Monitoring media output is increasingly recognized as an essential part of electoral management. If regulations governing media conduct are to be enforced, then it is necessary for the body responsible to know what the media have been doing. This applies whether that body is the electoral management body or some other media regulator.
Media monitoring may also have a secondary function: it is a way of determining how far the EMB has succeeded in communicating its messages through the media.
The actual monitoring process can vary in scope and sophistication and may be carried out in a number of ways: by a monitoring unit within the EMB or regulatory body , by a contracted non-governmental organization, by an academic body, or by a commercial company.
The issues that monitoring may address include the following:
- whether media have complied with the allocation of time for parties’ direct access;
- whether the timing of direct access slots has been fair;
- the manner in which inflammatory or defamatory statements by candidates have been reported;
- whether media have complied with any rulings by regulatory bodies (for example requiring the right of reply or correction).
