Abstract
This article analyses the news coverage of German federal presidents’ private lives and personal characteristics. The federal president is the only constitutional entity in Germany to consist of just one person. Automatically, the incumbent’s personality is important in determining how the person exercises the role. Although the federal president’s office possesses little hard power competences, as a politician the federal president has an integrative function and is one of the most powerful opinion leaders of the country. A successful presidency therefore hinges on mediated visibility. Recently, political communication scholars have identified a trend towards intimization politics. This article specifically investigates how news coverage of the German federal president has developed since 1949. The results are twofold: first, the mediated visibility of the federal president has increased over time. Second, the current analysis does not provide evidence for a trend towards intimization politics.
The federal president is the only constitutional entity in Germany to consist of a sole person. For each incumbent, personality is important in determining how the federal president exercises the role. Incidents involving the tenth federal president, Christian Wulff, demonstrate that private life and public office are almost inseparable. After 2 years in office, he resigned in 2012 in the wake of a scandal involving a dubious loan and an apparent attempt to block a report about it in the German tabloid Bild. A central question in the subsequent trial covering the illegal acceptance of benefits concerned Wulff’s friendship with the film producer David Groenewold. The media played a key role in this affair, providing a public space for discussion and exerting considerable pressure on Wulff. Wulff found the news coverage hurtful (Office of the Federal President, 2012), and opinion polling indicates that the public deemed the media coverage unfair (Infratest dimap, 2012).
Stanyer (2013) remarks that the private lives of politicians ‘have become a familiar part of the public’s daily media consumption’ (p. 1). The nature of the office of the federal president gives rise to an inseparable relationship between public officeholder and private person in which the borders between public and private are blurry. The two spheres exist separately, but they also overlap, and the media are a key player in this arrangement. For a soft power actor such as the federal president, the media coverage is especially important to successfully carry out the duties of the office. The personalization of politics generates both positive and negative outcomes. On the one hand, it serves as a focal point for the media’s attention, which is a key factor in reaching the public and exerting the power of the presidential speech. On the other hand, it can lead to a de-rationalization of politics if the focus is mainly limited to private issues regarding the federal president that are not related to the public office.
But has news coverage about the federal presidents’ private lives and characteristics really become more intense? When it comes to news coverage of German federal presidents, their personalities, ways of life and interpersonal relationships have provided rich material since 1949 (Table 1). Walter Scheel (1974–1979), for example, was well known as the performer of the German folk song ‘Hoch auf dem gelben Wagen’ and Karl Carstens’ (1979–1984) interest in hiking became part of his public persona. In 2012, Federal President Joachim Gauck, who is still married, moved into Bellevue Palace with his new partner, Daniela Schadt. This nontraditional living arrangement caused public debate.
German Federal Presidents, 1949–2012.
Source: Federal Returning Officer (2012).
This article sheds some light on the trend of privatization in the media coverage of politicians by analysing the coverage of German federal presidents in the major German news magazine Der Spiegel between 1949 and 2012. More specifically, this article focuses on three research questions: How has the mediated visibility of the federal presidents developed over time? How extensively did the German press cover the federal presidents as public officeholders between 1949 and 2012? How intensive was the coverage of the federal presidents’ private lives and personal characteristics during this time?
Theoretical concepts and previous research
A central subject of discussions on how political communication works and develops is the personalization of politics (Holtz-Bacha et al., 2014; Karvonen, 2010; McAllister, 2007). Personalization refers to a development in which politicians become the main anchor of interpretations and evaluations in the political process (Holtz-Bacha et al., 1998). Despite the prominence of this concept, there does not exist a common conceptualization or operational definition for the term (Adam and Maier, 2010; Rahat and Sheafer, 2007). According to Van Aelst et al. (2012), personalization can be divided into two main strands: individualization and privatization. Individualization is related to both the shift in media attention from political parties and institutions to individual politicians and to the focus on political leaders. It refers to the greater visibility of politicians coupled with an increase in overall media presence. As the federal president is just one person and not specifically attached to any political party, individualization in the news coverage cannot be detected because of the missing equivalent (e.g. political party, institution). However, the overall media presence of the federal president can be studied.
Privatization, also called intimization (Stanyer, 2013), refers to greater interest in politicians’ personal characteristics coupled with the increased relevance of their private lives to their political offices, and therefore also concerns the federal presidents. The focus shifts from a public view, where the politician is seen as a role occupant, to a personal view, where the politician is a private individual (Van Aelst et al., 2012: 207). Here, the borders between professional and personal qualities have become fuzzy. Many researchers in the political realm study categories such as professional competences, communication skills, leadership qualities, management abilities and integrity in addition to family and childhood, hobbies, lifestyle, emotional state and personal appearance (Brettschneider, 2002; Esser, 1999; Kepplinger et al., 1994; Klein and Ohr, 2000; Langer, 2007, 2011; Lass, 1995; Reinemann and Wilke, 2007; Rohowski, 2009; Van Zoonen, 1998; Vetter and Brettschneider, 1998; Wattenberg, 1991; Wirth and Voigt, 2000). It is easy to distinguish the qualities at the extreme poles of the continuum, such as leadership skills or professional competence on the one hand and favourite movie or food on the other hand. However, some qualities are not so easy to label. Integrity, for example, is generally considered a leadership quality, but it is not limited to the public sphere. Misconduct in private life – for example, cheating on one’s spouse – also influences the public’s perception of a politician’s integrity. Or if politicians promote environmental issues but also drive a big SUV, this fact could impact their integrity. Despite the conceptual difficulties presented here, the differentiation is important due to diverse normative concerns (Langer, 2011: 10–11).
Existing literature mainly focuses on the personalization of media coverage during election campaigns (Brettschneider, 2002; Esser and Hemmer, 2008; Holtz-Bacha et al., 2014; Rahat and Sheafer, 2007; Reinemann and Wilke, 2007; Van Zoonen and Holtz-Bacha, 2000; Wirth and Voigt, 2000). Researchers have given little research attention so far to media coverage of politicians outside these periods. One researcher to do so is Langer (2007, 2010), who studies the media coverage of British prime ministers outside election campaigns. Another strand of research investigates the personalization of election campaigns (Brettschneider, 2002; Holtz-Bacha et al., 1998) and the personalization of voting behaviour (Kaase, 1994; Kepplinger et al., 1994; Klein and Ohr, 2000; Lass, 1995; McAllister, 2007). A few researchers study personalization from the politician’s perspective (Driessens et al., 2010). The federal president has not yet been studied in this context.
The German federal president in a media-saturated society
In terms of protocol, the federal president is the most important national entity, but the lack of influence on policy makes the federal president the least important political entity in Germany (Hesse and Ellwein, 2004: 300). As head of state, the federal president represents Germany through public appearances, which include social and cultural events as well as visits to different communities in Germany and state visits abroad. Moreover, the federal president represents Germany for the purposes of international law. Other main tasks comprise proposing a new federal chancellor, appointing and dismissing the federal chancellor and federal ministers, dissolving the Bundestag and certifying and promulgating laws. The certification of laws is the only instance in which the federal president can exert power; it provides the opportunity to prevent the commencement of a legislative act. In 2006, Horst Köhler decided not to certify two laws, which caused some media coverage. However, the federal president cannot criticize the political objective of a law – only its formal inception and the extent to which it agrees with the constitution. 1
Despite the lack of political power, the federal president is a central figure in German politics and is widely accepted by the people (TNS Forschung, 2012). Precisely because the federal president does not engage in tough politics or comment on controversies among the political parties, it is possible for the incumbent to exert an integrative function and be one of the most powerful opinion leaders of the country. To exercise the integrative function, the federal president must be seen as being above the fray of party politics (Office of the Federal President, 2014). If the federal president had more power competences, other political actors such as the federal chancellor would not value the federal president’s words and advice in the same way, but rather would try to limit the federal president’s power (Baring, 1982: 28).
Beyond the two major functions, the federal president is a moral authority and performs the function of a role model in German society. According to Jochum (2000), the federal president is not a hard power but rather a soft power actor. By threatening sanctions, hard power actors can force others to do what they want them to do. Soft power actors exert power through their functions as role models as well as through personal authority, charisma and motivating ideals. They lead by example, and, as a consequence, others aspire to their ideals. The presidential speech is the most important opportunity for the federal president to exercise soft power (Hesse and Ellwein, 2004: 305). The media, through live coverage and analysis, focus public attention on the speech, thus becoming complicit in the federal president’s exercise of soft power (Möller, 1999: 11). The social power of the federal president’s words resonates only if the people notice him and value him as an integral, competent and human politician. Although the federal president is not directly elected by the people, popular acceptance is a precondition for representing and consolidating the various social groups. Surveys show that the people desire not only a rational, intelligent and competent politician, but also a head of state who shows strong emotions (Forsa, 2012).
So, the media coverage is especially important to successfully carry out the duties of the office. This article analyses how the mediated visibility of the federal presidents has developed over time and if a trend towards intimization politics can be detected. Two hypotheses are derived from the theoretical literature:
Hypothesis 1. The mediated visibility of the federal presidents has increased over time.
Hypothesis 2. The focus of the news coverage has shifted from public to personal, so that the federal president is covered as a private citizen instead of a public officeholder.
Methodology
The author has conducted a longitudinal content analysis of the German news magazine Der Spiegel. A systematic study over time is important, because previous findings show different outcomes regarding personalization. Whereas the more impressionistic accounts mainly confirm a trend towards personalization, the quantitative studies leave this conclusion in doubt (Rahat and Sheafer, 2007: 69).
Der Spiegel magazine is the leading and most influential political news magazine in Germany. Each week the periodical reaches almost six million readers (Spiegel QC, 2014), and with 3,866 citations, it is also the most quoted national medium (see PMG Presse-Monitor, 2013). It stands for investigative, reliable journalism and is an important source of political information (Kepplinger, 2007: 278). The self-perception of Der Spiegel resembles its public image. As an investigative news magazine, Der Spiegel serves as a watchdog and an advocate for the people (Weischenberg, 1995: 114). The basic journalistic guidelines of the magazine are defined in the ‘Spiegel-Statut’, which has been in force since 1949. It states that the coverage should be up to date, be interesting, have a high news value and rely on facts (Brawand, 1987: 225–229). In light of this journalistic orientation, it is interesting to see whether and to what extent Der Spiegel news coverage is privatized. Although this study focuses on Der Spiegel only, it is likely that any privatization trends are not unique to this medium but, rather, part of the bigger picture (Langer, 2011: 70).
The author used the company’s own database to gather the data and selected articles for analysis using a filter system based on tags. 2 A total of 537 articles were coded by the standards of media content analysis to maximize objectivity, validity and reliability. 3 The main categories that the author uses in the following analysis are divided into two groups. The first includes articles covering policy, professional competence, leadership skills and integrity, which are characteristics closely related to the political office of federal president. The second group is composed of articles covering family, lifestyle, personal appearance and emotional state – issues closely related to the private sphere. 4 The coding categories are based on previous research in the field of personalization politics (Brettschneider, 2002; Klein and Ohr, 2000; Langer, 2011; Lass, 1995; Reinemann and Wilke, 2007; Rohowski, 2009; Wattenberg, 1991; Wirth and Voigt, 2000). Every article was coded for the presence or absence of references to these variables. The indicated values are the proportional share of articles taken from the pool of those with references to the federal president.
The federal president in the media focus
First, the overall media presence of the federal presidents is studied. Figures 1 and 2 show that news coverage about the federal president has increased from 1949 to 2012, so that the first hypothesis can be confirmed.
Total number of articles covering the federal presidents in Der Spiegel, 1949–2012.
Average number of articles per day in office covering the federal presidents in Der Spiegel, 1949–2012.
The total number of articles ranges from 13 covering the first federal president, Theodor Heuss, to 103 covering Richard von Weizsäcker. The presidential term of the latter marks a turning point in the amount of news coverage. Whereas the first five federal presidents, except Heinrich Lübke, received only modest media attention, the number of articles exploded with the incumbency of Weizsäcker. An increase in Der Spiegel’s size may have had an impact on this trend. The total number of pages with editorial content clearly has risen over the years, but the number of pages with advertorial content has increased simultaneously. Overall, the relative share of substantive articles actually has decreased over time. Because the number of terms each federal president served varies, news coverage is calculated per day. The average number of published articles per day in office displays an even stronger trend towards increasing news coverage of the federal presidents. Weizsäcker’s tenure kicks off a second phase of more intensive news coverage. At this point, Wulff is at the top of the statistics with a mean value of 0.072 published articles per day in office. This change can be explained by the fact that Weizsäcker served 10 years in office and Wulff only one and a half. Moreover, the scandals surrounding Wulff’s presidency provided ample material for scoops, especially for an investigative magazine that aims to be a watchdog.
The high number of articles about Lübke is striking. This exceptional position in the early research period is likely the result of a variety of factors. First, Lübke was a successful politician with a focus on agricultural issues before becoming federal president. He used his expertise during state visits and in the field of foreign aid – both topics of relevance for Der Spiegel (Spath, 1990: 34). Second, Lübke pushed the limits of the office by establishing the substantive right to certify laws. He also was instrumental in the formation of a grand coalition (Morsey, 1997: 580). Third, Lübke played an ambiguous role in Nazi Germany. Among other allegations, he was accused of helping to construct a concentration camp and being a leading participant in the Nazi armament machinery. 5 Finally, Lübke was prone to gaffes, and his English was lacking, making him a welcome media target.
The federal president as a public officeholder
The content and quality of the news coverage is important for the media in general, but it is especially a key factor for a political news magazine such as Der Spiegel, whose goal is to cover, analyse and comment on current societal and political issues. In this context, the increasing number of articles covering the federal president only plays a subordinate role, whereas the question of a possible privatization of news coverage is decisive.
Most articles (92%) are related to policy – for example, a report about the federal president’s official duties, public functions and the office as such. Policy-related coverage includes, for example, the election of the federal president, state visits, speeches, honours and decorations, the dissolving of the Bundestag and the certification of laws. The share of policy-related reporting did not vary during the period studied; it remained roughly constant at around 85%. The only exception is Heuss, for whom one-half of the coverage was related to policy, with the other half focused on his private life – for example, a stay at a health spa, a marriage proposal and a painting.
The results regarding references to the professional competences of the federal presidents show a more distinct picture. Professional competences include, among other things, knowledge, intelligence, experience, problem-solving qualities, achievements and performance. One quarter of all 537 articles analysed refer to the professional competences of the 10 federal presidents. In the long term, we see a decreasing trend of the coverage of professional competences. Since Weizsäcker the focus has shifted away from professional competences.
Another focus of media reporting is politicians’ leadership skills. Leadership skills include persuasive power, negotiating skills, decisiveness, energy, authority, charisma and communication skills. A total of 43% of the 537 analysed articles refer to the federal president’s leadership skills, which is higher than the share of articles focusing on professional competences. Over time, we see a much more stable development since Weizsäcker’s tenure. The news coverage of the leadership skills slightly increases from Heuss to Wulff. The extreme high values for Scheel may be explained by his ambitions and his push for more power in foreign policy (Morsey, 1997: 586).
Finally, integrity is particularly important for a soft power actor such as the federal president. It is a prerequisite for credibility and confidence in the head of state, which in turn is the foundation of the federal president’s main power resource, the presidential speech. Integrity comprises honesty, sincerity, truthfulness and straightforwardness, as well as references to corruption, Nazi Germany, 6 and moral qualities. In total, 28% of the 537 articles under study refer to the integrity of the federal presidents. The data do not provide a clear trend. Three high values for Lübke (40%), Carstens (50%) and Wulff (60%) stand out. These results are not completely surprising, due to obvious reasons that made coverage with a reference to integrity likely. In 2012, Wulff gained considerable media attention with various incidents surrounding house loans, his relationship with the media and dubious contacts with businessmen, as well as his penchant for luxurious holidays, fast cars and first-class flights. 7 The press questioned the integrity of Carstens and Lübke mainly in connection to their roles during the Third Reich. Carstens was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), 8 whereas Lübke was accused of helping to construct a concentration camp. 9 The relatively low value for Johannes Rau is unexpected because he was involved in a financial scandal regarding the West German Federal State Bank (WestLB). In 2000, Der Spiegel uncovered this matter during his term as federal president. However, Rau’s presidency received comparatively little media coverage. As it pertains to the federal presidents’ integrity, the specific and individual circumstances seem to be the driving influences of extensive news coverage of this issue, and not an underlying development towards privatization.
The analysis shows that the role-related characteristics of the federal presidents are an important element of news coverage. In total, the amount of articles referring to professional character traits is quite high. On average, 92% of the 537 analysed articles have a policy reference, 24% refer to professional competence, 43% mention leadership skills and 28% focus on integrity. Examining the relative distribution within the coverage for each federal president, Figure 3 does not support the claim of a decreasing interest in political character traits and the related normative concerns of a diminishing quality of information. The strongest evidence for such a development can be seen in the coverage about professional competence.
Proportion of all articles covering each federal president in Der Spiegel that refer to their role-related characteristics.
The federal president as a private citizen
The family is a relevant factor in the politician’s private life that researchers have studied extensively (Langer, 2007; Rohowski, 2009; Stanyer, 2013; Wattenberg, 1991). In the current study, family includes references to family members such as the spouse, children, or parents, as well as the coverage regarding the federal president’s upbringing and childhood. A quarter of the 537 articles mention the federal president’s family. The development does not confirm an increasing trend over the course of time. All federal presidents were married, and all except Lübke and Carstens had children. Thus, the family situation is similar for all federal presidents, but nevertheless the coverage is not equally intensive. This circumstance may be explained by the fact that political communication depends on two main actors: the media and the politician. The politician can, to a certain degree, influence the media coverage by selectively exposing information about private life where public access is limited.
Lifestyle is another part of the politician’s personal sphere. It incorporates references to the federal president’s hobbies, holidays, favourite restaurants and preferred activities outside the office – that is, way of life. Only 14% of the 537 articles under study refer to the federal president’s lifestyle. Wulff achieves the highest value here (40%), which is 10 times the amount for Köhler. The long-term trend displays a remarkable development: the category of lifestyle gains in importance between the presidencies of Heuss and Carstens, then drops drastically during the terms of Weizsäcker and Köhler, but reaches an all-time high with Wulff. In total, the level of coverage is higher during the early years of the research period, which does not support theoretical expectations. The high values for Wulff (inconsistencies about luxury holidays, status symbols, first-class flights), Carstens (hiking) and Scheel (affinity for high society and a luxurious lifestyle) are predictable, but it is hard to understand the drop in lifestyle reporting between Weizsäcker and Köhler.
References to the emotional state of the federal president are, on the one hand, stylistic devices by journalists to create an atmosphere and feeling of closeness, but on the other hand, they shed light on the inner workings of the politician. Various expressions – such as happy, angry, displeased, satisfied, upset and furious – describe the emotional state. One-quarter of the 537 Der Spiegel articles cover the emotional state of the federal presidents. The values range from 14% for Rau to 50% for Scheel. As with the lifestyle category, the news coverage at the beginning of the research period paid more attention to this characteristic than it did in the latter period.
One normative concern related to the personalization of politics is that it fosters a special kind of telegenic, good-looking politician. The data show no evidence for a strong focus on the personal appearance. First, the overall number of articles referring to the personal appearance of the federal presidents is quite small (16%). Second, the study illustrates a descending trend during the period studied. It is striking that all federal presidents since Carstens achieve values of a maximum of 12%, whereas values are twice as high for the rest. Every second article about Scheel referred to his personal appearance, focusing especially on his shimmering silver hair, fitness and youthfulness, as well as his style of dress.
In summary, Figure 4 shows that the overall level of news coverage referring to the less role-related characteristics of the federal president is moderate, ranging from 4% to 50% of the total amount of articles covering each federal president. Furthermore, the results do not support the second hypothesis of the privatization of politics. Rather, the news coverage during the early research period focused more intensively on the private domains of the politicians. Although Wulff reaches high values for the categories of family and lifestyle, this development is not a strong indicator for an underlying long-term trend towards privatization.
Proportion of all articles covering each federal president in Der Spiegel that refer to their private lives.
Discussion and conclusion
Three main questions guided this study: How has the mediated visibility of the federal presidents developed over time? How extensively did the German press cover the federal presidents as public officeholders between 1949 and 2012? How intensive was the coverage of the federal presidents’ private lives and personal characteristics during this time? The results are twofold: First, the mediated visibility of the federal president has increased over time. Second, the news coverage presents the federal president as a public officeholder in a public context and refers to his role-related characteristics. The presented results support previous findings in the field of German election news coverage that detect trends towards a stronger focus on politicians (Brettschneider, 2002; Esser and Hemmer, 2008; Merkle, 2015; Wirth and Voigt, 2000). Furthermore, the results of this article confirm the findings of other empirical studies that could not detect a privatization trend in news coverage of politicians in Germany (Brettschneider, 2002; Holtz-Bacha et al., 2014; Merkle, 2015; Stanyer, 2013). How can these developments be rationalized?
The growing mediated visibility of the federal president may be explained by different factors. It may be an indicator for the growing importance of single persons in the news coverage. The media focus on particular politicians to reduce complexity, humanize politics, emotionalize and to reach the demands of the younger and politically less interested audience (Holtz-Bacha, 2001). The federal president as a constitutional entity to consist of just one person is the perfect ‘personalized case’ to fulfil many of the media requirements for news coverage. The media gain importance in the political process, resulting in a situation in which their thinking encroaches on the political system. Television, especially, depends on the visibility of politics, because abstract issues are difficult to communicate (Holtz-Bacha, 2000: 13). People are ideal for visualization (Vogt, 2002: 13). This trend fosters, for example, the prominence of televised election debates. Competition intensifies, and the media’s entertainment value is instrumental in consumption decisions. To meet these challenges, personalization is seen by the media as a means to fuse information and entertainment. If demand rises for more entertaining and comprehensible news, supply also will rise (Holtz-Bacha, 2001: 24; Imhof, 1998: 10; Langer, 2011: 48; Vogt, 2002: 143). Personalization in the news coverage can therefore be a strategy to succeed in the intensified competitiveness of the media market. The newspaper crisis affected almost all German press titles, including Der Spiegel. In the second quarter of 2010, the number of total sales fell for the first time under the magic threshold of one million copies. At the same time, Wulff’s presidency starts and a more personalized and intimized coverage can be observed. The federal president as the only entity to consist of just one person may be the perfect political actor to report about.
Furthermore, in a world getting steadily more multifaceted and networked, the need for heuristics prevails. People like to focus on individual politicians, ascribing to them special characteristics such as competence or integrity to support the political system (Klein and Ohr, 2000: 202). Complementary to these developments, the self-perception of many journalists has changed so that they see themselves as providers of entertainment (Holtz-Bacha, 2001: 25). Finally, the politician has to meet the demands of personalization (Imhof, 1998: 10). In a media-saturated society, personalization also can be a key factor for gaining attention and critical mass. The federal president as a soft power actor hinges on mediated visibility to successfully carry out the duties of the office. Therefore, the officeholder will pursue a personal media strategy to secure a certain amount of news coverage. Related research on the European Union shows that EU news coverage is poorly developed because of a lack of personalization of EU politics (Peter and de Vreese, 2004).
The second hypothesis, the intimization of news coverage, cannot be confirmed by the current results of this study. Intimization is assumed because the cultural change towards a more individualized society opens up new liberties but also the risk of loneliness. This trend can lead to an increasing demand for participation in the private lives of others and thereby to a removal of taboos regarding the limits of the individual private sphere (Westerbarkey, 1998: 313). Additionally, the environment of media-saturated democracies with all the talk shows, biographies and interviews may foster opportunities for self-disclosure (Stanyer, 2013: 18). The Wulffs, for example, frequently offered celebrity magazines insights into their private life, and in 2012 Wulff’s wife published an autobiography containing private information. In contrast, the other recent presidents value the right to privacy. However, it seems that the political communication norms have not changed so much. Germany is characterized by a traditional agreement between journalists and politicians that the private life of politicians is not to be discussed in the media (Holtz-Bacha et al., 2014: 158).
The lack of a stronger intimization of the news coverage may also be rationalized with the constitution of the German media system. In comparison to other countries like the United Kingdom, Germany has only a weak tabloid press (Bild is the only major tabloid) and partisan orientation is not very pronounced. Both factors can temper the trend to cover the politicians’ private lives. Whereas tabloids are genuinely interested in human touch stories, the partisan leaning of a newspaper may foster the effort to attack a political opponent by reporting about personal misbehaviour and private scandals (Holtz-Bacha et al., 2014: 158).
Finally, changes in Der Spiegel journalism itself may be a factor to explain the observed findings. Chief editors and senior managers have an important impact on the business strategy and the produced content of a news magazine. However, Der Spiegel is characterized by a stable leadership team as well as a constant journalistic orientation. Founder and long-time editor Rudolf Augstein guided the magazine from 1947 till his death in 2002. Augstein understood to install intimate friends in powerful positions like he did with Stefan Aust as editor in chief. Another indicator for the steady journalistic orientation is the ‘Spiegel-Statut’, which provides the basic guidelines of the magazine and has been in force since 1949.
Examining the results of the current analysis, it seems that the general image of the federal president is for all relevant actors – the media, the federal president, and the people – more important than the coverage of the president’s private life. If there existed a demand and a need for privatization in news coverage, one could assume that this trend would be evident in the data. Instead, private issues come to be front and centre only when circumstances, such as political scandal, so demand. Anyway the representativeness of the current study is limited due to the focus on Der Spiegel only. Further research should include different press titles (e.g. tabloid press, daily newspapers) to confirm the here presented findings.
The personalization of politics is often discussed in a normative context, considering the quality of political information, the rationality of decision making, the type of politician, and the style of politics at risk. In short, the personalization of politics is often demonized. This study finds no evidence for the privatization of politics, which is the normative relevant strand of personalization. Instead, the news coverage of Der Spiegel remains more focused on the role-related characteristics of the federal president than on those characteristics not related to the presidency. Moreover, references to the private domain have decreased over time. The visibility of the federal president, however, has increased over the same period, assuring the media presence and publicity essential for carrying out the integrative function of the office of the federal president.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.