Zwischen Gratwanderung und „Verpapstung“ eines Landesvaters. Die Presseberichterstattung über die Landtagswahlen in Rheinland-Pfalz und Baden-Württemberg 2016 – im Vergleich zu 2011

Abstract

While the analysis of national - and increasingly European - elections is a longstanding tradition in political communication research, the analysis of regional elections is still an understudied research topic. Those elections take the centre stage of our study. The quantitative content analysis compares the press coverage of eight German regional newspapers of the 2011 and 2016 federal elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg in a comparative manner. Our results show differences regarding the election coverage between both federal sates as well as differences over the course of time. Regarding the federal states, differences become especially apparent concerning the focus on and evaluation of the so called “Spitzenkandidaten” (top candidates). Noticeable changes in the course of time are an increasing amount of reports, features, and commentaries (at the cost of objective news coverage), more visualization and personalization as well as increasing importance of horse race coverage and quotation of candidates. Situational factors as well as the political and social circumstances seem to influence the press coverage. Included is the refugee crisis as a topic of the election coverage.