Media Representation and Evaluation ofNon-travelers

Although about a quarter of the German population are non-travelers, the economic and social consequences that may result from non-travel are still unexplored. For this reason, this study aims to examine via a media analysis the representation and evaluation of non-travelers in German newspapers since the turn of the millennium and gain first insights into the social consequences that non-travelers face. By conducting a discourse analysis, a part of the social reality of non-travelers can be reconstructed. The study concludes that travel is predominantly constructed as a norm in the media and that deviation from this norm leads to negative social sanctions. Over the last 20 years, however, mainly three events have had an impact on the media's assessment of non-travel: the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in 2001, the financial crisis in 2008-09 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a paradigm shift in the evaluation of the phenomenon of non-travel, during which a normalization process of non-travel occurred, at least temporarily. This media analysis thus provides the first indications of the social consequences for non-travelers in the past 20 years in Germany.