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A Journal Review of

Voters in a Changing MediaEnvironment

A Data-Based Retrospective onConsequences of Media Changein Germany

Winfried Schulz, Reimar Zeh and Oliver Quiring

European Journal of Communication Copyright 2005 SAGE Publications(London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) www.sagepublications.com,Vol 20(1): 5588. [10.1177/0267323105047670]

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in

Political Science 170

Reviewed byVivien Gay T. Gammad07-38308Submitted toProfessor Verna Dinah Q. ViajarDepartment of Political ScienceUniversity of the Philippines - Diliman

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Introduction

Political communication is a major aspect of everyday political activity.

The channels of political discourse through the years have evolved astechnological improvements are adapted to facilitate such activities. Alongsidewith developments in political communication is the purported mediatizationof politics which has been a topic of more than a few research and studiesduring the past decade. One study made in this account is that of the Votersin a Changing Media Environment: A data-based retrospective onconsequences of Media Change in Germanyby Winfried Schulz et al. The studyfocuses on the supposed long-term consequences of media change for votersin Germany.

Summary

The authors focused on the selected aspects of electoral behavior withrespect to the media change using the available data from past elections. Thestudy is divided into two main parts which are the Changing electioncommunication and the Changing voter behavior. Each comprise of subtopicswhere issues are discussed.

The journal began with the introduction of the media setting inGermany. The colossal development in media system since the conclusion ofWorld War II has been very much evident in Germany. The number daily

newspapers and German channels have increased leading to a much vibrantmedia industry. In the mid-1980s, the deregulation of broadcasting as well asthe implementation of new technologies advanced the development ofbroadcasting and led to fierce competition in the electronic media market.

Changing election communication is very much interlinked with thechanging media. Along with the expansion of the media industry, the variousmanifestations of media types and differentiation in content and genres is thechange in the composition of media information especially in the aspect ofpolitical communication. The commercialization of channels led to a mediasystem more partial to cater the public with entertainment and infotainment.As a result, the boundaries between information and entertainment became

blurred, a trend observed in many European countries,and known astabloidization. Thus, media changes are likely to result political partiescampaign and the voters reaction to campaign.

In lieu with the development and changes in media is an apparenttransformation of campaigning. As media channels expand and proliferate,outlets of election communications in turn grow and opportunities to reachelectorates increase. Political parties are able to send campaign messages to abigger volume of people through tools of mass media like television and radio.

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The authors have also recognized this commercialization has put much groundon the concept of mediatization which considered the television as the leadmedium in election campaigns. Television, according to the authors hasincreased the degree of personalization of campaign messages. Instead ofparty ideology, the candidates are keener to advertise their personality and

perform as a single entity. Germany, like many European countries have alsoprofessionalized their campaign management to accommodate the changes inmedia and campaign. Professionalization of campaigning includes, amongothers, adopting the methods of commercial marketing, restructuring thepartys own campaign planning organization and outsourcing entire task fieldsto commercial agencies that specialize in advertising and public relations.Aswhat started out as spreading out of media, soon it was able to take overelections as a primary media affair rather than a party affair. Campaign andelections began equate itself with media exposure. The media appearance ofpolitical candidates is a manifestation of increasing effect of media oncampaigns, leaning away from the grasp of parties and more on media-logic.

In turn, events of high degree drama and emotion and political attacking hasput more appeal which increased the negativity of campaign materials. Thus,elections dont make good news, and the game schema becomes the focusof the medias campaign coverage at the expense of political substance.These observations, which were first seen in America, have led to severalassumptions of European scholars of Americanization of elections. Indeed, it issaid that the American model of campaigning has set worldwide standardswhich also leads to hybrid styles mizing American practives with country-specific traditional campaigning styles.

As the transformation of election campaigns has become more evident,striking features of media changes also became apparent and most of them

are focused on its negative consequences. An argument against the supposednegative implication of media change is that the voters actually profits frommore access to campaign messages which could also mobilize the societysapathetic. Dalton also argued that voters would be able to identify leadersindependent of their party propaganda. Yet as the media changes and moreteleviewing happens, fragmentation of media publics and weakening of partyidentification could result. Also there could be diminished party control overcampaign control over campaign messages, negative campaigning and focuson game schema and probably even political malaise.

The study was exploratory rather than hypothesis testing. The resultsare based on empirical research drawn from the databases of surveys among

German voters provided by the Central Archive for Empirical Social Researchin Cologne.Content analysis findings were presented from the authors ownstudies of election reporting on German television.

The researchers have concluded a few points with regard to the effectsof media changes in voting behavior. One is that, fragmentation indeed hasturned election campaigning into target group campaigning. However, as theexample of the television debates in the German election of 2002 has

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demonstrated, a fragmented audience does not necessarily lead to afragmentation of the public sphere.

Moreover, results on survey analyses have shown considerable effects oftelevision and news media for voters decision making during elections. This isparticularly the case for voters not identifying themselves with any of the

political parties. These so-called non identifiers tend to base their votingdecisions on candidate evaluations, for which the mass media provide relevantinformation There is a clear advantage for television to reach the apoliticalvoters compared with most other media.

To some degree, long-term analyses of the German media show that thestyle of campaign reporting and of political journalism in general haschanged in a way which seems to mirror the US trend. Conflict and scandalhave become more prevalent in the presentation of politics. The mass mediaproject an increasingly negative image of political actors. Yet, while there is aproliferation of American campaign practices, the particularities of politicalsystems and media systems, as well as differences in voters mentality,

political competence and orientation lead to a hybridization rather thanAmericanization of election campaigns(Plasser and Plasser, 2002: 34351). In this respect, our findings agree withrecent arguments against the notion of Americanization (Blumler andGurevitch, 2001; Mazzoleni and Schulz, 1999; Papathanassopoulos, 2000;Scammell, 1998; Swanson and Mancini, 1996).

It was also proved that the political reality is not only more complexthan the notion of Americanization implies. The recent German elections havedemonstrated several noteworthy examples. The political parties, for example,gained quite a bit of attention through some spectacular posters theyproduced, not to be put up in streets but rather to be presented at press

conferences and on the Internet (Lessinger et al., 2003). The themes shown inthe posters were widely discussed in the media and, thus, received free,nationwide publicity. Accordingly, it is apparent that election campaignmessages can easily overcome the genre barrier between the different kindsof media.

In addition, the Internet becomes increasingly important for crossmediastrategies by not only supplying original selections of information, but also byserving as an additional distribution channel for print, radio and television.This amplifies the mediatization of election campaigns through a multiplicationof messages while simultaneously blurring the borders between the channelsof voter accessibility.

There were also assumptions made by past election researchers whichcontributed to the accumulating belief the television and commercialized newsitems contribute to a fragmented and more ignorant electorate. Theseassumptions point out much amplification of the effects of the media towardsvoting behavior. Mass media are not really to blame on some electoral trends. Todays professional election campaign management begins with thepreparations for the upcoming campaign long before the election date. In thecase of some of the tasks, they even begin years in advance. Undeclared early

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campaigning probably contributed to the fact that the Bundestag elections in1990, 1994 and 1998 were decided even before the official campaign began.The effect of advertisement and exposure can only take a candidate so far butit is accompanied by extensive planning which affects more the dispositions ofvoter.

An additional problem that deserves more attention stems from theincreasing secularization and instrumentalization of election research. Theobserved protagonists in the election campaigns in turn observe theirscientific observers and utilize or anticipate their observations. A well-knownexample is the publication of poll results about voter intentions. During recentBundestag elections, the media published poll results almost daily. The extentto which this practice has led to voter reaction, to bandwagon or sympathyeffects is a question researchers have only begun to analyse. Severalindications speak in favor of a bandwagon effect (Schmitt-Beck, 1996). Theresults of election research are not only part of the voters definition of thesituation. Election research is also an important component in the parties

situation analysis. For campaign planning, election research today obviouslyplays a significant role in the development of strategies and as the supplier ofarguments and slogans.

The 1998 campaign provided an informative example of the interplaybetween the parties, the public and the academic scene. In the beginning ofMarch following the state election in Lower Saxony (which Schroder haddeclared to be a plebiscite for his SPD [Social Democrats] chancellorcandidacy), the news magazine Der Spiegel published a lengthy article aboutSPD plans for the federal election campaign, conceived as a campaignfollowing the American pattern. CDU/CSU politicians immediately snatched upthe idea of Americanization as a derogatory campaign concept in their

negative campaigning and succeeded in attaching negative connotations tothe term Americanization. It became a synonym for all that is for show andfake. The public discussion which followed conversely imposed the scientificanalysis of election campaigning and, once again, gave reason to question thenotion of Americanization. In this way, the public discussion contributed tokeep the concept of Americanization as one decidedly unresolved in theacademic literature.

Analysis

There are many reasons why scholars in this day look into the effects of

media in political communication. The commercialization of media is an

undeniable reality and the different venues to which media infiltrates

increases. The authors though, are right to point out that these developments

only affect voting behavior to some degree. The people, as exposed to more

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diverse channels of media do not necessarily result to a fragmented public

sphere. Instead, diverse channels of media results more to easier access of

people for information especially those which concerns elections like voting

campaigns and candidate profiles.

Media does not necessarily create division on the society but it isdistributed into diverse kinds that cater to the interest of most people. In

addition, there are still the more dominant medium which is the television. The

idea of mediatization is based more on the televiewing and its trends. I think

that the fast pace, speedy and entertaining coverage of television contribute

to its characteristics to avoid delving into a detailed coverage. In turn, it gives

the viewers only a small portion of election information. With the proliferate

number of television and its ability access almost every home in Germany

guarantees an effective medium for the candidates to use in order to reach

out as much people at a time. Indeed, this characteristics of television led

many researchers to correlate the changing trend in election campaigning

from party based to a more personalized one. Assumptions are that people are

more interested with a candidates profile and personal issues instead of the

ideology and party platforms. The authors were not able to put much detail

into this matter. Yet, they focused on another argument of mediatization

which is the negativity that comes with election personalization.

Voters are not anymore paying attention in the stands and beliefs of thecandidates running in office because, apparently, the television puts morecoverage on the personality and lifestyle of the latter. Terms, likeAmericanization has been correlated with the more dramatic flair of media tocenter stage the personal lives of the candidates themselves. I agree with theauthors to rule out the overstatement of this assumption. Germany, as theysay, has been manifested with negative news during election campaigns andthe authors also agree that negative news against opponents is greatpublicity. But they also found out that the negativity and the extent ofpersonalization do not go as far as most scholars think it did. Unlike the US,there has not been a growth in bad news coverage of the candidates inGermany. While there has been a slight increase of negative references to both theincumbent and the challenger, we also see that good news coverage and, evenmore so, stories with a mixed tone have become more prevalent over time.

Furthermore, it was also argued that the media logic has reduced morecomprehensive campaigns messages to smaller candidate sound bites. But ascampaign messages were put in comparison, those of the German andAmerican, they found out the German election campaigns get a much betterplatform than their American counterparts (see also Donsbach and Jandura, 2003).Germany has adapted more on hybridization which contradicts to a strongersupposition of Americanization. They recognized the effects of media and howit was incorporated with their own elections. But they also pointed out that

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these effects did not dominate election campaigns but rather wasincorporated to Germanys own culture of election.negative

There is also an impact on campaigners who try to cover as much to these

channels to reach out to different people.

Point out target campaigning