In
order to report elections in a professional manner, journalists benefit from
adequate training, support and practice.
Some additional areas of knowledge that journalists need for elections
reporting include:
- An understanding of the
political and electoral system
- An understanding of the
overall electoral process
- Familiarity with electoral
law, especially as it affects media reporting
- Understanding of the role
of the media in covering elections
- Knowledge of the country’s
election history
- Detailed knowledge of the
mechanics of voter registration, boundary delimitation, the vote, the count
and any other issues of relevance (such as the use of technology in voting
or the use of postal votes, if these are potential matters of
controversy)
- The contestants, their
power-bases, relationships, leadership, and so on
- The differing roles of men
and women in the elections, and actions being taken to ensure women’s
participation
- Types of reporting that are
fairly specific to elections (such as reporting opinion polls)
- Election coverage and
safety
- New media in the context of
election coverage, candidate campaigns, citizen journalism, etc . . .
- Investigative journalism in
the context of elections
- Public attitudes to the
candidates and the elections
- Audience needs for
information on the elections
Journalists
covering elections tend to come from a range of backgrounds. Some have joined
media organisations as young cadets, with or without first obtaining a
university degree; some are autodidacts who have written or broadcast their way
into a professional journalism job. Some have university-level journalism
education; others have received a number of on-the-job short courses; and some
have received no formal training at all. Those with university education may
have had exposure to elections-relevant course content, for example political
science or public policy, while others may have degrees in less directly related
subjects. In many countries, there are few educational institutions that offer
specialised journalism courses.
Yet,
despite the imbalance or the considerable variations between programs, the
number of journalism education and training programs is growing around the
world. A survey conducted in 2008 by the
University of Oklahoma and backed by the Knight Foundation had amassed
information on 2850 programs. Roughly 21% of these programs were in Asia and
the Pacific, surpassing the 19.3% in North America.[i]
The World Journalism Education Council (WJEC) is currently compiling a database
of journalism education programs worldwide.
At the date of this Media and Elections encyclopaedia update (2012) WJEC
had amassed information regarding 2332 educational programs roughly 50% of
which were in North America and Europe.[ii]
A
statistic of educational programs does not indicate quality or nature of said
programs, however. In some countries there is journalism training, however it
may cater to an authoritarian establishment that does not encourage, or permit,
democratic practices. Furthermore, where a wide range of quality long- and
short-term courses are available in journalism, they may not specifically cover
elections reporting.
A variety of institutions such as media development
NGOs or EMBs, may provide election reporting training courses or workshops,
thereby compensating for any lack thereof in formal education. These courses
are usually a few days to a few weeks in duration and may take place in-country
or internationally. In-country training
carries with it the advantage that more journalists can attend. International training may provide
journalists access to resources not available in-country, and provide them with
diversity as a learning experience.
Training courses usually provide journalists a few key tools necessary
for election reporting, but occasionally result in duplication of content
between offered courses. Furthermore,
there may be few opportunities for journalists to attend more advanced courses
that allow them to systematically increase their skill levels. Ideally, election related training should be
implemented over the course of entire electoral processes. This ensures that trainees are able to fully
grasp a variety of tools and challenges unique to each phase.
There
are a number of potential questions to be addressed when institutions or
organizations plan training courses:
- What is an affective and
reasonable duration for a course?
- How can the training be
made relevant and specific to the conditions (including degree of media
literacy) of the country concerned?
- What security concerns have
the potential to impact the training courses?
- Will the security/political
environment allow journalists to put new elections reporting skills to
practice?
- How will participants be
selected – will they have to sit an entrance test, be nominated by their
institutions, etc.?
- Will it be possible to
reach enough journalists to have an impact?
- Will female journalists be
allowed to attend training, and what can be done to ensure that they are
able to participate?
- When can journalists be
trained to have the maximum benefit but not interfere with their actual
reporting duties?
- What kind of follow-up
activities can be carried out to ensure that training is part of a wider
media development programme?
There
are no simple answers to these questions. However, they can best be addressed
if training is organized with close consultation with the most important
stakeholders: the EMB, media regulators, media proprietors, and journalists’
professional bodies and trade unions. A media mapping exercise can also be
useful as a precursor to training programmes, to ensure that media that have
the greatest impact are invited to the training, and that a plurality of media
participate.
There are a number of useful resources for
journalists and trainers regarding tips and training for professional election
coverage:
A recent publication released by the Center
for International Media Assistance (CIMA) titled Covering Elections: The Challenges
of Training the Watchdogs, provides an overview of election reporting
training as well a substantial list of example courses in different
countries. It can be found here: http://cima.ned.org/publications/covering-elections-challenges-training-watchdogs
The International Federation of Journalists
has produced a number of valuable resources for journalists to draw from for
election reporting (and in general). These include a code of ethics as well as an Election
Reporting Handbook found here http://www.ifj.org/nc/en/news-single-view/category/meeting-1/article/election-reporting-handbook/
The Handbook for Journalists During Elections prepared
by Reporters Without Borders, provides a comprehensive guide to election
reporting including nuances of each step of an election as well as in depth
guidance on campaign coverage. http://en.rsf.org/handbook-for-journalists-during-20-07-2012,43063.html
The Handbook
for Journalists, also by Reporters Without Borders, provides advice on how journalists can stay safe in dangerous
situations (http://en.rsf.org/handbook-for-journalists-17-04-2007,21744.html).
The Journalist
Security Guide by the Committee to Protect Journalists is a handbook on
covering news in dangerous situations and includes information on digital
security: (cpj.org/security/guide.pdf)
Although the Institute for Media, Policy
and Civil Society (IMPACs) is no longer in operation, their publications are
still valuable resources for media personnel. Of particular importance to this
discussion is their 2004 publication titled Media + Elections, An Elections
Reporting Handbook found here.
The BRIDGE (Building Resources in Democracy,
Governance and Elections) training modules are primarily aimed at
election administration personnel, support providers, observers and other
stakeholders. These trainings are also
valuable to members of media as they provide an in-depth look at the processes
and mechanisms of each step of an electoral process. This level of detailed knowledge will
greatly aid any journalists endeavouring to cover an election. Furthermore, one module is dedicated to Media
and Elections, exploring the role of a Code of Conduct as well as working relationships
between the EMB and the media. More
information can found at http://bridge-project.org/
Media and the Elections Process by the Reuters Foundation,
provides useful and easy to read information on electoral processes such as
voting systems, counting systems, issues pertaining to electoral boundaries or
campaign financing, and so forth and can be found here.
[i]
David E. Kaplan, Empowering Independent
Media, U.S. Efforts to Foster Free and Independent News Around the World.
Inaugural Report: 2008, (a product of the Center
for International Media Assistance) ed. Marguerite H. Sullivan,
(Washington DC: National Endowment for Democracy, 2008),48
[ii] “World
Journalism Education Census”, World Journalism Education Council webpage,
accessed August 30, 2012, http://wjec.ou.edu/census.php
