Media framing of election results is part of my joint research agenda with Thomas Meyer at the University of Vienna. Winning and losing in countries with multiple parties and proportional electoral systems is rarely clear-cut. Who is actually considered a winner and who are the losers? We have thus far conducted some first research into the media perspective in the context of the 2019 European Parliament elections, finding that media reporting was biased towards parties with radical socio-cultural positions as extreme parties were considered more newsworthy and more often presented as a winner than moderate parties, irrespective of their actual electoral performance. We also have a paper under review that studies media framing effects on voter perceptions of election winners and losers using both experimental and panel survey data.

In our current project that is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), we want to shed light into what really happens on election night and in the immediate aftermath. The purpose of this project is to understand how and why politicians and journalists try to frame election results in a certain way in the immediate aftermath of democratic elections. It will also examine the extent to which such framing has effects on voter perceptions of winners and losers alongside political and media cynicism.

Future research questions also address electoral integrity perceptions and perceived legitimacy of election outcomes.

Blog posts and interviews:

University of Amsterdam (24 November 2023). Media framing of election results. University of Amsterdam

Universiteit van Amsterdam (24 November 2023). De invloed van mediaberichten over verkiezingsuitslagen. Universiteit Van Amsterdam

Gattermann, K., Meyer, T.M., & Wurzer, K. (2 December 2021). The media chooses who has won (and lost) an election – and it’s not just based on objective electoral performance. ECPR’s The Loop

Recent public events (selection):

Roundtable ‘Politics, Media, and the 2025 Elections Explained: Why Did the Dutch Vote the Way They Did?’, Spui25, Amsterdam, 3 November 2025 

Roundtable ‘The German Elections of 2025: Campaigns and Consequences’, co-hosted by ACES and Spui25, Amsterdam, 27 February 2025   

Public forum ‘De Duitse Verkiezingsavond’ (‘The German election night’), GroenLinks-PvdA, Amsterdam, 23 February 2025

Roundtable ‘Europa hat gewählt – was jetzt?’(‘Europe has voted – what now?’), German Representation of the European Commission, Berlin, 10 June 2024

Major publications:

Meyer, T.M., & Gattermann, K. (2025). Does media framing of election results affect whether voters perceive parties as election winners or losers? Political Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217251350742

Meyer, T.M., & Gattermann, K. (2022). Party contestation and news visibility abroad: the 2019 European Parliament elections from a pan-European perspective. European Union Politics, 23(3), 398-416.

Gattermann, K., Meyer, T., & Wurzer, K. (2022). Who won the election? Explaining news coverage of election results in multi-party systems. European Journal of Political Research, 61(4), 857-877.

Recent conference presentations (papers available upon request):

Gattermann, K., Meyer, T.M., Bos, L., & Nai. A. (28 June 2025). Who should govern? Media framing effects of election outcomes on perceived government legitimacy. Paper presented at the 15th Annual Conference of the European Political Science Association (EPSA), Carlos III University, Madrid, Spain, 26-28 June 2025.

Gattermann, K., Meyer, T.M., Bos, L., & Nai. A. (8 February 2024). Who should govern? Media framing effects of election outcomes on perceived government legitimacy. Presented at the Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 8-9 February 2024.