Research question/goal:

As part of the German national election study GLES (German Longitudinal Election Study), this project comprised extensive manual content analyses of daily media coverage of the 2009, 2013 and 2017 federal election campaigns in the main evening news programmes of the four major television broadcasters (two public, ARD and ZDF, and two private, RTL and Sat.1) as well as in the six most important national daily newspapers (the major quality newspapers, FR, FAZ, SZ, WELT and TAZ, and the leading tabloid, BILD). Our analyses focused on aspects of mediated campaign communications such as thematic agendas, coverage and statement bias in reporting on parties and candidates, and strategic information such as horse-race coverage and coalition signals. The collected data allowed for extensive descriptive analyses of media coverage across the three election campaigns and their dynamics, comparing between media as well as over time, both within campaigns and across campaigns. The content analyses were conducted in parallel with two short-term survey components of the GLES—a rolling cross-section campaign survey and a multi-wave short-term panel—allowing the data to be readily merged based on publication dates and respondents’ media use.

The main purpose of this data collection effort was to contribute to the data infrastructure of German and international electoral research. To that end, immediately after their completion, the datasets were transferred to GESIS for publication. The project’s own research interests concentrated on individual-level analyses of effects of media bias (coverage and statement bias) on voters’ attitudes towards parties and their lead candidates. The findings suggest that such persuasive media effects indeed played a role in voters’ decision-making during the three elections examined in the project, with TV news having a greater influence than newspapers. These and numerous other aspects of German election research are the subject of the scientific publications that have emerged from the project. Further information is also available at www.gesis.org/gles.