Keywords: News, media, journalism and public opinion

“State elections in the shadow of the European migrant crisis? On the role of federal politics in the media coverage of the state election campaign”
Annemarie Wiedicke, Universität Erfurt, Master’s thesis, September 2017

In March 2016, three state elections in Germany took place. The election results were nationally and internationally considered as a shock, due to the electoral success of the right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) (The Times, 14.03.2016). Furthermore, the results were interpreted as consequence of the federal governments refugee policy (ibid.). The present study addresses the media coverage during the election campaigns in the three federal states, especially the media coverage of European refugee crisis in relation to reporting of regional developments. Using a quantitative content analysis, this master’s thesis aims to answer the following two research questions: 1) Which topics were dominating the media coverage of the state election campaigns in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt? 2) In which way did the media frame salient topics and issues?
To answer these questions, the electorate’s most important political information sources were analysed. These were the three regional newspapers that were most widely spread in the federal election states and Germany’s most watched television broadcast Tagesschau. All in all, a sample of 750 media reports over a five-week period in February and March 2016 has been analysed.
The agenda-setting-process, priming and framing (McCombs & Shaw, 1972) form the theoretical framework for this research, as well as several political analyses of the voting at federal state elections, which mostly conclude that there’s a connection between state and national elections and that topics of national interest often influence the election results of state elections (Erikson, 1988).
Several contend-related and linguistic characteristics of the media coverage during the state election campaigns have been identified: Firstly, both the Tagesschau as most viewed TV programme throughout Germany and the regional newspapers were dominated by the topic of the European refugee crisis, whereas regional topics have been less salient. Furthermore, the migration to Europe and the European refugee policy were often linked to the state election campaigns throughout the media coverage. In addition, a plurality of the articles and television reports contained entertaining stylistic devices, for example metaphors and emotional presentation – although they focussed on so called “hard topics”. This effect is even more significant for articles concerning the migrant crisis. Regarding the agenda-setting-process, priming and framing and their effect on the media public, these findings lead to the conclusion that the state election results and thus the election success of the right-wing populist party AfD have been influenced by the frequent and intense coverage of the refugee crisis.

References:
Erikson, R. D. (1988). The Puzzle of Midterm Loss. The Journal of Politics, 50 (4), 1011-1029.
McCombs, M. E. & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The Agenda-Setting-Function of Mass Media. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 36 (2), 176-187.