Monitoring solely the output of the media will never provide a complete picture regarding level of professionalism and degree to which the electorate are being appropriately informed. Media monitoring should always be part of a broader process of media analysis. Indeed, many monitoring findings will be inexplicable without placing them in context. Without the context, quantitative and qualitative findings of media monitoring will be meaningless.

Specifically, media analysis examines the following factors:

• Media environment: Who owns the media? What are their political leanings? What is the structure of any publicly funded media? How do the media make their money? What is the audience for different media outlets? Does the public have good access to a range of media?

• Media law: What is the legal environment in which the media operate? Are there generalised restrictions on media freedom? Does the law relating to media and elections enable the media to report freely or does it restrict them? Are any restrictive laws in regular use?

• Professional standards and traditions: Does the country have a tradition of media freedom? Is there a long history of independent professional journalism? Is there professional regulation of the media (for example through a code of conduct and a self-regulatory complaints procedure)? Have most journalists received professional training? Are journalists paid decent salaries and to what extent is ‘envelope journalism’ a problem?

• Attacks on the media: Have journalists been allowed to go about their work unhampered? Have there been attacks on journalists by government agents? By supporters of different political parties? Have journalists been arrested and imprisoned?

• Informal controls over the media: Do the government or important political figures exercise informal political control over what appears in some media outlets? Does this happen through bribes and inducements? Threats and penalties? Self-censorship? Or a combination of all of these?

• Overall impact of media on the elections: To what extent has the sum of these issues impacted on the conduct of the elections, and their broader contribution to the democratic process?