Young, free and biased: A comparison of mainstream and right-wing media coverage of the 2015–16 refugee crisis in German newspapers

Abstract

Right-wing media have been growing in terms of readership and impact in recent years. However, comparative analyses that gauge linkages between mainstream and right-wing media in Europe are virtually missing. We pursued an algorithm-based topic-modelling analysis of 11,420 articles concerning the question of whether reporting of the leading German right-wing newspaper Junge Freiheit differed from that of mainstream media outlets in the context of the refugee crisis of 2015–16. The results strongly support this notion. They show a clear-cut dichotomy with mainstream media on one side and Junge Freiheit on the other. A time lag could be found, pointing to a reporting pattern that positioned Junge Freiheit relative to the journalistic and political mainstream. Thus, Junge Freiheit can be characterised as a ‘reactive’ alternative media outlet that is prone to populism: it stresses the national dimension of the crisis, embraces the positions of the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and largely neglects complex international, and particularly European, implications.