My turn was to study some articles from German newspapers, magazines and a short television documentary concerning facts about the American presidential elections in 2008. Therefore I have picked out two articles from the famous German internet magazine “Spiegel Online”, one articles from focus.de and an election-analysis from sueddeutsche.de. For the television coverage I’ve choosen a short portrait documentary from the German television channel “ZDF” about Barack Obama.

Generally we can say that in both “Spiegel Online”-articles from the day after his election, 5th November 2008, are written in a positive way. The description is filled almost with positive and friendly words for the new president. The headline of the first article is called “Triumph of a lucky child”, the second titles “Obama reaches a historical win”. Only the topic shows the German pro-Obama-attitude.

In both “Spiegel Online”-texts Obama is treated like a kind of popstar with a human touch: He is called the new “person of hope” who likes theological books, always held “wonderful speeches” and must be a “faithful husband and a proud father”.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,588495,00.html

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,588285,00.html

The article from focus.de (5th November 2008) seems similar to that from “Spiegel Online”: There’s a long description of the reaction of the American people, who were cheering and screaming with tears in their eyes because of Obama’s election victory.

http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/uswahl/us-wahl-barack-obama-neuer-praesident-der-usa-_aid_346163.html

Only the election analysis from sueddeutsche.de (5th November 2008) seems to be more neutral at a first glance. Nevertheless the facts are also presented in a positive way: already in the topic Obama is compared with Kennedy. Furthermore the description of the Americans is not really objective. For example the analysis shows how the “crowds of people” are waiting in front of the polling stations with a lot of patience.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/analyse-von-obamas-wahlerfolg-obama-uebertrifft-kennedy-1.522420

The most positive Obama-presentation shows the ZDF-documentary with the title “Barack Obama in portrait” from 22nd February 2008. The film celebrates him as a “new star of American politics”, he’s described as “young”, “charismatic” and a “person with a quick start”. Obama is compared with Hollywood (half of the celebrities favour him), he is the “new person of hope”. Also the scenes and pictures, which were chosen for the documentary are really emotional: there are screaming fans with Obama-flags, a lot of scenes with Obama and his children and wife and nevertheless Stevie Wonder who sings his own song for Obama.

To sum up my results from the German media coverage of the American Presidential elections I can say that there is/was a clearly pro-Obama-attitude in all of Germany. During the election campaign Obama was celebrated like a popstar in Germany. It was possible to buy Obama-shirts and flags at every corner with the typical slogan „Yes, we can“. The German media only reflects the Obama-hype of the German population.