The Natascha Kampusch case

The first eight years of a unique kidnapping case as reflected in the media

March 2, 1988

The seemingly traceless disappearance of ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch triggers a wave of media coverage. Even months and years later, the case continues to create a media buzz despite the lack of new developments and scant information. Natascha Kampusch’s self-liberation on August 23, 2006, after 3,096 days of captivity, eventually sparks a worldwide media reaction that still resonates today.

Fourth cover page

„Martin Pelz deals with the first eight and a half years of the “Natascha Kampusch case“. He analyses how it was possible that the name Natascha Kampusch did not disappear from media coverage over the entire period. Based on the findings of communication science with regard to news selection and the emergence of topics, the author analyses the development and course of the topic career, as well as differences and between the daily newspapers Kronen Zeitung, Kurier and Die Presse“

– Page 125 –

[…] Hypothesis 8 must therefore be supplemented: At the beginning, the “Natascha Kampusch case” is primarily treated as an “original” topic. After that, the topic is predominantly “rethematised”. After that, reporting on similar cases and the expansion of the topic dominate.

At the beginning of the reporting, periods such as 260 hours, ten days, 100 days were still occasions for re-thematisation in the headlines. Subsequently, re-thematisation often took place at least around the anniversary of the disappearance. “Even if the media’s interest declined, the anniversaries of the disappearances were still a ‘hook’ for a report.” 285 Over the entire period of the study, there was at least one report in the month of March in every single year. March is not only the month with the most contributions in 1998, but also afterwards. From 2001 at the latest, the efforts of private detective Walter Pöchhacker reached a noteworthy number of articles in relation to the overall reporting. The detective provided fresh impetus on several occasions. In order to enforce his demand to dig in a pond for the body of Natascha Kampusch, the publisher of the “Kronen Zeitung”, Hans Dichand, wanted to personally deposit a bail of 2 million schillings for Pöchhacker.

Pöchhacker’s accusations against people close to her mother Brigitta Sirny, as well as a lie detector test he carried out, also caused the topic to be broadened several times.²⁸⁶ Furthermore, the proportion of reporting on similar events also increased. ²⁸⁷ […]

– Page 130 –

[…] The intensity of reporting on Natascha Kampusch can only partly be explained by the confluence of various news factors. The abundance of reports was also due to the extension of the topic by taking up sub-topics. The “Natascha Kampusch case” was used by journalists to cover other topics in the media. If one examines the question of why the media reported extensively on subsequent events after the disappearance of Natascha Kampusch, several reasons are worth mentioning. The aforementioned detective Walter Pöchhacker had a successful track record in a number of child abduction cases and was originally hired by the “Kurier” to solve the case. He soon came to the conclusion that the perpetrator was close to the family. However, the lie detector tests he organised did not lead to any results, nor did the excavations carried out in 2002 to find the body of Natascha Kampusch, who had already been unanimously declared dead. „It is thanks to Pöchhacker, however, that the story did not fizzle out in the media.“ ²⁹⁰ according to Oswald Hicker, chief reporter for the free newspaper “Heute”, then “News”.

After all, Pöchhacker’s accusations against the police led to the appointment of a special commission to reopen the case.²⁹¹ Pöchhacker founded the “Natascha Kampusch Fund” to promote the investigation of the crime. The aim was to raise as much money as possible to provide useful information about Natascha’s whereabouts. The former mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk, took over the patronage of the fund. Overall, however, the amount of donations was rather modest. On 31 December 2003, the account balance was 9,599.30 euros, with Pöchhacker himself transferring 100,000 schillings.²⁹² […]

Martin Pelz – Barbug: Textum-Verlag, 2010 ISBN: 0978-3-8288-2294-8

The Natascha Kampusch case