Politische Krisenkommunikation: Welche Rollen nehmen Politiker in TV-Sondersendungen ein?

One reason why special German broadcast programs like „ARD Brennpunkt“ and „ZDF spezial“ fulfill their function in crisis communication is that politicians appear in them. In the course of an interdisciplinary research project on media disturbances, 164 of such special broadcasts from 2015 and 2016 were analyzed and 40 interviews with participants were conducted, eleven of those with national and local politicians. It is their roles that are elaborated here. Triangulating the conducted interviews on the one hand and textual analyses on the other, a typology of political role figurations can be presented. Political actors assumed the following roles: (1) “representative of the sovereign”, either as a statesperson or as responsive and palpable; (2) “representative of the party”, bringing forth the agenda of their respective party or subverting it as a deviator; (3) “communicator of exclusive knowledge”, underlining researched facts; (4) authorized expert, driving towards sobriety; (5) “evaluator”, emphasizing normative perspectives and (6) “crisis manager”, underlining their problem solving competence or even, within the sub-role of “local caretaker”, their personal engagement. The roles are part of a crisis communication that aims at calming and orientating the public.