How did the media shape the image of federalism during the Covid-19 pandemic?

The media play an important role in modern societies by influencing perceptions and attitudes through the way they report. This contribution represents the first comprehensive and systematic analysis of media reporting on German federalism. The study examines 449 statements related to the Covid-19 pandemic published by 14 daily regional newspapers during the first wave (i.e., between March and September 2020). The first part focuses on patterns of evaluations, with the results confirming for the crisis what is generally expected in the literature: A clear majority of all statements published by the newspapers turns out to be negative regarding federalism. This finding was not changed for the period of uniformity of regulations following the states’ decision for a nationwide lockdown. The successful stabilization of the occurrence of infection ‘despite’ different relaxations in the Länder led to less negative reporting in absolute terms but not to substantially positive statements. An overall majority of negative statements can be found for almost all population groups – citizens, journalists and also politicians. Only politicians at the Land level with a partisan affiliation to CDU/CSU express by majority positive views on federalism. Thus, the second part is dedicated to a more differentiated evaluation of citizens' perspectives by taking a closer look at readers’ letters. This also confirms a central thesis of the literature, namely that the negative attitude of the German population towards federalism is primarily due to different regulations in the federal states. The desire not only for uniformity but also for a powerful top-down policy by the 'strong man' is taking on a dimension that also raises questions about citizens’ attitudes towards democracy.

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https://works.eurac.edu/Digop-04-2023-iris-reus-how-did-the-media-shape-the-image-of-federalism.pdf