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

Leidecker-Sandmann, Melanie ORCID iD icon 1; Schäfer-Hock, Christian; Wilke, Jürgen
1 Institut für Technikzukünfte (ITZ), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Abstract (englisch):

“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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Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Technikzukünfte (ITZ)
Publikationstyp Vortrag
Publikationsdatum 20.10.2022
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator KITopen-ID: 1000145494
Veranstaltung 9th European Communication Conference (ECREA 2022), Århus, Dänemark, 19.10.2022 – 22.10.2022
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