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The Dynamics of Voting: A Long-term Study of Change and Stability in the German Electoral Process, Teilmodul Televised Debates 2017

Principal Investigator:

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Maier, Prof. Dr. Michaela Maier
Gesamtprojekt: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck, Prof. Dr. Harald Schoen, Prof. Dr. Sigrid Roßteutscher, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Weßels, Prof. Dr. Christof Wolf

Research Team:
Funding:

DFG-Langfristförderung als Teilmodul des Projekts „The Dynamics of Voting: A Long-term Study of Change and Stability in the German Electoral Process”

In cooperation with the University of Koblenz-Landau we analyzed the TV debate of the German national elections in 2017 between Chancellor Angela Merkel and her opponent Martin Schulz on September 3. Long established in the USA, TV debates have developed into significant and outstanding events during election campaigns in Germany. As a rare and simultaneously widely visible major event, the TV debate represents an excellent opportunity for science to learn more about campaigns and their public reception. We focus especially on the processes of information reception and processing. To this end, the study gathers real time reactions from subjects during the debate reception and documents them. A four-wave panel design around the debate complements the real time data. The joint analysis of real time and panel data, allows unique insights into the individual perception of political candidates as well as general political opinion formation (and its dynamics). The study is part of the project „The Dynamics of Voting: A Long-term Study of Change and Stability in the German Electoral Process”. The objective of the project as a whole is to describe and explain the dynamics within the German electorate (but also the context of electoral decisions) in a longitudinal perspective drawing on the German national elections in 2009, 2013 and 2017.