SVP and FDP with media preponderance in election year
So far in the election campaign, major Swiss newspapers have reported particularly frequently on the SVP and FDP. The SP and BDP, on the other hand, are underrepresented in the media compared to their share of the vote.
This is according to the Reputation Monitor Politics published on Friday by the University of Zurich's Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society (Fög). Almost a third of the media reports examined focused on the SVP, and almost a fifth on the FDP. This means that the two conservative parties receive more than half of the media attention, although together they account for around 40 percent of the electorate.
Top topic migration
According to the Monitor, the SVP is helped, among other things, by the fact that media coverage of the elections focuses heavily on the topic of migration. The topic of migration receives the most attention in reporting on the substantive issues of the parties, namely around 15 percent. In August, one in three articles on political issues even dealt with the topic of migration. By contrast, other important, institutionally anchored topics such as the reform of old-age provision were barely present. The SVP is also primarily perceived through the political field of migration, the researchers write. This corresponds to the party's self-image and shows that the SVP is able to set its own topics. However, the media mainly report negatively: "The high media attention generated by the provocative style is bought at the cost of a negative evaluation", the report continues.
Predominantly negative reporting
However, the other parties do not come off particularly well either: reporting on the parties is predominantly negative. The FDP still comes off best, followed by the SP. Measured against its voter share of 18.7 percent, the SP is underrepresented in the coverage - just 14.5 percent of the articles examined focused on the Social Democrats. The same applies to the BDP: "The BDP receives very little attention and tends to receive negative media coverage due to its presumed limited electoral chances." Coverage of the CVP, Greens and GLP roughly corresponds to their share of the electorate, according to the Monitor. However, the Greens and GLP are struggling to emancipate themselves from their image as a single-issue party with a focus on environmental policy. While the two parties were able to gain many voters in 2011 thanks to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, this effect is now disappearing. Their electoral chances would therefore be assessed negatively. For the Greens, the scandal surrounding Zug local politician Jolanda Spiess-Hegglin has also led to a lot of negative reporting.
For the reputation monitoring, the research institute examined the reporting from January 1 to August 31 of this year from six major newspapers in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland: Blick, NZZ, "Tages-Anzeiger", 20 Minuten, Le Matin and Le Temps. The Fög had already announced the study on Friday, and Schweiz am Sonntag reported on it on Sunday. (SDA)
