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VOTE 2012: MONITORING REVEALS PRINT MEDIA BIAS IN CAMPAIGN COVERAGE
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow
11.05.12 | 11:19
Armen Minasyan
During the pre-election period Armenian print media were full of
unbalanced coverage and served more campaigning than informational
goals, according to a study that also revealed a huge interest that
newspapers showed in the process.
Enlarge Photo Tatevik Pirumyan The monitoring conducted on March
12-May 5 showed that a total of 16 newspapers (combined selling only
several thousand copies a day) published nearly 5,000 stories and
articles related to the May 6 parliamentary elections.
Representatives of the Armenian Public Relations Association (APRA)
that carried out the project say that they had thoroughly analyzed each
newspaper item about the elections before arriving at the conclusion.
"Many of the newspapers had more than a third of their election-related
content with overt campaigning for or against a certain political
force or politician," says APRA head Armen Minasyan.
Thus, according to the results of the monitoring, 10.8 percent of
the reviewed content amounted to open campaigning, 38.2 percent to
veiled campaigning, and only 51 percent did not contain major elements
of campaigning.
"Almost all newspapers having clear political orientations had
dominating negative references to opposite camps in stories concerning
forces they are loyal to. Most references have been against the
[ruling] Republican Party of Armenia and [its junior coalition partner]
Prosperous Armenia Party, with the least number of references to the
United Armenians Party and the Communist Party," says APRA executive
director Tatevik Pirumyan.
The project was implemented within the framework of the Support to
Electoral Processes in Armenia program funded by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe's Yerevan office and the European
Union. Among the newspapers reviewed were those with circulations of
3,000 and more copies a day and distribution countrywide.
Minasyan says that cases of authors showing their bias in articles
and stories were manifested in comments containing evaluations as
well as leading questions to interviewees.
Representatives of the organization note that politically most
references were made to the Republican Party of Armenia, with 40
percent of them having a negative character, while only 9.5 percent
of a positive nature. The second "most referred to" political force
was Prosperous Armenia, with its negative coverage making 37 percent,
against 9.4 percent of the positive.
Negative references to the Armenian National Congress (ANC) made 41.9
percent, whereas positive references to this opposition bloc made 12.1
percent. Of the other parties the most frequent negative references
were about Orinats Yerkir (39.6 percent), the most positive - about ARF
Dashnaktsutyun (11.6 percent). The activities of the Democratic Party
of Armenia, the Communist Party of Armenia and the United Armenians
Parties were given practically no coverage, with rare references made
to these parties in print media.
Minasyan says that the comparison of the print media coverage of
the latest campaign with that during the previous election period
shows negative tendencies related to coverage aggravating in Armenian
print media.
"As the Election Day got closer print media tended to increase the
number of stories with negative evaluations and smear against separate
forces. This was also reflected in headlines," he says.
According to the study, nearly 90 percent of print media coverage of
the campaign related to the intricacies of the process itself rather
than issues discussed during it.
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow
11.05.12 | 11:19
Armen Minasyan
During the pre-election period Armenian print media were full of
unbalanced coverage and served more campaigning than informational
goals, according to a study that also revealed a huge interest that
newspapers showed in the process.
Enlarge Photo Tatevik Pirumyan The monitoring conducted on March
12-May 5 showed that a total of 16 newspapers (combined selling only
several thousand copies a day) published nearly 5,000 stories and
articles related to the May 6 parliamentary elections.
Representatives of the Armenian Public Relations Association (APRA)
that carried out the project say that they had thoroughly analyzed each
newspaper item about the elections before arriving at the conclusion.
"Many of the newspapers had more than a third of their election-related
content with overt campaigning for or against a certain political
force or politician," says APRA head Armen Minasyan.
Thus, according to the results of the monitoring, 10.8 percent of
the reviewed content amounted to open campaigning, 38.2 percent to
veiled campaigning, and only 51 percent did not contain major elements
of campaigning.
"Almost all newspapers having clear political orientations had
dominating negative references to opposite camps in stories concerning
forces they are loyal to. Most references have been against the
[ruling] Republican Party of Armenia and [its junior coalition partner]
Prosperous Armenia Party, with the least number of references to the
United Armenians Party and the Communist Party," says APRA executive
director Tatevik Pirumyan.
The project was implemented within the framework of the Support to
Electoral Processes in Armenia program funded by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe's Yerevan office and the European
Union. Among the newspapers reviewed were those with circulations of
3,000 and more copies a day and distribution countrywide.
Minasyan says that cases of authors showing their bias in articles
and stories were manifested in comments containing evaluations as
well as leading questions to interviewees.
Representatives of the organization note that politically most
references were made to the Republican Party of Armenia, with 40
percent of them having a negative character, while only 9.5 percent
of a positive nature. The second "most referred to" political force
was Prosperous Armenia, with its negative coverage making 37 percent,
against 9.4 percent of the positive.
Negative references to the Armenian National Congress (ANC) made 41.9
percent, whereas positive references to this opposition bloc made 12.1
percent. Of the other parties the most frequent negative references
were about Orinats Yerkir (39.6 percent), the most positive - about ARF
Dashnaktsutyun (11.6 percent). The activities of the Democratic Party
of Armenia, the Communist Party of Armenia and the United Armenians
Parties were given practically no coverage, with rare references made
to these parties in print media.
Minasyan says that the comparison of the print media coverage of
the latest campaign with that during the previous election period
shows negative tendencies related to coverage aggravating in Armenian
print media.
"As the Election Day got closer print media tended to increase the
number of stories with negative evaluations and smear against separate
forces. This was also reflected in headlines," he says.
According to the study, nearly 90 percent of print media coverage of
the campaign related to the intricacies of the process itself rather
than issues discussed during it.