Publications

This paper presents a new style of political communication, marked by emotionally resonant, self-reflective, and dual-function framing strategies, examining the influence of German politicians’ framing (Robert Habeck/ Olaf Scholz) on media framing during the energy and gas crisis triggered by Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2022. Findings reveal both politicians frame themselves positively and call for urgent solutions – Habeck by promoting security and individual responsibility, and Scholz by fostering optimism and government support. The press frames their crisis handling through urgency, hope and authenticity. Negative binomial regression analysis confirms partial influences of their strategic framing on media coverage, portraying Habeck’s management as urgent, hopeful, authentic, yet sometimes questioned in authenticity, reflecting public sentiment on nuclear and gas issues. Scholz is depicted positively, focusing on urgency, progress, and government support. Some influential frames align with news values, but frame adoption remains partial and context-dependent. Findings suggest that crisis conditions foster a more personalized and emotionally stylized form of elite communication.

Politicians on social media shape public understanding of issues and have the potential to influence voting decisions. Social media platforms often reflect existing inequalities such as gender differences. This study examines the role of gender in online political discourse using a combined method approach. We focus on posts on X of 14 German federal from 2021-2024 to identify gender-based differences in language and content. The key contribution lies in developing a machine learning classification model. We use explainable artificial intelligence to examine the linguistic and content-based features of gendered communication. Findings reveal that women are less visible in public political discourse and receive significantly fewer public reactions (likes, replies, reposts) than men. Female politicians are more likely to discuss a broader range of topics such as social issues, foreign policy, humanitarian aid, and use emojis, while male politicians tend to frame topics like the COVID-19 pandemic, surveillance, and digitization.

This study examines the media framing of COVID-19 reporting in Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom during the period of the highly contagious Omicron variant from December 2021 to March 2022. By identifying issue-specific media frames using hierarchical cluster analysis, the study gains insights into the distinctive characteristics of journalistic roles within each country and sheds light on the similarities and differences in media framing. Findings reveal that the German Süddeutsche Zeitung prioritizes the economic and Omicron impact on society and reports rather emotionally through evaluations and blame on social issues but frames otherwise quite neutral, reflecting its role in opinion formation and information dissemination. Conversely, the American New York Times takes an objective and informative approach, except similar to the Süddeutsche Zeitung when dealing with social impacts of the pandemic, addressing Omicron, economic impacts, and vaccination challenges while emphasizing shared burdens of the pandemic. The British Guardian gives equal weight to economic and social consequences and the Omicron impact and also raises the issues concerning the healthcare sector. Blame and negative evaluations cross all frames and newspapers, although (emotionally charged) evaluations and accusations are most prevalent in the Guardian, often directed at unvaccinated people and politics.

During times of crisis, the press plays a crucial role in communicating and negotiating the crisis. Considering Germany’s strong economic role in the EU, the German (media) perspective on European economic policy issues has a major influence on Europe. In 2018, Italy’s debt crisis posed the risk of a new euro crisis and a domino effect on other countries. Contrasting views of how to resolve economic crises opposed each other, with the Maastricht criteria at the center. Despite high debt, the Italian government pursued a Keynesian policy by increasing the deficit to stimulate economic growth. The European Commission, however, insisted on neoliberal policies and compliance with the criteria. This study discusses the (non)emergence of a European public sphere through the economic policy framing of the Italian sovereign debt crisis. Using quantitative content analysis, the relative prevalence of frames rooted in competing economic policy paradigms (neoliberal/Keynesian) in press coverage is examined. The results show that the neoliberal paradigm and the call for austerity dominate coverage, indicating a possible European public sphere. However, the biased media framing in favor of the European Commission’s and German government’s interests partly contributes to strengthening the nationalistic perspective on this European issue. Overall, the press failed to present the issue in a solution-oriented and pluralistic manner.

Especially in times of (corona) crisis, the German press plays a crucial role in communicating Germany’s economic policy orientation, influencing how the crisis is communicated to the public. The issue of joint European debt has never been more visible than in these times, as has the threat of a new euro crisis—Italy in focus. This study explores the German media framing of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) using Italy as an example. Applying quantitative content analysis, the relative prevalence of frames rooted in competing economic policy paradigms (neoliberal/Keynesian) in press coverage from February to July 2020 is examined. The Keynesian paradigm dominates coverage. Using logit analysis, issue-specific neoliberal frames are identified as solution oriented, while Keynesian frames focus on evaluations. With Germany's policy shift regarding European joint debt and toward European greater fiscal integration, a paradigm shift is observable. Overall, findings demonstrate a relatively paradigmatic pluralistic reporting.

In times of crisis and social turbulence, the mass media play a crucial role. This becomes particularly evident in economic crises within the European Union. The (biased) way the crisis is reported shapes people’s understanding of the crisis and the parties involved. In this study, the coverage of the Greek sovereign debt crisis in the German newspapers BILD, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, tageszeitung and Der Spiegel (online) is examined for the quality criteria relevance, neutrality, balance, and analytical quality. The results show that the reporting is appropriate to the relevance of the topic, but shows deficits in the criteria of balance, neutrality, and analytical quality. During the study period, coverage focuses on a small number of topics, journalists include their value judgments in news and reports. Overall, there is an obvious media bias against the Greek government’s position.

The German press plays a crucial role in communicating Germany’s economic policy orientation, especially in relevant European discussions. The coverage of the Italian debt crisis in German newspapers/magazine is examined for predefined quality criteria. Findings show deficits in balance, neutrality and analytical quality: German press coverage focusses on few topics, journalists incorporate their value judgments and opinions into news and reports. From the German perspective, there is an obvious bias against the Italian government’s position.