The media
play an indispensable role in the proper functioning of a democracy. Discussion of the media's functions within
electoral contexts, often focuses on their "watchdog" role: by
unfettered scrutiny and discussion of the successes and failures of candidates,
governments, and electoral management bodies, the media can inform the public
of how effectively they have performed and help to hold them to account. Yet
the media also have other roles in enabling full public participation in
elections:
- by educating voters on how
to exercise their democratic rights;
- by reporting on the
development of an election campaign;
- by providing a platform for
the political parties and candidates to communicate their message to the
electorate;
- by providing a platform for
the public to communicate their concerns, opinions, and needs, to the
parties/candidates, the EMB, the government, and to other voters, and to
interact on these issues;
- by allowing the parties and
candidates to debate with each other;
- by reporting results and
monitoring vote counting;
- by scrutinizing the
electoral process itself, including electoral management, in order to
evaluate the fairness of the process, its efficiency, and its probity;
- by providing information
that, as far as possible, avoids inflammatory language, helping to prevent
election-related violence.
The
media are not the sole source of information for voters, but in a world
dominated by mass communications, it is increasingly the media that determine
the political agenda, even in less technologically developed countries. A report by the Cairo Institute for Human
Rights Studies put it this way:
The media plays a major role in keeping the
citizenry abreast of current events and raising awareness of various issues in
any society. It also has an extremely significant impact on the public’s views
and way of thinking. The media is the primary means through which public
opinion is shaped and at times manipulated. If this is the media’s role then in
normal course of events, it becomes even more vital in exceptional periods, one
of which is electoral junctures, when the media becomes a primary player.
Elections constitute a basic challenge to the media, putting its impartiality
and objectivity to the test. The task of the media, especially national media
outlets, is not and should not be to function as a mouthpiece for any
government body or particular candidate. Its basic role is to enlighten and
educate the public and act as a neutral, objective platform for the free debate
of all points of view.[i]
It is
for this reason that election observation teams, for example, routinely comment
upon media access and coverage of elections as a criterion for judging whether
elections are fair. Monitoring the media during election periods has become an
increasingly common practice, using a combination of statistical analysis and
the techniques of media studies and discourse analysis to measure media’s role
in an election.
The
numerous ways in which media ensure democratic electoral processes generally
fall into one of the following categories:
- Media
as transparency/watchdog
- Media
as a campaign platform
- Media
as open forum for debate and discussion/public voice
Each
of these categories is explored in separate sections.
[i] “Media and
Parliamentary Elections in Egypt: Evaluation of Media Performance in the
Parliamentary Elections” Human Rights
Movement Issues 26, (Cairo, Egypt: Cairo Institute for Human Rights
Studies, 2011): 27
