Populism and Media in Germany: How different newspapers report about the AfD

Abstract

It has generally been established that the media has an effect on populism and can either help or hinder it. However, there is a lack of research on how populist parties are portrayed in the media. In this paper, I investigate four German newspapers and the way in which they cover the German populist party “Alternative für Deutschland”. The German case is special, as the past German experiences with right-wing radicalism, have led the media in Germany to develop fear of contact or “Berührungsangst” with populism. By conducting a qualitative discourse analysis, I find that all newspapers try to contain the AfD and show signs of “Berührungsangst”. However, it becomes clear that the traditional categories, established through quantitative content analyses, are inadequate to accurately cover all possible responses of the newspapers. Thus, I argue that more qualitative discourse analyses are needed in this field, in order to establish more nuanced categories, upon which future quantitative and qualitative research can build.