Different strategies apply in the Netherlands and in Germany when TV channe
ls have to decide how often politicians are mentioned or shown in the news
during national election campaigns. Extensive content analyses in the 1990s
suggest that Dutch political and media traditions promote a more equally d
istributed attention to different political positions. In Germany, TV news
focuses almost exclusively on the incumbent candidate for the top function
of the national government (the office of Chancellor) and his challengers.
The likely causes are not only the political system and the particular circ
umstances of the 1990s (with the pre-eminence of Helmut Kohl), but also rec
ent developments in the way in which German journalists define their task.