The Media in Elections

By Ronald Meinardus

Manila — The media has become a decisive factor in electoral politics in democracies in all parts of the world. I would even argue that it is impossible to find a democratic country today in which a candidate could win a majority without using the media. Whenever political parties or candidates campaign their image in the media is a major concern.

While the supremacy of mass media in democratic political contests is not new, the way politicians make use of the media to get their message across has changed over time. Political communication strategies, to a great extent, are technology-driven - and depend on the accessibility of specific media to the targeted electorate. While media-availability differs from one country to another, in most parts of the world television plays the dominant role in political campaigns - followed by radio and the press. Radio programs are of particular importance in less developed countries where not every household can afford a TV-set. While the impact of the printed media should not be underestimated, its role has largely evolved to that of an agenda-setter. Trends and stories reported in newspapers are frequently picked up by TV and radio-journalists and “rebroadcasted” over the airwaves.

A relatively new vehicle for political communication is the internet. By international comparison, the usage of the internet for campaign purposes varies and reflects what is commonly termed the growing digital divide. In highly developed countries such as South Korea or the United States of America, no serious political campaign can be carried out without at least one website. On the other hand, political online communication in less developed Asian countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia or Cambodia is still in its infancy. Roh, Moo-hyun would probably not be the president of South Korea today had it not been for an unparalleled campaign of mostly young dedicated supporters using the internet. At the same time, political websites and online communications hardly play any role at all in the run-up to the elections in the Philippines in May 2004. The explanation for this discrepancy is simple. While South Korea has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world, internet access in the Philippines is comparatively low at below five percent of the population.

This is not to say that political campaigners in the Philippines shy away from modern technology. The Philippines is known as the “texting-capital” of the world. According to industry sources, the 80 million Filipinos send some 150 million SMS (short messaging service) or text messages every day. Texting is not only the cheapest way to communicate over a distance, it has also become a way of life in this South East Asian nation. ”The world will be looking at how we use SMS during the coming elections”, says Roland Benzon, Associate of Chikka Asia, a leading provider of mobile messaging services. It will be interesting to observe how the cell phone technology that was originally invented for interpersonal and private communication is transformed into a mass media for political campaigns.

The classical role of the media in a democracy is to inform the citizens and to control those with power. Is the media living up to this expectation? In the Philippines, many observers tend to give a negative answer. An often-heard complaint is that media-reports tend to be biased and pursue a hidden political agenda. An attentive reader of Philippine newspapers easily discerns that the line dividing news reports and commentaries is often blurred. “There is manipulation because there is a lot of money to be made”, says Paulynn Sicam, a Philippine columnist. So-called “envelopmental” journalism is not confined to the Philippines. There, as in other countries, the tendency to pay journalists under the table is particularly rampant in the run up to elections.

The power of the media is, however, not limited to the control over what is published and what is not. In some countries, and here the Philippines is a showcase, the media functions as a gateway for political careers. Florangel Rosario Braid, President of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication in Manila, laments that her country has become a “showbiztocracy”. She is not alone in criticizing that today, more than ever, film studios and TV channels have to a large extent replaced the parties as a recruiting ground for political candidates. “The strongest political party in the country is ABS-CBN”, says political strategist Jose Leviste referring to the most important Philippine broadcasting network that employed the two main contenders for the vice presidency in the May 2004 elections, Senator Loren Legarda and her Senate-colleague Noli de Castro.

While these two broadcasters-turned-politicians may rightly claim that they have gathered political experience as members of the Philippine Senate, the person many Filipinos wish to see as their next president has no experience in public service at all. Fernando Poe Jr. is the undisputed action-king of Philippine movies, but also an absolute political novice, who was lured by the opposition into running for the highest elective office not because of his programmatic positions (these remain nebulous to this day) but solely for his celebrity-status.

Often, the media is made responsible for the low level of political discourse. While this finger pointing may be partly justified in some countries, it would be too simple to just blame the low quality of a country’s political culture solely on the defaults of the media. At the end of the day, media-products are just like any other item for consumption. Their success or failure – and with it their political clout – depend on the people who choose to consume them. One always has the option to turn off the TV and the radio or stop buying a newspaper that doesn’t meet one’s standards. Ultimately, therefore, the people get the media they ask for.

Dr. Ronald Meinardus was the former Resident Representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the Philippines and will leave Manila late September for a new posting in the Middle East. He writes a blog at www.myliberaltimes.com