Political Communication in Germany and Poland Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie an der Philosophischen Fakultät der Technischen Universität Dresden vorgelegt von Ewa Anna Musiałowska geb. am 27.01.1980 in Wrocław Betreuer: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Donsbach, Technische Universität Dresden Gutachter: 1. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Donsbach, Technische Universität Dresden 2. Prof. Dr. Lutz M. Hagen, Technische Universität Dresden 3. Prof. Dr. Beata Ociepka, Uniwersytet Wrocławski/Polen 1 Political Communication in Germany and Poland Termin der Verteidigung: 16.07.2008 2 Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER 1 | TRENDS IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION 13 1.1. CHANGING PATTERNS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION 13 1.1.1. HOMOGENIZATION : AMERICANIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION 16 1.1.2. MODERNIZATION AND SECULARIZATION 17 1.1.3. MEDIATIZATION OF POLITICS AND ITS INDICATORS 19 1.2. COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON POLITICAL COMMUNICATION 23 1.3. UNEXPLORED FIELD OF COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON POLITICAL COMMUNICATION 27 CHAPTER 2 | COMPARING POLITICAL SYSTEMS 33 2.1. COMPARING PARTY SYSTEMS 33 2.1.1. PARTY SYSTEM IN POLAND 33 2.1.2. PARTY SYSTEM IN GERMANY 46 2.1.3. CONCLUSIONS 52 2.2. COMPARING ELECTORAL SYSTEMS 54 2.2.1. ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN POLAND 55 2.2.2. ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN GERMANY 59 2.2.3. CONCLUSIONS 62 2.3. COMPARING POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 63 2.3.1. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN POLAND 64 2.3.2. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN GERMANY 66 2.3.3. CONCLUSIONS 68 CHAPTER 3 | COMPARING MEDIA SYSTEMS 70 3.1. THREE MODELS OF MEDIA AND POLITICS 70 3.2. MEDIA SYSTEM IN POLAND 75 3.2.1. NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY IN POLAND 76 3.2.2. POLITICAL PARALLELISM IN POLAND 80 3.2.3. JOURNALISTIC PROFESSIONALIZATION IN POLAND 84 3.3. MEDIA SYSTEM IN GERMANY 87 3.3.1. NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY IN GERMANY 88 3.3.2. POLITICAL PARALLELISM IN GERMANY 90 3.3.3. JOURNALISTIC PROFESSIONALIZATION IN GERMANY 94 3.4. CONCLUSIONS 97 CHAPTER 4 | HYPOTHESES 101 4.1. HYPOTHESES : PARTY SPOTS 101 4.1.1. PROFESSIONALIZATION 102 4.1.2. NEGATIVITY 102 3 4.1.3. FOCUS ON LEADERS 103 4.1.4. EMOTIONALIZATION 104 4.1.5. THEME SPECTRUM 105 4.1.6. INCUMBENT /C HALLENGER STRATEGIES 105 4.2. HYPOTHESES : MEDIA COVERAGE 106 4.2.1. COVERAGE ON PARTY CAMPAIGNING 106 4.2.2. FOCUS ON LEADERS 108 4.2.3. NEGATIVITY 108 4.2.4. MEDIA ’S POLITICAL SYMPATHIES 109 CHAPTER 5 | DESIGN OF THE STUDY 111 5.1. METHOD AND AIMS OF CONTENT ANALYSIS 111 5.2. SELECTED SOURCES FOR CONTENT ANALYSIS 112 5.2.1. PARTY SPOTS 114 5.2.2. MEDIA COVERAGE 116 5.3. CODING INSTRUMENTS 119 5.4. APPLIED VARIABLES 122 5.5. RELIABILITY 130 5.5.1. PRETEST : PARTY SPOTS 131 5.5.2. PRETEST : MEDIA COVERAGE 132 CHAPTER 6 | RESULTS: COMPARING PARTY SPOTS 134 6.1. PROFESSIONALIZATION 134 6.2. NEGATIVITY 139 6.3. FOCUS ON LEADERS 146 6.4. EMOTIONALIZATION 150 6.5. THEME SPECTRUM 152 6.6. INCUMBENT /C HALLENGER STRATEGIES 155 6.7. CONCLUSIONS 159 CHAPTER 7 | RESULTS: COMPARING MEDIA COVERAGE 162 7.1. COVERAGE ON PARTY CAMPAIGNING 162 7.2. FOCUS ON LEADERS 169 7.3. NEGATIVITY 182 7.4. MEDIA ’S POLITICAL SYMPATHIES 193 7.5. CONCLUSIONS 202 CHAPTER 8 | SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 204 8.1. CONCLUSIONS IN LIGHT OF THEORY AND HYPOTHESES 204 8.2. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND BARRIERS 210 8.3. FUTURE RESEARCH 213 REFERENCES 216 APPENDICES 237 4 APPENDIX A 237 APPENDIX B 249 5 Acknowledgements I am fortunate to have benefited from the mentorship of Prof. Wolfgang Donsbach . His passion for media research inspired me during my studies at TU Dresden where I was an exchange student. I am very grateful for his guidance, encouragement and supporting research atmosphere during my doctoral studies. I would also like to express my gratitude to Prof. Beata Ociepka . It is with much appreciation that I thank her for awaking my interest in media during my studies at University of Wrocław. I have been motivated by her enthusiasm and professionalism which influenced my own academic pursuits. I would also like to acknowledge the coders Katarzyna Borowiec , Adriana Ki ędzierska, Mandy Pampel , Hannah Szynal and Antal Wozniak who helped me evaluate the research material. I also thank Heike Großmann and Kerstin Weisbach for their methodological courses at TU Dresden and Katrin Jungnickel for providing me with a SPSS training. I wish to extend my thanks to supporters of my dissertation: Herbert-Quandt-Stiftung , Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) and Stiftung für deutsch-polnische Zusammenarbeit . The empirical phase of the project was additionally supported by Förderverein des Instituts für Kommunikationswissenschaft , TU Dresden. The preliminary results of the study were presented on media conferences thanks to grants provided by Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej and International Communication Association (ICA) . Last and most importantly, I would like to thank my Mother and Sister for their encouragement and support throughout the course of my doctoral studies. 6 Introduction Swanson (1992) suggests that comparative research is like entering foreign lands. Researchers who have invaded the territories of cross-national studies encounter substantial diversity resulting from country-specific characteristics. However, as argued by Esser & Pfetsch (2004) in the view of the development of global communication processes, which no longer stop at national boarders, research studies cannot be focused on particularities of a given country and more comparative perspective is needed. This notion is particularly true for the field of the political communication. Though the essence of politics over many centuries has involved constructing, sending, receiving and processing politically relevant messages (Graber, 2004:45), political discourse has been substantially modified in the last decades. This was mainly due to homogenization, modernization, secularization and mediatization processes, as to be explained in Chapter 1, which reshaped the interdependencies between political players, media and the voters. This study is cross-national in nature and compares political communication in Germany and Poland. The analysis offers two separate case studies that highlight the patterns of political communication from the perspective of two different players: political parties and media . So far there have not been any attempts to compare political communication in these two countries. Such an undertaking is particularly important as it shows how political parties and media are affected by a combination of interdependencies derived from political system and media system characteristics. Studies on established and evolving democracies constitute a welcoming environment for comparison and are needed for a number of reasons. Firstly, they help to show how political communication in both countries differs from each other and see own routines and practices more critically. Secondly, they focus the attention to the macro- societal structures showing how the development of political and media system influenced political communication. Thirdly, they help to verify whether practices adopted by political and media players can be seen in the context of mediatization processes. In this study political communication is seen as a system of dynamic interactions between political actors, the media and audience members, each of whom is engaged in the process of producing, receiving and interpreting political messages (Blumler & Gurevitch, 1995). 7 Chapter 1 describes changing patterns of political communication in a cross-national perspective. Firstly, the study outlines changes that have defined mutual interdependence between involved players over the last decades, especially in the third age of political communication (Blumler & Kavanagh, 1999). Particular attention is given to processes of homogenization, modernization and secularization which made political discourse more diverse, fragmented and complex. In the second step the analysis shows how communication abundance contributed to the increasing mediatization which can be illustrated with such indicators as, among others, increasing coverage on party campaigning, focus on political leaders, rising extent of negativity and emotionalization. Thirdly, Chapter 1 briefly outlines examples of comparative research in the field of political communication showing how other authors analyzed this domain in a multinational context. Finally, the author draws particular attention to the unexplored field of political communication explaing why more detailed examination of political communication in Germany and Poland has become object of this analysis. It cannot be questioned that many forms of political communication arise from political system differences (Esser & Pfetsch, 2004). Without a doubt such influences like homogenization, modernization, secularization and mediatization would be hardly possible in Central European countries without significant changes in politics. Countries like Poland for decades remained navigated by the communist regime leaving very little space for independent acting (Jakubowicz, 2007). Therefore this study takes a system-oriented perspective on the relationship between all actors participating in political communication process stressing the importance of the shape of political system and its historical background. Chapter 2 explores the main elements of political systems in Poland and Germany. Firstly, the study outlines the essential features of party system in both countries. Secondly, the analysis scrutinizes the functioning of electoral system which regulates parliamentary campaigns. Finally, Chapter 2 reflects