Term Trends of Campaign Coverage - A Study of the German Press Since 1949

Scholars of political communication seem to agree that western democracies share some common long-term trends of election coverage. The authors raise the question whether this assumption really is supported by empirical data and illustrate this by using the USA and Germany as examples. They present results from a content analysis of the campaign coverage of four German quality papers in all previous national elections in Germany between 1949 and 1998. The focus was on investigating the amount, personalization, tone and interpreting character of campaign coverage in general and the portrayal of the candidates for the chancellorship in particular. The study found that: (1) there was no overall trend towards more or less campaign coverage; (2) there was no overall trend towards more personalization; (3) there was no overall trend towards negativism; (4) there was a trend towards more interpreting coverage. The article concludes with a discussion of possible reasons for these findings and the apparent differences between Germany and the USA.

The geography of foreign news on television: A comparative study of 17 countries

Since the advent of television in the middle of the 20th century, news has been an essential ingredient in TV programming. Often these newscasts are the most heavily viewed programmes, and by and large they are the main source of information for many people. This is particularly true for news from other countries and regions in the world. This immense significance of TV news has made it an important field in communication research. The article presents a new study that is formed from a multinational project. The project investigated foreign TV news in 17 countries from five regions in the world: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States of America. The data of the content analysis in all these countries in 2008 contain over 17,500 news items. The analysis concentrates on ‘news geography’, a term that is used to describe the extent to which the countries of the planet are represented in TV news. The results show a complex, multifaceted picture of foreign news reporting in the world. This multifaceted picture demands multi-causal interpretation. Several factors are discussed, i.e. the types of countries, their political order and integration into the international system, trade, different degrees in political power, but also historical connections, cultural ties, etc. Principally, the foreign news outlet depends on the selection criteria of journalists. On the whole the findings seem to question the world’s globalization, which is often taken for granted.

Die Normalisierung des Sonderfalls? Die Wahlkampfberichterstattung der Presse 2005 im Langzeitvergleich

Die Bundestagswahl am 18. September 2005 war die sechzehnte seit der Grundung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Jahr 1949 (und die funfte seit der Wiedervereinigung 1990). Nach so vielen Wahlen uber mehr als ein halbes Jahrhundert hinweg handelte es sich inzwischen langst um einen Vorgang demokratischer Routine. Gleichwohl stellte diese Bundestagswahl einen “Ausnahmefall” dar. Denn sie fand ein Jahr vor Ablauf der regularen Legislaturperiode statt und kam auf verfassungsrechtlich problematische Weise zustande. Nach mehreren fur die SPD verloren gegangenen Landtagswahlen, zuletzt am 22. Mai 2005 in Nordhein-Westfalen, strebte Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schroder vorzeitige Neuwahlen noch im gleichen Jahr an. Er wollte — nach eigenen Worten — sich und der rot-grunen Bundesregierung damit ein neues Mandat verschaffen und insbesondere deren Durchsetzungsvermogen gegenuber einem von CDU/CSU (und der FDP) dominierten Bundesrat zuruckgewinnen. Die Auflosung des alten Bundestages und die Ansetzung von Neuwahlen waren jedoch umstritten, konnten aber erreicht werden, nachdem die damit befassten Verfassungsorgane — der Bundesprasident und das Bundesverfassungsgericht — den Weg dafur frei gemacht hatten.

Foreign news coverage and international news flow over three centuries

No subject in communication research in recent years has stimulated greater interest on a world-wide level than questions of foreign news reporting and international news flow. This is a result not only of scientific interest but even more of the growing debate on communication policies as they relate to the so-called ’free flow of information’ doctrine and the ’new world information order.’ The origins of this discussion go back further, of course. When the countries of the world drew together after World War II, it was clear that international communication relationships between states were an important part of international politics [94] . This

Importing Foreign News: A Case Study of the German Service of the Associated Press

News agencies play a significant role in procuring foreign news. This study analyzes how the Associated Press (AP) “imports” foreign news to Germany, seeks to determine by what criteria the news is selected, and examines how it is translated and revised. In the German central office in Frankfurt, the “slotter” determines which news should be passed on to the German media; selected news is given to other editors for revision. Although there are similarities in the structure of the selected and discarded news, differences do emerge. The importing of foreign news does not consist of a mere translation of news, but of a reduction and transformation of contextual details. Thus, the news is adapted to the specific journalistic style of Germany.

Ein Wahlkampf, der keiner war? Die Presseberichterstattung zur Bundestagswahl 2009 im Langzeitvergleich

Die Bundestagswahl am 27. September 2009 war die siebzehnte seit der Grundung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Jahr 1949 (und die sechste seit der Wiedervereinigung 1990). Nachdem die vorangegangene Wahl im Jahr 2005 vorzeitig, nach einer verkurzten Legislaturperiode, stattgefunden hatte, waren diesmal, wie ublich, wieder vier Jahre vergangen. In diesen war das Land von einer grosen Koalition von CDU/CSU und SPD regiert worden. Dazu hatte das Wahlergebnis vom 18. September 2005 geradezu gezwungen. Weder hatten die Christdemokraten zusammen mit der FDP, noch die SPD zusammen mit den Grunen eine regierungsfahige Mehrheit erringen konnen. Und mit der Partei Die Linke, in der sich die im Wesentlichen in den neuen Bundeslandern basierte PDS (Ex-SED) und die als gewerkschaftliche Protestbewegung im Westen entstandene WASG vereinigt hatten, hatte die SPD eine Koalition ausgeschlossen. So lies sich eine Mehrheit nur durch das Zusammengehen der beiden grosen Volksparteien erzielen.

Invisible second-order campaigns? A longitudinal study of the coverage of the European Parliamentary elections 1979–2004 in four German quality newspapers

Abstract In recent years, the European Union (EU) has become more and more important in the lives of Europeans due to its growing authority in policy-making. In contrast to that, there still are several shortcomings in our knowledge of how European institutions, political processes, and events are presented in the media. This paper focuses on the coverage of the elections of the European Parliament (EP) because of two contradictory developments. Although the relevance of the EP to EU decision-making has considerably increased since 1979, voter interest and voter turnout at EP elections has been declining. Against this backdrop the paper (a) investigates the long-term development of EP election coverage in German newspapers and (b) compares EP and national election campaign coverage. Based on a content analysis of the coverage of four German quality newspapers of all six European election campaigns that took place since 1979, the analysis shows that there has not been an increase in EP election coverage, that EP elections were covered much less frequently than national elections, that, like in national elections, there was a trend towards more subjectivity in EP election coverage, that EP elections were looked at from a mainly national perspective, and that the degree of personalization was lower in EP than in national election coverage. In addition, explicit assessments of the EPs political relevance gave a better picture of the real development than one would expect from the analysis of the mere amount of coverage.

Auch in der Presse immer eine Nebenwahl? Die Berichterstattung über die Europawahlen 1979–2004 und die Bundestagswahlen 1980–2002 im Vergleich

Schon als 1979 die ersten Direktwahlen zum Europaischen Parlament stattfanden, war zu erkennen, dass diese unter anderen Vorzeichen stehen als die ublichen Wahlen zu nationalen Parlamenten (wie beispielsweise dem Bundestag). Dafur gibt es mehrere Grunde: die geringe Reputation des EU- Parlaments, dessen begrenzte Macht und Kompetenzen, die mindere Funktion und Bekanntheit seiner Mitglieder. Zwar fiel die Wahlbeteiligung mit EU-weit 63 Prozent gar nicht so schlecht aus. Zumal in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland lag sie mit 65,7 Prozent noch uber dem Durchschnitt. Aber dies war vermutlich der Neuheit zuzuschreiben und der Tatsache, dass es offenbar gelang, die Teilnahme an der Wahl mit einer gewissen moralischen Verpflichtung zu versehen. Bei den folgenden Europawahlen schwachte sich das immer mehr ab. 2004 betrug die Wahlbeteiligung in der Europaischen Union noch 45,7 Prozent.

From Tian'anmen Square to the global world stage: framing China in the German press, 1986–2006

Beginning with the historical background, the study investigates how two leading German newspapers covered the Peoples Republic of China from 1986 to 2006. These two decades were characterized by political turmoil and increased trade relations between the two economically powerful countries. The content analysis, which focuses on the amount of coverage, topics, and journalistic forms, attempts to describe how China has been framed over the years. The findings show an increasing significance of the economy on which again and again shadows were cast by political conflicts. Six frames can be observed; some are positive (political cooperation) and some are negative (scepticism with regard to politics and political actors). The two newspapers differ in their coverage according to different political lines.