Open news feed Close news feed
A A

"TEAM" MONITORS COVERAGE OF PRESIENTIAL ELECTIONS-2008

Politics

(JANUARY 21-30, 2008)

Since January 21, 2008 Yerevan Press Club with the participation of “TEAM” Research Center and the financial support of the Open Society Institute resumed the pre-election monitoring of the leading broadcast media (launched on October 1, 2007). The interruption of December 21, 2007 - January 20, 2008 was due to New Year and Christmas holidays when the programming policy of most media is focused at entertaining programs and the monitoring would hence not yield a typical picture of political debate coverage. The choice of study resumption date is due to the kick-off of the pre-election campaign, when the RA legislation spells out particular requirements for broadcasters to provide equal conditions to all candidates in terms of campaign coverage.

Thus, the present study is implemented on January 21 - February 17, 2008 (pre-election promotion period).

The monitoring covers the same 8 broadcast media: 4 national TV companies - First Channel of the Public Television of Armenia, “ALM”, “Armenia”, Second Armenian TV Channel; 3 TV companies of Yerevan - “Yerkir Media”, “Kentron”, “Shant”; 1 national radio companies - Public Radio of Armenia. Yet the list of politicians, whose coverage is the object of monitoring, is confined to the 9 RA presidency candidates. At the same time if a representative of an election headquarters/a proxy of the candidate appears in the piece, and this status is specified, the reference/connotation and the airtime are recorded as pertaining to this candidate.

The air monitoring hours have somewhat changed, too: since January 21 all the programs of 8 broadcast media, aired at 17.00-24.00 are monitored. This is due to the time of broadcasting the pre-election promotional materials of the candidates on the TV channels. In particular, on the First Channel of the Public Television of Armenia, in accordance with the decision of the RA CEC of January 21, 2008, the pre-election promotion of the candidates is broadcast starting from 17.15. In the case of Public Radio of Armenia the airtime, allocated for pre-election promotion, is studied from 13.30, because, in accordance with the same decision of the CEC, it is at that time that PRA begins broadcasting the pre-election promotion of the candidates. As to the editorial coverage of PRA, it was studied, similarly to the other channels, at 17.00-24.00. The programs that started but did not end before 17.00 are not studied. The programs that started but did not end till 24.00 are studied in full, until their end.

In other respects the monitoring methodology did not change significantly in January as compared to October-December 2007 (see below).

THE PRESENT INTERIM REPORT includes the period of January 21-30, 2008. On these days the attention of broadcasters to RA presidency candidates was distributed far more equally than during the previous stage of monitoring (October-December, 2007). The aggregate time allocated by all 8 channels studied to the candidate, supported by the ruling collation, turned out comparable to the coverage of other candidates. Prime Minister of Serge Sargsian received 29,442 sec., while the leader of “National Accord” party Aram Harutiunian who received the least attention was given 12,720 sec. In terms of the number of references, the huge gap between the politicians at focus recorded in October-December was not observed during the first 10 days of the official campaign, either: Serge Sargsian appeared in 425 materials, while Arman Melikian, referred to least of all - in 133.

Moreover, if the coverage of the Prime Minister in his official capacity is deduced from his total airtime, in terms of attention received from all TV channels, he will fall behind the candidate of "Dashnaktsutiun" party Vahan Hovhannesian and will have only a slightly better figure than the candidate of Popular Party Tigran Karapetian.

On the First Channel of the Public Television of Armenia, the Public Radio of Armenia and the Second Armenian TV Channel the leader in terms of total airtime, allocated by these broadcasters to presidential candidates, was Serge Sargsian; on other three channels, “Armenia”, “Shant” and “Yerkir Media” - Vahan Hovhannesian. On “Kentron” biggest attention was paid to RA First President Levon Ter-Petrosian (but this attention was mostly negative, as will be shown below). On “ALM” the leader, at a traditionally big distance from the other politicians at focus, is the owner of the TV channel Tigran Karapetian: the volume of his coverage more than 1.5 times exceeded the time allocated by “ALM” to all other presidency candidates. The dominance of the leader of Popular Party on “ALM” is preserved even though he, in accordance with the RA Electoral Code, stopped hosting author and discussion programs since January 21. At the same time, the candidate status allowed Tigran Karapetian to appear on the air of other channels much more frequently than before - for the first time throughout the monitoring his coverage on other seven channels exceeded the time he received on the air of “ALM”.

IN FACT, the main problem of coverage of the current election campaign is not so much in the distribution of attention between the politicians, but rather in the big number of connotational references and the polarly opposite nature of coverage for two candidates, Serge Sargsian and Levon Ter-Petrosian. Out of 99 connotational references (on all 8 channels) of the Prime Minister 93 were positive and only 6 were negative, while the First President had 72 negative references and no positive.

Bias was present in the coverage of two public channels studied, too. On the First Channel of PTA the balance of connotational references of Serge Sargsian is 22 versus 0, respectively, while than of Levon Ter-Petrosian is 0 versus 11; on Public Radio this figure makes 7-0 and 0-6, respectively. The biggest number of positive references to the Prime Minister is made in reports on his election campaign.

Overall, the leaders in terms of positive coverage of Sargsian are the PTA First Channel and “Kentron” (that has balance of 24-3). “Kentron” was most prominent in the negative coverage of Ter-Petrosian, too (0-29). It should be noted, however, that 23 negative references to the First President were made by “What Newspapers Write About” program, reviewing the print press (quite partial, too, because, as numerous researches show, the newspaper market in Armenia is much more diverse and pluralistic than TV and radio air, i.e., a very targeted selection had to be made to get this number of negative references). The other 6 negative references to Ter-Petrosian on the air of “Kentron” were made by other politicians.

In general all the main trends of the period studied - a more equal attention distribution for all candidates than that in October-December, polarized treatment of Serge Sargsian and Levon Ter-Petrosian and the relative impartiality towards all the remaining seven candidates - characterized the activities of seven broadcast media studied (while all these trends are displayed by “ALM” TV channel too, it retains its traditional specifics, as noted above). This gives ground to recall the hypothesis, defined at the previous stage of the monitoring, about the coordinated strategy of covering the current election campaign. This hypothesis makes an exception for only one TV channel studied, “Yerkir Media”, where Serge Sargsian does not have a positive balance of connotational references (2-2), and the most positively covered is the candidate of “Dashnaktsutiun” Vahan Hovhannesian (7 positive and no negative reference). However, the other trends noted, the more equal distribution of attention between the candidates and the openly negative balance of covering Levon Ter-Petrosian, are characteristic for this channel, too.

It is of course necessary to note here that in quantitative terms the polarity of coverage of two candidates (Serge Sargsian and Levon Ter-Petrosian) in January was not as apparent as in October-December. If, as noted in previous reports, the share of negative references to Ter-Petrosian at the previous stage of the monitoring reached an unprecedented level of 50% of the total number of references, throughout the 10 days of January this figure comes to 26%. It is also important to note that the coverage of Ter-Petrosian in negative context consists mostly of public critical remarks to his address made by other candidates. In particular, the channels studied paid significant attention to the negative statements about the First President made by the candidate of “National Unity” party Artashes Geghamian.

THE MOST BALANCED (by two criteria - the distribution of airtime and the proportion of connotational references) was the coverage of this stage of election campaign on the Public Radio. Here, as well as on the Second Armenian TV Channel 7 of 9 candidates were covered solely in neutral context. The example of these media proves that out of the supposedly coordinated (or directed) policy, dealing, in this case, with Serge Sargsian and Levon Ter-Petrosian, the Armenian broadcasters are quite able to cover election campaigns in accordance with international standards.

Besides the two channels mentioned, a relatively balanced coverage was recorded on “Armenia” and “Shant” TV channels. The latter, though, having given during the 10 days studied comparable attention to 8 candidates (from 3,287 to 1,539 sec.), left only Tigran Karapetian out of focus (7 sec.).

Unlike the previous monitoring stage it would be wrong to range the media studied by the activeness of political process coverage, as these indicators were quite “dense”. It can only be said that Public Radio (35,694 sec.) and “Kentron” TV channel (30,039 sec.) have gone somewhat ahead, as compared to the 24,335 sec. of the total airtime, allocated to all candidates by “Yerkir Media” that was ranked the third along this dimension.

THE INVOLVEMENT of the presidential candidates (and the official representatives of their election headquarters) in discussion programs of media studied remains not that frequent. Despite the official launch of the pre-election promotion, on 8 channels in 10 days candidates or their representatives took part in such programs 36 times (it should be noted here that the monitoring group did not take into account the interviews of candidates to the Public Radio, as they were broadcast before 17.00 - i.e., the time when the editorial coverage was not studied). The reason here, most probably, is not so much the reluctance of TV and radio companies to invite candidates, but rather the unreadiness of some politicians to engage in public dialogue. The rarest participants of “guest in studio” programs were Serge Sargsian and Levon Ter-Petrosian - two times for each, both times it was the level of their representatives - who prefer a monologue form of communicating with the voters. The most open on this stage of study were Tigran Karapetian (6 programs, including 2 on “ALM” TV channel), Vahan Hovhannesian, Vazgen Manukian and Arman Melikian (5 each). They are followed by Artur Baghdasarian and Aram Harutiunian (4 each), Artashes Geghamian (3). Similarly to the previous monitoring stage, the broadcast media were little interested in the opinion of the Armenian NGOs that observed the various aspects of the electoral process. In any case, their representatives never appeared as guests on the discussion programs studied. This may also be a component of a coordinated (or directed) policy.

AS TO THE PRE-ELECTION PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS per se, the political advertising, the monitoring does not give grounds to speak about any obstacles for them on the channels studied. All candidates are using the free air that they are entitled to on the First Channel of the Public Television. The paid airtime (on all channels studied) as of January 30 was used by six candidates, with the exception of Tigran Karapetian, Arman Melikian and Aram Harutiunian. Vazgen Manukian and Artashes Geghamian placed their advertising only on the two public channels. Four candidates paid for the air of public and private broadcasters. The leader in terms of promotional materials is Vahan Hovhannesian (16,294 paid and free sec.), who used all seven TV channels, but displayed no interest to Public Radio. He is followed by Levon Ter-Petrosian (10,256 sec.), who was present on the advertising air on all 8 channels studied, and Artur Baghdasarian (8,632 sec.), who did not use the advertising air only on “Shant”. Serge Sargsian was only the fourth by this indicator (8,155 sec.), who has not so far placed his advertisements on “Kentron” and “Yerkir Media” TV channels.

The most attractive for candidates out of media studied was the paid air of the First Channel of the Public Television, followed by “Armenia”, “Shant”, “ALM”, “Yerkir Media”, the Second Armenian TV Channel, “Kentron”. The least attractive was the air of Public Radio. (Quantitative results of the monitoring are enclosed in tables.)

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE STUDY

Monitoring objectives: to determine and define through analysis of quantitative data

- the level of attention of broadcast media of Armenia to presidential elections;

- how adequate the broadcast media are in informing the electorate about politicians, in ensuring their access to air to express views and opinions, during pre-election promotion.

To meet these objectives, methodologies of qualitative and quantitative monitoring are applied. The qualitative monitoring includes studying legislation and other official documents, relevant for the elections process in Armenia, conversations with media heads, journalists, politicians, representatives of the public, as well as the analysis of public statements, opinions voiced regarding the media activities at pre-election time. Quantitative monitoring includes counting and measuring of programs in media directly.

Monitoring Methodology

All materials of the airtime studied are subdivided into two types:

1. Editorial coverage;

2. Pre-election promotion (political advertising), allocated to the presidency candidate.

1. The main study unit is TV/radio piece.

2. Monitors record and count the references to candidates in the editorial coverage of the broadcast media studied. The number of positive (+), negative (-) and neutral (0) references to candidates is also counted. The connotational (positive, negative) references are seen to be the ones in the pieces that leave an undoubtedly positive or negative overall impression of the candidate on the audience. In the cases when the connotation is not that certain, the reference is recorded as neutral. All doubts of the monitor are interpreted towards recording a neutral reference. Moreover, if the piece informs that any person/organization has publicly announced its support/or lack of support to the politician nominated as a candidate for presidency, the reference to this politician is recorded as positive/negative, respectively.

If a representative of election headquarters/proxy of a candidate appears in the piece, with this status being specified, the reference/connotation is recorded as pertaining to this candidate, too.

Each TV and radio piece records only one reference and only one connotational sign for every candidate.

Any appearance of the candidate in a TV shot, which is not a part of the piece where the candidate is mentioned, is also considered to be a reference. If the appearance in the shot is a part of the piece where the candidate is mentioned, this does not count as an additional reference.

The measurement of these categories is made in units.

3. The monitors also record and measure the material volume, i.e., the airtime (in seconds), allocated to presidential candidates for expressing their views, opinions as well as judgments, narration about them made by others, in editorial coverage of the broadcast media studied. If a representative of an election headquarters/proxy of a candidate appears in the piece, with this status being specified, the airtime he receives is also recorded for the candidate. Apart from recording the general airtime, allocated to the candidate, the capacity in which the candidate appears is also studied. Thus, the airtime (in seconds) is differentiated and classed appropriately, according to whether it was allocated to the candidate for the coverage of his:

1. Official and professional activities;

2. Activities that are not directly related to professional or official duties.

4. The monitors also record and measure the volume of materials, i.e., airtime (in seconds), allocated to the presidency candidate for pre-election promotion in broadcast media studied (17.00-24.00, for Public Radio - since 13.30 till 24.00), marked on TV and radio channels as “pre-election promotion”. The volume of paid and free political advertising is measured separately. The political advertising slot that started but did not end till 17.00 is not monitored. The political advertising slot that started but did not end till 24.00 is studied in full, until its end. An exception is made only for PTA First Channel and the Public Radio of Armenia, which, according to the RA CEC decision of January 21, 2008, in case of a technical necessity can shift the political advertising start time by 30 minutes. Hence, in such cases the slot of political advertising on the First Channel and the Public Radio is to be monitored respectively from 16.45 and 13.00.

5. The monitors record the participants of discussion programs (interviews, guest in studio, talk shows) for the TV and radio channels studied by a separate list, mentioning the TV and radio channel, the title of the program, the name(s) and position(s) of the participants invited. If the discussion program participant is not the candidate himself, but representative of his election headquarters/proxy, and in the program this status is specified, in the list of discussion program participants the program is recorded as featuring the candidate.