A two-day training on quantitative and qualitative media reporting techniques was offered to our Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) with the technical assistance of European Center for Electoral Support (ECES).
During election times, Media monitoring can measure the amount of coverage of electoral subjects, the presence or absence of news bias, appropriateness of media access for political competitors and the adequacy of information conveyed to voters through news, direct political messages, public information programming and voter education announcements.
Media monitoring can help demonstrate that political competitors and the public at large should have confidence in the media, electoral authorities and the government that is responsible for providing genuine elections. Shortcomings in media conduct can be identified through monitoring in time for corrective action. Abuse of the mass media’s power to affect voter choices also can be documented, which allows the population and other stakeholders to appropriately characterize the true nature of the electoral process.
As part of its voter education initiative , our MMU has been compiling, analyzing and sharing its press reviews and reports to many key actors involved in the electoral process on a regular basis.
