"TEAM" MONITORS COVERAGE OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS-2008

A1+
06 February, 2008

(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.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress