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The present study can be comprehended as continuation of former studies of the Peace Research Project Group dealing with the German press coverage of Yugoslavia since 1990. It shows the results of a quantitative content analysis of the day-to-day coverage of Yugoslavia from 6.10.2000 to 15.3.2002. The Frankfurter Rundschau has been selected as being representative for the German coverage. As in former studies it could be shown, that the German press already at an early stage had constructed different roles and identifications offers with the actors in the Balkans and that especially Serbia had been depicted rather one-dimensional, it was of special interest, if and how the press after the change of government in Yugoslavia in October 2000 had reacted to the changed situation in the region. E.g. Are there indications for a deconstruction of the "Serbian" foe image? (How) have processes of democratization have been perceived by the press? How are the Yugoslavian and how the international actors displayed? The study shows that particularly directly after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic the Frankfurter Rundschau took vivid interest in the developments in Yugoslavia and that the coverage has become significantly more many-sided. But as soon as Milosevic has been successfully extradited to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague the topic "Yugoslavia" disappears gradually from sight while the prognoses for the region remain rather pessimistic.

The present paper documents the various versions of a coding schedule, which has been developed by the Peace Research Group Konstanz. It serves as a basis for the qualitative and quantitative content analysis of escalation- and de-escalation-oriented aspects of conflict coverage in the news media. Designed for coder training, the paper presents the checklist of escalation- vs. de-escalation-oriented aspects along with a catalog of examples from empirical case studies on various conflict regions. The latter may help to get a better understanding of the dimensions and variables of the coding schedule. Der vorliegende Aufsatz dokumentiert die verschiedenen Fassungen eines von der Projektgruppe Friedensforschung Konstanz für die qualitative und quantitative Inhaltsanalyse eskalations- und deeskalationsorientierter Aspekte der Konfliktberichterstattung in den Nachrichtenmedien entwickelten Kodierschemas. Zur Förderung eines besseres Verständnis seiner verschiedenen Dimensionen und Variablen wird die aktuelle Fassung des Kodierschemas um einen Katalog von Beispielen aus empirischen Fallstudien zu einer Vielzahl von Konfliktregionen ergänzt.