DISTRICT ELECTION OFFICE

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

MEDIA MONITORING AND MEDIA CERTIFICATION COMMITTEE

Media Monitoring and Media Certification Committee (MCMC):

Monitoring media conduct - when done impartially, proficiently and based on a credible methodology - establishes whether this key aspect of an election process contributes to or subverts the democratic nature of elections. Media monitoring can

1. measure the amount of coverage of electoral subjects,

2. identify the presence or absence of news bias,

3. assess the appropriateness of media access for political competitors,

4. evaluate the adequacy of information conveyed to voters through news, direct political messages, public information programming and voter education announcements,

5. identify the shortcomings in media conduct &

6. document the abuse of the mass media’s power to affect voter choices including PAID NEWS

Constitution of MCMC:

For monitoring the media at the district level ECI had directed for setting up district level Media Monitoring and Media Certification Committee (MCMC), with the following members:

1. District Election Officer (DEO)/Dy.DEO

2. District Public Relations Officer

3. Representative of Ministry of I&B

4. Independent Journalist/Citizen as recommended by PCI

Mandate of MCMC:

The Expenditure guidelines issued by the Election Commission says that apart from the certification of advertisements, MCMC will monitor both Print and Electronic media including cable networks, and record either in CD or DVD/keep a photocopy of all advertisements/paid news/election related news. Further – “MCMC shall see all the news papers, print media, electronic media, cable network, mobile network and other modes of communication like bulk SMSs etc. and keep a record of advertisements, advertorials, messages, discussions and interviews relating to candidates and parties, including Radio jingles.

MCMC will make a daily report on Candidates with details of advertisements and paid news if any, to the Accounting Team with a copy to the Returning Officer (RO) and Expenditure Observer (EO). The Committee will maintain a Certification Register for the advertisements and will also retain an electronic copy of the certified advertisements.

Any instance of Paid News noticed by the committee will be brought to the notice of the concerned Returning Officer, District Election officer and Expenditure Observer. The RO will issue notice to the candidate with regard to the incidents of Paid News. Paid News will be considered as advertisements and the expenditure as calculated as per DAVP or DIPR rates would be considered as candidate’s expenditure. Section 171 H of the IPC also prohibits expenditure without the authority of the contesting candidate.

Working Definition of Paid News for MCMC:

The Election Commission vide its letter dated 8^th June, 2010 had described paid news as follows. “The cases of ‘paid News’ generally manifest in the forms of news articles/reports published about a particular candidate or party eulogizing them, or similar news articles denigrating the opponents, both intended at unduly influencing the voters”.

In its letter dated 23^rd September 2010 ECI mentions that “Press is not expected to indulge in canvassing of a particular candidate/party. If it does, it shall allow the right of reply to the other candidate party. Departure should make a case for prima facie investigation of paid news”. Disproportionate coverage to the speech/activities of a candidate like repeated promotionals will be also treated as advertisement.

Monitoring Plan for Thiruvananthapuram:

As per the ECI guidelines, The Media Monitoring and Media Certification Committee (MCMC) had been set up in Thiruvananthapuram with the following members:

1. Dr.Dinesh Arora – District Collector & DEO (Chairman)

2. Dr.K.Ampady – Dy.Director (News), Doordarshan as representative of I&B Ministry

3. Shri Shine – District Information Officer

4. Shri C. Gauridasan Nair, Dy.Chief of Bureau, The Hindu as representative of the media.

Media Monitoring Centre:

A State of the art Media monitoring centre (MMC) has been set up in the district collectorate for media monitoring. The MMC has facilities for computerized digital recording of electronic media including Television and Radio. News papers and periodicals are also monitored from MMC. MMC is equipped with all essentials for scientific monitoring like television sets, radios, news papers and periodicals, computers for recording and data analysis, rulers and stop watches and other storage materials.

Monitors: One of the first challenges in establishing a media monitoring project is to attract a dedicated and motivated team of monitors. The continuity and credibility of the project depends, to a large measure, on the consistency of the standards kept throughout the project’s life. MCMC had taken the service of 10 Second Year Students of Bsc. Visual Communication of Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram for monitoring. Six monitors are deputed for monitoring the print media while four monitors in two shifts will be monitoring the electronic media.

Team Leaders: Two experienced government servants, one for electronic media and the other for print media were taken as team leaders from the respective fields for over seeing the work of the monitors.

Engineering Assistant: One Engineering Assistant was taken on deputation from Doordarshan to oversee the installation and functioning of the recording equipments.

Statistician: The service of an Assistant Professor of Statistics from University of Kerala is being utilized for data analysis and interpretation.

Methodology of Monitoring: A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodology is adopted for monitoring. Monitoring forms for each type of monitoring event, as well as data compilation and analysis forms have been developed to be filled in meticulously by the monitors.

The most straightforward and easily understandable data that can be collected are simple quantitative measurements of the amount of media coverage offered to political subjects. For broadcast media, this means measuring with a stop-watch the length of time devoted to stories about each political party or candidate and comparing them. For the Print media it will be space in sq.cms dedicated to each political party or candidate. Furthermore, these data translate into pie charts or other graphic presentations that are easily understood. These charts can show amounts of coverage in numeric form and what percentage of coverage a certain political competitor received in relation to others.

Qualitative measurements assess the tone of the coverage (positive, neutral or negative) and has provisions for content-based analysis that illustrate balance, fairness, accuracy or attempts to manipulate. A five point scale used in the Slovakia Media Monitoring experiment is being adopted for assessing the tone of the coverage. Grades 1 or 2 meant that a subject is presented in a positive light (1 being very positive and 2 being slightly positive). Grade 3 is a neutral mark. It meant that the coverage was unlikely to affect the views of a potential voter either favorably or unfavorably. Grades 4 and 5 meant that a political entity is presented in a negative light (5 being very negative and 4 being slightly negative).

Types of Forms: (Attached as Annexure I)

A typical form will have details like monitor number, outlet and program being monitored, story number and title, story length or size and story summary.

1. Print Media Monitoring forms: The print media forms measure the amount of coverage including photos and cartoons in the front page, inner pages and local pages. It also qualitatively grades the coverage into positive, neutral or negative tones.

2. Television Monitoring forms: The Television media monitoring forms measure the amount of coverage including headlines and story items and qualitatively grades the coverage into positive, neutral or negative tones.

3. Radio Monitoring forms: The Television media monitoring forms measure the amount of coverage including headlines and story items and qualitatively grades the coverage into positive, neutral or negative tones.

Aspects of media performance to monitor include:

• The amount of time or space devoted to each candidate or party (quantitative analysis for each and comparative analysis among and between them) and to government activities (this may allow advantage to a particular candidate or party);

• The way in which candidates and parties are presented (positive, negative or neutral rating);

• When in a news program a particular party or candidate is covered (is one party always the first story in the news?);

• Whether there is an obvious bias by an interviewer or moderator;

• The manner of broadcasting opinion polls

• Whether relevant news stories about certain parties or candidates are omitted by a news outlet; and,

• Whether news stories are substantiated and whether opinion is presented as news.

Classification of Media in for monitoring purposes:

As there are more than 10 Malayalam channels which are telecasting News and Current affairs programmes, the channels have been classified into three categories for sampling of programmes:

1. News Channels

2. General Entertainment channels with News content &

3. Local Cable network

News papers have been classified into following categories:

1. English dailies

2. Malayalam dailies with more than 5 lakh circulation

3. Malayalam dailies having circulation between 1-5 lakh

4. Others including Mid day/evening/local dailies

Functioning of MCMC:

The MCMC will meet everyday at an appointed time and will go through all the forms filled by the monitors, which are duly scrutinized by the team leaders. Suspicious findings will be brought to the notice of the committee by the team leaders and the committee will examine the originals (News papers/Periodicals/recordings) if required. The Committee will then make the daily report on each candidate and forward the same to RO, DEO and EO. The Committee will also scrutinize the advertisements and certify them for publication or broadcast.

Record Keeping:

In addition to keeping logs of monitor activities, a good monitoring project should keep meticulous records of all relevant materials. These materials should be kept in an organized and secure manner on designated storage shelves or cabinets. The project’s records should include the following materials:

• Labeled copies of all television programs organized by time and date and news outlet;

• Labeled copies of all of radio programs organized by time and date and news outlet;

• Copies of all monitored newspapers organized by publication and date;

• Copies of all forms turned in by monitors filed separately by date and news outlet;

• Copies of all other forms used for tabulation and collation of monitoring results organized by date and news outlet;

• Copies of all brochures, press releases, reports and other materials released

• Records of all media coverage (newspaper clippings, audio and video tapes) of the monitoring project.