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Professors, comedians and billionaires: An empirical analysis of newspaper coverage of new Eurosceptic parties in three 2013 national elections

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This study sheds light on how new Eurosceptic parties are received and interpreted by the media. It does so by analysing the quality press coverage of three specific cases: the Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S) (Italy), the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) (Germany) and the Team Stronach (TS) (Austria). These cases represent non-extremist Eurosceptic challengers to the political establishment, which capitalized upon the Euro Crisis and competed in national elections in 2013 for the first time. We look at their representation in the coverage, which issues they were mainly associated with, and how they were pictured overall. The results of the analysis show that the presentational style differs among the parties: a strong personalization, a strong negativity and a focus on events characterized the presentation of the M5S and the TS, while issues played a slightly greater role for the AfD. The three parties’ coverage, however, converges in a generally peripheral role of issues, in an overall negative bias, and in depicting them as dangerous and irresponsible populist protest parties.

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Notes

  1. While previous work contended that campaigns and campaign communication have minimal effects on voters at best, more recent work has been successively bolstering the view that it does indeed have a considerable impact (Kriesi et al, 2009, p. 345). Despite the recent developments in the information and communication technologies, the traditional mass media are still essential for political actors’ chances of winning support, and modern campaigning is still very much mass media-centred (Römmele, 2003; Norris, 2006; Jerit, 2008; Kriesi et al, 2009). This may be because of the fact that the traditional reporting is usually perceived to be rather objective and that it is thus more likely to have an influence on voters’ opinion (Pfetsch, 2004, pp. 32–34; Schoen, 2005, p. 510).

  2. In case of the M5S, which did not present a top candidate, Beppe Grillo was chosen since he was the obvious figurehead of the party.

  3. This evaluative stance is tied to the categories in the coding scheme so that, for example, a neutral characterization is not coded with a negative category, even if the category designation is otherwise substantially related to a statement.

  4. The complete codebook as well as detailed information about the coding rules can be requested from the authors.

  5. When considering that the party is named after its leader, the personalization in the die Austrian case seems even stronger.

  6. A first analysis of the Austrian tabloid Kronen Zeitung for the same period suggests a slightly less pronounced but still remarkable negative bias for the depiction of the TS. In this case, no substantial differences could thus be observed in the overall coverage.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Nicoletta Backhaus, Magdalena Breyer, Julian Erhardt, Lisa Lauton and Florian Ruf for excellent research assistance and the two anonymous reviewers for their feedback on the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Politics, University of Freiburg, Werthmannstraße 12, Freiburg, D-79098, Germany

    Julian Schärdel & Pascal König

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Correspondence to Julian Schärdel.

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Schärdel, J., König, P. Professors, comedians and billionaires: An empirical analysis of newspaper coverage of new Eurosceptic parties in three 2013 national elections. Comp Eur Polit 15, 310–335 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2015.19

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