Professors, comedians and billionaires: An empirical analysis of newspaper coverage of new Eurosceptic parties in three 2013 national elections

Abstract:

This study sheds light on how new Eurosceptic parties are received and interpreted by the media. It does so by analysing the quality press coverage of three specific cases: the Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S) (Italy), the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) (Germany) and the Team Stronach (TS) (Austria).

These cases represent non-extremist Eurosceptic challengers to the political establishment, which capitalized upon the Euro Crisis and competed in national elections in 2013 for the first time. We look at their representation in the coverage, which issues they were mainly associated with, and how they were pictured overall. The results of the analysis show that the presentational style differs among the parties: a strong personalization, a strong negativity and a focus on events characterized the presentation of the M5S and the TS, while issues played a slightly greater role for the AfD.

The three parties’ coverage, however, converges in a generally peripheral role of issues, in an overall negative bias, and in depicting them as dangerous and irresponsible populist protest parties.