Elections 2011 did not dominate media coverage

For the population, daily newspapers and television, radio and personal conversations are the most important sources of information. These findings were explained by experts at an SRF media symposium in Zurich on Thursday. The views of the public were surveyed in all parts of the country. The surveys were conducted in the four weeks before and the week after the election. A total of around 3,600 Swiss voters were included.

According to the survey, daily newspapers and television are the most popular sources of information, followed by radio and personal conversations with acquaintances, friends or family. The internet is much less important, and social media are hardly used in connection with the elections. The correlation between age and information channel is not surprising: while daily newspapers and television are used more by older people, the internet is used most by young people, as Markus Jedele, SRG media officer, said. In terms of radio use, the researchers identified a clear deficit among young people. There are no major differences between men and women.

Great competition for topics
In contrast to 2007, the elections were not the dominant topic this year, explained sociologist Kurt Imhof according to SDA. Reports on exchange rate policy, UBS, the war in Libya and much more competed strongly with the topic of elections. According to Imhof, this meant that the parties were unable to carry out their campaigns properly. As a result, the parties and their exponents were less able to turn up the heat than in 2007, when Christoph Blocher's media presence outstripped everything - there was an "un-Swiss personalization" that seemed almost "somewhat North Korean", according to Imhof.

What was reported on and how was directly related to the type of medium. While the elections were the number one topic in the subscription and Sunday newspapers, they hardly played a role in the tabloids and especially the free newspapers. And when they did, emotional topics were preferred, such as the kidnapping of SVP mascot Zottel.

Although financial issues were the top topic on public radio and television stations, elections followed immediately behind in second place (radio) or third place (TV). They hardly featured at all on private radio stations. They were also in second place on private TV stations. Finally, the attention of social media users was particularly attracted by "outrage management", according to Imhof. They liked to deal with the Zottel kidnapping, the perceived unjust punishment of a recruit, discussions about (de)regulation, petty criminals and the like.