Communicator of the Year: Federal State

“Soft” factors turn hard

Core competencies of the Länder is also primarily under the states’ jurisdiction. Thus the topic is particularly important from an Agenda are becoming more important for Setting point of view. It is clear that the Pisa study the media image has lead to a situation where it is diffi cult to trans- mit good news on education. From July 2004 until Research Links: etween July 2004 and June 2005, has June 2005, Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria and North- www.mediatenor.de Bnot only been able to position itself successfully Rhine/Westphalia were able to get most of the cover- www.agendasetting.com on economic issues in the media, but also on business age on education-related issues (Graph 1). However, friendly factors ranging to education and culture. the assessments show that most of the states did not Moreover, the southern most state (Bundesland) in manage to come out positive overall on the issue. profi ted from the media presence of its After all, the Federalism Commission, which was minister president . Considering the supposed to reform the federal system in Germany, sum of all criteria, Bavaria is awarded this year’s failed because of disagreements on responsibili- Media Tenor prize for diversity of coverage. ties in educational policy. Only Lower and

The basis for the award was the analysis of media Coverage on culture-related coverage on the 16 German Bundesländer in eight issues of the Länder daily newspapers, nine weekly media, nine televi- sion news programs and ten TV magazines. Media Meckl.-West. Pomerania Tenor analyzed this data set with the help of ten cri- Brandenburg teria, which allow for precise statements on topical North Rhine-Westphalia structure and media image in the coverage on the 16 states. Rhineland-Palatinate Schleswig-Holstein Coverage on education-related Saxony issues of the Länder Saxony-Anhalt Berlin Schleswig-Holstein Baden-Wuerttemberg Employment Bavaria Thuringia Market North Rhine-Westphalia Hesse Saarland Baden-Wuerttemberg Bavaria Bremen Saarland Hesse Bremen Brandenburg Lower Saxony Saxony 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Rhineland-Palatinate Source: Media Tenor Basis: 454,294 statements from / about German Berlin 07/01/2004 – 6/30/2005 States´Prime Ministers in 17 print- and 19 TV media Hamburg Baden-Württemberg managed to stand out from the Lower Saxony rest with a positive media image on education. Yet Meckl.-West. Pomerania under the premise that it is more important for the Saxony-Anhalt states to be heard on the topic, the focus gets shifted: Thuringia Combining media presence with assessment, Baden- 0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria lead in the category education. Source: Media Tenor Basis: 31,146 stories about the German States in 07/01/2004 – 6/30/2005 17 print- and 19 TV media. Culture stands for quality of life and economic Education adds profi le success Education is continually gaining in importance as Culture, another so-called “soft” factor, is crucial a requisite for attracting investment. When poten- for creating the image of a state. Cultural events and tial investors read or hear about this in the media, institutions not only contribute to the quality of life, it strongly shapes the state’s image as a competitive but also infl uence hard, economic fi gures such as the and attractive business location. Educational policy number of tourists or the location of company facili-

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ties. The Media Tenor analysis shows that the states such as economic, domestic or social policy? While could only rarely make it into the politics and busi- state elections provided the minister presidents of ness sections with this topic. Thuringia was by far Schleswig-Holstein, North-Rhine/Westphalia or the most strongly represented in this context. Yet this Saxony with a strong presence, Wolfgang Böhmer is primarily due to the fi re in the famous Duchess and were able to break through with Anna Amalia library. Aside from Thuringia, Berlin received the most coverage on culture-related topics. Specific factual issues Since the capital had a positive balance of 35 per- of the minister presidents cent on the assessments, it came fi rst in the culture category. Böhmer von Beust Coverage on general economic Wowereit Share of conditions of the Länder Koch ShareShare ofof policypolicy issuesissues Wulff Hamburg Rating Economic Situation Stoiber Bavaria Althaus Lower Saxony Ringstorff Saxony Beck Hesse Milbradt Rhineland-Palatinate Platzeck Brandenburg Müller Baden-Wuerttemberg Scherf North Rhine-Westphalia Teufel/Öettinger Berlin Steinbrück/Rüttgers Thuringia Simonis/Carstensen WolfgangWolfgang BöhmerBöhmer Meckl.-West. Pomerania 0 20% 40% 60% 80% Saxony-Anhalt Source: Media Tenor Basis: 1,841 reports about the social situation of Saarland 07/01/2004 – 6/30/2005 the German States in 17 print- and 19 TV media Bremen

Schleswig-Holstein negative positive a high share of factual topics. The Bavarian minister -100% -80% -60% -40% -20% 0 20% president Edmund Stoiber positioned himself well both on presence and factual issues, thereby con- Source: Media Tenor Basis: 1,823 reports about the economic situation of tributing to Bavaria’s success in this year’s overall 07/01/2004 – 6/30/2005 the German States in 17 print- and 19 TV media ranking.

General economic conditions Aside from the already mentioned factors, cover- The analysis not only considered the actual economic age on tourism, families, labor market, research & situation in the states, but also the journalists’ treat- sciences as well as media presence of the state par- ment of the general economic conditions. In their liaments were included in the analysis. san reporting on the states, “hard” factors appear to be of marginal importance to journalists. The coverage Basis: remains below the awareness threshold and hardly Media: Daily Newspapers: Welt, FAZ, Süddeutsche Ztg., FR, leaves any room for detailed background informa- Bild, taz*, Berliner Zeitung*, Sächsische Zeitung* (08/16 tion. In combination with the assessments of the - 11/30 not codet) general conditions (graph 3), Thuringia, Sachsen- Weekly magazines: Spiegel, Focus, Stern, Zeit, Rheinischer Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg were able to get the Merkur, FAZ am Sonntag, WamS, BamS, Super Illu best out of a low level of coverage. TV-News: ARD Tagesthemen, ARD Tagesschau, ZDF heute The minister presidents, as top state representa- journal, ZDF heute, RTL Aktuell, Sat.1 18:30, Pro7 Nach- richten, Dt. Welle (german and english) tives, shaped the media image signifi cantly. Aside TV-Magazines: Kontraste, Panorama, Plusminus, Report from overall presence, their association with specifi c (SWR), Report (SR), Berlin direkt, Frontal 21, WISO, Moni- areas of policy in the media image was an important tor, FAKT part of the analysis: To what extent did the minis- Timeline: 07/01/2004 – 06/30/2005 ter presidents communicate specifi c factual issues Analyse: 31,146 stories abot the german states

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