Chapter 10 - Visualization of Agenda Building Processes by Correspondence Analysis

Abstract

This chapter is a part of the research project that focuses on the media coverage of the German super election year. The chapter provides a broad and feasible insight into the thematic development of the election campaigns. It discusses uses of the correspondence analysis for the visualization of agenda building processes. The possibilities for visualizing the data provide opportunities for displaying the evolution of themes over time. The distribution of the news items depicts a sequence of efforts to launch issues and thematic withdrawals (dethematization) over the course of time. Dethematization does not verify common models of agenda building and agenda setting processes during election campaigns. These models are based on the notion of increasing activities. The exploratory analysis presented in the chapter suggests that a sequence of agenda building processes and an elimination of themes by political actors can be detected according to the German super election year. An important finding is the active role of the media in these processes. The analysis reveals that the agenda building efforts of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) were not adopted by the media, and therefore it can be concluded that this agenda building was not successful.