CampCom aims to investigate continuity and change in the roles played by the news media and political parties in Austrian campaign communication in a long-term perspective. According to the "mediatization" thesis, the role of the media seems to have changed from merely serving as a channel of communication to becoming a major actor in the campaigning process, resulting in a permanent struggle between the media and the parties over who controls the agendas of campaigns. An associated analysis of party and media discourse aimed to assess the quality of political discourse that can be considered essential to a deliberative democracy.

To examine the party-media relationship, comparative analyses of press releases of all parliamentary parties and of media coverage based on the evening newscasts of all television stations and the political sections of all national newspapers have been carried out. More recently, CampCom has also been examining the gender bias in campaign communication and the use of Twitter as a PR tool.

Completed Subprojects

  • Survey of Austrian Members of Parliament 2012
  • The Professionalization of Election Campaigning around the World
  • Vienna's 2015 Mayoral Election and the Refugee Crisis on Facebook
  • ORF-"Sommergespräche [Summer Interviews]" - Strategies, Images and Issues in Political TV Interviews, 1981-2016

CMC Staff

Katharina Biringer (since 2019)

Oliver Gruber (2008-2009)

Melanie Magin (2007-2011)

Gabriele Melischek (Project Leader, Contact)

Josef Seethaler

Ingrid Serini (Project Assistance, 2007-2018)

Coders:

Ingrid Aichberger, Anne Deichsel, Esra Demir, Wolfgang Dick, Cornelia Diesenreiter, Krystian Ditzer, Marlene Dobry, Bernhard Fuchs, Anna Gabler, Claudia Gabler, Christina Gaißberger, Daniela Georgiev, Florian Hainz, Edith Hammami, Felix Hofmann, Konstantin Hondros, Stefanie Jedlicka, Tanja Kiennast, Thomas Kohlwein, Felix Kühlian, Jonas Meixner, Patrick Moser, Nadine Obermüller, Zlatka Pavlova, Clemens Plasser, Christian Rechberger, Matthias Reitter, Agnes Rieder, Andreas Riedl, Martin Sattler, Elisabeth Schremser, Christine Schultheiß, Julia Stiefbauer, Katharina Stimniker, Gottfried Summerer, Martina Thalhammer, Claudia Trettenbrein, Alexandra Vukits, Christina Wegleitner

2017: Baris Ertogrul, Jeremias Greber, Lisa Weiler, Ao Zhou

2019: Katharina Biringer, Baris Ertogrul, Marion Kogler, Lisa Weiler

Data Gathering:

Stefan Grundei, Daniel Hahn, Andrea Hinterndorfer, Sylvia Pilar

Data Analysis:

Korbinian Bauer, Marie-Therese Fischer, Diana Silvestru

Cooperation Partners

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Roland Burkart, University of Vienna, Department of Communication

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Wilke, University of Mainz, Department of Communication

ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation)

APA (Austria Press Agency)

Awards

Melanie Magin: VÖZ-Förderpreis Medienforschung 2012; Kategorie Sonderpreis [Advancement Award 2013 of the Austrian Newspaper Association; category: Special Award]

Melanie Magin: Förderpreis 2013 der Dr. Maria Schaumayer-Stiftung [Advancement Award 2013 of the Dr. Maria Schaumayer Foundation]

Congress Organisation

Roland Burkart & Gabriele Melischek: Round-Table “Wahlkampfdiskurse” [Election campaign discourses], with Ulrich Saxer, University of Vienna, 31 January 2008

Gabriele Melischek & Josef Seethaler: Workshop on Agenda-Setting: In honour of Professor Maxwell McCombs, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, 22 June 2011

Josef Seethaler: Sound bites, negativity, and horse-race style – Is campaign communication getting worse and worse again? Long-term research in Germany and Austria on the eve of the 2013 elections. Panel at the 63th Annual ICA Conference, London, 18 June 2013

Publications and Lectures