"Women have yet to enter to Bahrain’s parliament despite being permitted to run for some years. With its king promoting social and economic change, the media has portrayed positive images of Arab women as professionals against a backdrop of religious conservatism. The communications strategy adopt
...
ed by some women candidates to attain election to parliament and the response of the local media are analysed utilizing content analysis. Despite some variation of coverage, the media in this Persian Gulf country were found to be fair to all women candidates and generally gender-neutral. Although the women candidates who applied a well thought-out communications strategy did better in media coverage and voting results, ultimately none were elected. This article explores the reasons for this failure in terms of Islamist religious interpretations of the role of women and Arab cultural conventions regarding family life. Finally, the authors speculate briefly about the prospects of political communications by women challenging Arab cultural conservatism in the future." (Abstract)
more
The guide includes details about media synergy strategies in which journalists from different media organisations of a country collaborate and network with each other at different stages in the electoral process to ensure responsible and effective coverage of the elections. Media synergy strategies
...
were used in the 2005 and 2010 elections in Burundi and the 2010 election in Guinea.
more
"El ex-alcalde de Bogotá Antanas Mockus y su «ola verde» constituyeron un auténtico caso de ciberactivismo en la campaña presidencial colombiana de 2010. Una ilusión democrática creada en internet convocó a jóvenes y ciudadanos sofisticados a cambiar un país sobre la base de la promesa de
...
legalidad, pero la historia terminó en una tremenda frustración política. Este artículo describe cómo se formó esa ola y qué tácticas de internet y redes sociales se utilizaron y, al mismo tiempo, reflexiona sobre la democracia en tiempos de activismo digital, sin dejar de señalar algunos límites políticos del ciberactivismo." (Resumen)
more
"This paper attempts to show the many challenges faced by the media while covering post-Conflict electoral processes. In a context of great political tension, in which candidates are often former belligerents who have just put down their guns to go to the polls, the media operate in an unsafe and ec
...
onomically damaged environment, suffering from a lack of infrastructure, inadequate equipment and untrained staff. Given those constraints, one might wonder if the media should be considered actual democratic tools in Central Africa or just gimmicks in a “peace-building kit” (including “free and fair” elections, multipartism and freedom of the press) with no real impact on the democratic commitment of the elite or the political participation of the population." (Abstract)
more
"In order to determine whether men and women have equal opportunities to get their messages across through the media, as they are reflected during the election campaign and the importance attributed to gender equality in the news agenda, a series of quantitative and qualitative variables will be pre
...
sented in the following chapters to make possible an objective assessment based on common criteria so that women candidates themselves and the organizations that work on the issue of women’s political participation can design strategies in order to overcome their lack of coverage or the stereotypes that affect them. In addition, these variables have been thought through to help professionals who work in the media to begin to reflect on the causes of this deficit of women in the news, so as to analyse the cultural ‘filters’ they use that are not favourable to gender equality, and to design actions for change geared to more plural and equitable journalism when it comes to gender issues." (Page 12)
more
"[...] La percepción ciudadana a la política depende en gran medida del enfoque, del lenguaje y del ángulo de cámara que le da el periodismo. Sin embargo, estamos viviendo un desgaste preocupante de la política y de lo político. Con este manual para periodistas nos unimos a los esfuerzos que h
...
an realizado los Tribunales Electorales en la región centroamericana. Con entusiasmo están convocando cada vez más a la ciudadanía mediante programas de formación política a la vida en democracia. Con el manual la Fundación Konrad Adenauer quiere invitar al periodismo a repasar algunos instrumentos novedosos de cómo cubrir un evento electoral y no aburrirse en el intento, sin que pierdan de vista la responsabilidad de evitar la erosión de nuestras democracias." (Presentación, página 5)
more
"The article focuses on the use of metaphors during the 2007 pre- and post-election violence in Kenya that left at least 1400 people dead and more than 350,000 internally displaced. During and after the violence, vernacular radio stations, though not entirely responsible for the violence, were highl
...
y chastised for constructing and disseminating narratives of hate, using embellished metaphors. This article acknowledges the presence of these metaphors and the ethnicized stereotypical humour they provided before the election. But it is the political tension that provided the context for the deployment of metaphors in a way that framed their meaning and potency of use. Whether these metaphors contributed to fanning ethnic passion cannot be quantitatively assessed. However, their potency was not in themselves, but in the meaning imbued in them; which was as fluid and transient as the context changed. Metaphors, therefore, became substitutes for past ethnic grievances. They served as a rallying cry and a call to arms, not because of the totality of what can be inferred from them, both positive and negative, but their signification of the aspects of difference. It is this difference, which was exploited during the election violence, not because of the metaphors but in spite of them. With the background of the political tension that suffocated the country, metaphors became materials to propagate ethnic identities and a basis for ethnic nomenclature." (Abstract)
more
"In democracies with adjectives, the freedom of press also comes with adjectives." If the political regime is situated between a pure democracy and despotism, the freedom of press is also stuck in an in-between-situation. This statement sums up the results of Marie Soleil Frères empirical analysis
...
of the role of media in reporting the election processes in six central African countries (Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, DRC, Rwanda and Chad) with a long history of violent conflict. By carving out nine major obstacles of the role of media in these elections from the role of the parties' campaign strategies to the dangerous liaison between media and politics, the book describes how and why their role became problematic, and different from the democracy tool kit of international donors. This may not be a new subject, and most of the findings are familiar to readers with an interest in African media. But the empirical rigor and the in-depth analysis of the cases makes the book a good read and a starting point for a new debate on media support in African election processes." (commbox)
more
"Recent elections show that despite the apparent diversity of newspapers and broadcasters, political and economic constraints, as well as restricted access to information prevent the development of independent media in Sub-Saharan Africa that can play a part in enlightening citizens", says the autho
...
r of this policy brief, and concludes: "Donors must pay more attention to local needs and search for ways to strengthen a pluralist media landscape independent of political parties, governments and the international community. Only such a pluralist landscape will enable the media to contribute to realistic opportunities for democratic power alternations rather than allowing an unbalanced electoral game devoted to maintaining the tenure of the same dominant party." (Page 4)
more
"Disclosure laws for politicians exist in over a hundred countries. But can disclosures about politician performance and qualifications influence electoral accountability in settings characterized by weak institutions and less educated populations? In the run-up to elections in Delhi we implemented
...
a field experiment where we provided slum dwellers with newspapers containing report cards with information on candidate qualifications and legislator performance obtained under India’s disclosure laws. We observe striking changes along three dimensions. Access to report cards increased voter turnout, reduced the incidence of cash-based vote buying and caused electoral gains for better performing incumbents. The turnout effects are more pronounced in more competitive jurisdictions and when the incumbent is a worse performer. We also observe significant voter sophistication – voters make comparisons across candidates to overcome political agency problems and reward better performing incumbents." (Abstract)
more
"The problem of post-election violence seems to be ever-more present as complexities of nation-building and democratic development arise. This report deals with some relevant questions. It is based on the outcome of discussions at a December 2008 workshop organized in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [...] Our
...
objective was to examine the role of the media in the aftermath of competitive elections. The workshop provided the opportunity to explore the election experiences of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Somaliland, Tanzania and Sudan in a comparative framework. The focus was on understanding why election violence occurred after some elections, what the role of the media was in either exacerbating or resolving disputes, and what this suggests about the broader political project and the state of the media in the countries under examination." (Executive summary)
more