Theresa Völker (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung – WZB) & Daniel Saldivia Gonzatti (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung – WZB / Freie Universität Berlin)

Previous studies show that political violence often influences individual preferences and attitudes
on issues such as securitisation and migration. However, the potential impact of political violence
on individuals depends on politicised media debates and the reactions of social and political actors
to political violence. To better understand the different responses to political violence and the
dynamics of polarisation in public debates, we examine the media responses of political parties
following deadly acts of political violence. We compare public debates in the context of key security
threats in Europe in recent decades: ETA in Spain (1975-2011) and right-wing extremist and
Islamist political violence in Germany (2000-2020). Within this framework, we analyse agenda-
setting effects across parties, polarising issues, and the visibility and resonance of such events. We
focus on periods before and shortly after an event. Using two major Spanish newspapers and four
German newspapers, we rely on automated text analysis methods such as topic models to infer
which issues are mediatised in combination with specific parties. We apply an interrupted time
series approach to infer reactions in partisan mediatised communication caused by political
violence. Our study has important implications for our understanding of which political actors gain
visibility and dominate the political agenda.