An election campaign like no other? Press coverage of the 2021 German federal election in a long-term comparison

“This election campaign is like no other!” (Die Welt, September 14, 2021) The German federal election in 2021 was the twentieth since 1949 – an ‘anniversary election’, so to speak. Not only because of this anniversary, this election can be described as a ‘special’ election or better said as an election under ‘special circumstances’. The long-serving federal chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) did not run again as the Conservative Parties’ (CDU/CSU) candidate for chancellorship, which is why the Conservatives lost their former incumbent bonus. The new candidate for chancellor of the CDU/CSU, Armin Laschet, was not without controversy. Furthermore, for the first time in German history, three (instead of two) candidates competed for chancellorship, because in addition to the Social Democratic Party (SPD; candidate: Olaf Scholz) also the Green party, who had gained considerable support from voters, put up a (also controversially discussed) candidate (Annalena Baerbock). In addition to these political circumstances, there were also special social circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that influenced the election campaign.

We ask whether not only the framework conditions of the last federal election in Germany were “like no other”, but also the news coverage of the election campaign.
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The analysis of media coverage of election campaigns has a long tradition in communication science. In the German context, our quantitative content analysis of the press coverage on all federal election campaigns that have taken place since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 to date can be called a ‘classic’. Including the federal election 2021, the time series of our content analysis comprises twenty measurement points over an investigation period of 72 years – unique in German election campaign research. This long-term analysis makes it possible to determine changes and constants in election campaign coverage, which we want to display with a special focus on the latest election.

Methodically, the same media sample is always analyzed according to the same coding scheme (to make findings comparable), which is only adapted to the specific content of the respective election (e.g. chancellor candidates and topics).

Subject of analysis is the election campaign coverage of four national quality newspapers in Germany (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau) during the four weeks before the election. Every second article (systematic selection interval) in selected parts of the newspapers that mentions the election (campaign) and/or at least one of the candidates for chancellorship is included in the analysis.

Our results show that in some ways the 2021 election campaign coverage was actually different than in previous election years. For example, there was more election coverage than during the three national elections before (n=668 articles), candidate pictures and length candidate quotations increased and there were so many evaluative statements about the candidates as never before. The thematic focus of the election campaign articles has (only) partly changed (e.g. more environmental policy and more horse-race coverage). The degree of personalization remained unchanged high and candidates who were part of the government received more media attention.