Abstract

The growing number of refugees entering Europe since 2015 has quickly ignited a heated public debate on refugees in Germany. Against the backdrop of the media’s information and opinion-forming function, this paper examines the importance of mainstream and social media among different segments of the German population. Applying cluster analysis to survey data, six clusters with specific attitude-behavior combinations concerning the refugee issue were identified: Pro-Refugee Activists, Passive-Affirmative Mainstream, Directly-Involved Ambivalents, Passive-Worried Mainstream, Worried Agitators, and Anti-Refugee Activists. The results show that these clusters differ both in terms of socio-demographic and political characteristics as well as in terms of people’s issue-specific media usage, expectations, and evaluations of media coverage. Moreover, the findings indicate that social media play a problematic role in the debate as they seem to reinforce people’s pre-existing attitudes toward refugees. The implications of these findings for public debate on refugees are also discussed.