Tradition statt Innovation. Die deutsche Presseberichterstattung über die Wahlkampfstrategien der Parteien zur Bundestagswahl 2017 = Tradition instead of innovation The German press coverage of political parties’ campaign strategies in the run-up to the 2017 parliamentary elections

As main source of information for citizens about political proceedings, media coverage, especially in the run-up to political elections, influences how political parties, candidates and also their election campaign are perceived and evaluated by the citizens. Despite their central role in the election campaign and their possible influence on the outcome of the election, the media coverage of political parties’ campaign strategies has hardly been analysed empirically. This is where our study begins. It answers the questions how the national German quality press in the run-up to the 2017 parliamentary elections covered the campaign strategies of the parties and how frequently which content-related and communicative campaign strategies of which parties were addressed and evaluated. Our analysis shows that the parties’ campaign strategies are an interesting and newsworthy topic for the media: every second article about the election campaign thematised them. A special focus of the media coverage lies on the campaign strategies of the two main political parties CDU/CSU and SPD - those of the smaller parties receive less media coverage. An exception is the strategic election campaign of the FDP and AfD; both parties attracted media attention with unusual or provocative campaigns. ... mehrHowever, in campaign coverage only a very limited and predominantly negative picture of the campaign strategies of the parties is shown. The media coverage focuses on traditional communicative strategies, such as election posters and campaign appearances by individual politicians, but more modern or even more innovative forms are rarely mentioned.