ELECTION 2004: MONITORING OF TV COVERAGE

 

RATIONALE

The 2004 General Elections began with the NDA Government releasing ads with the slogans ‘India Shining' and speaking of the ‘feel good factor’. It asked the public for a renewed mandate on its positive economic/development record. It also fought this election on a personality plank: Atal Behari Vajpayee versus Sonia Gandhi. These became the focus of the 2004 election campaign for both the Government and the main Opposition parties.

For the first time, a general election campaign was covered so extensively manner across multiple 24-hour TV news channels: live campaign coverage, live public and political debates from around the country, opinion polls, exit polls, leader profiles, satirical sketches, etc. Given this extensive TV coverage, Election 2004 has been termed the first ‘live’ TV election in the country. Some have gone so far as to say these elections were contested on TV rather than on the ground. Also, for the first time, political parties such as the BJP and Congress set up TV news monitoring cells to track the coverage.

Since 1998, VIEWERS’ FORUM AND CENTRE FOR ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH (CFAR) have monitored election coverage of the electronic media. The findings indicate that TV news channels have played a major role in mediating between the voters, the political parties and the electoral process. In 1998, TV played a crucial part in encouraging citizens to vote; in 1999, TV coverage of the elections emphasized the need for ‘stability’ and a clear mandate to ensure that the government lasted five years -- the NDA received a comfortable majority and governed for its full term.

SCOPE
In view of the number of 24-hour news channels and the importance given to electronic media coverage, VIEWERS' FORUM AND CFAR felt it important to monitor TV news coverage of Election 2004. The aim was to examine:
· The parameters within which TV channels framed the issues thrown up during the campaign
· The coverage of issues directly concerning voters
· The focus of the coverage: was it on human development issues or was it more about personalities?
· How far the TV channels were balanced in their coverage of issues, parties, personalities, etc.

ROLE OF VIEWERS’ FORUM
The Viewers' Forum is an audience collective and community-centred initiative. The objectives of Viewers’ Forum are to create a forum where consumers, media advocates, policy makers, media planners, sponsors, broadcasters and TV producers can meet and exchange viewpoints; to inform and improve the quality of consumer participation in the on-going public discourse on the media, especially television, and to empower viewers so that they can play a role in helping to shape the media they consume.

This media monitoring study of Election 2004 was conducted on a daily and week-to-week basis. A dozen women representing a cross-section of voters - middle class housewives, basti-dwellers, physically challenged – have helped conduct the study.
SAMPLE

The monitoring study covers a two-month period from March 8 to May 7, 2004.
This current report summarises findings based on data processed for the first 6 weeks (March 8 to April 16, 2004). It covers the period between the beginning of the campaign and the first phase of polling on April 20, 2004.

1) Period:

8th March 2004 - 12th March 2004	Week 1
15th March 2004 - 19th March 2004	Week 2
22nd March 2004 - 26th March 2004	Week 3
29th March 2004 - 2nd April 2004	Week 4
5th April 2004 - 9th April 2004	Week 5
12ThApril 2004 - 16th April 2004	Week 6

2) Channels:
The top private, satellite 24-hour news channels in the North and DD News.
Aaj Tak, DD News, NDTV 24X7 (only English channel), NDTV INDIA, Star News, Zee News

3) Bulletins monitored:
Total of 579 news bulletins were monitored over 6 weeks
Spread of Bulletins:
Weekdays: 4 major bulletins on each channel, Mon-Fri.
Timing: Between 11.00 and 21.30

(Bulletins were monitored for 30 minutes, beginning on the hour. With the election coverage attracting considerable advertising, actual period of news bulletins varied. Commercial breaks per half-hour were between 6-9 minutes. Aaj Tak registered the longest commercial breaks- sometimes at 10 minutes per half-hour.)

KEY FINDINGS

The data show very clearly that during the first six weeks, TV news coverage of Election 2004 was dominated by personalities. Issues – national and development -- received very poor coverage. On television this election was not about India Shining or dimming, it was about L.K. Advani’s Uday Yatra, Sonia Gandhi’s Road show, star personalities, personal attacks on politicians and controversies such as the TV ad campaigns, opinion and exit polls, Bofors, the sari stampede in Lucknow, and electoral irregularities. Substantive issues such as poverty, health, agriculture, education, employment were hardly in the picture.

All TV channels projected the BJP, giving it almost double the coverage than the Congress. Other political parties barely enjoyed any visibility. The post election scenario has seen regional parties and their leaders – the DMK, RJD, NCP and the Communist parties - take centre stage. In TV coverage of the campaign, these parties are by and large ignored.

Leading personalities of the BJP and Congress were the focus of the coverage. L.K.Advani, Sonia Gandhi and A.B.Vajpayee received highest visibility with Advani receiving double the coverage of the other two.

Representation of the public in terms of being interviewed/quoted was poor. Of the total sound bytes (2832) monitored, civil society accounted for only 10%. These were largely members of the public who were interfaced with candidates, spoken to during Uday Yatra, controversies like the J&K Property Bill, the sari stamped in Lucknow.

Therefore, during the first 6 weeks, TV news coverage of Election 2004 was highly selective and imbalanced in terms of issues, political parties and personalities, representation of public.

Other Highlights
· Election coverage dominated the 6 weeks monitored – 50% and more each week with a gradual increase in the two weeks 5 April –16 April.
· Variations in coverage across channels – Star News and Aaj Tak had the highest coverage, NDTV 24×7 lowest.
· Selective and intensive coverage across channels. Top five election categories account for 85% of coverage.
· Electoral procedures and the campaigns of major national leaders received most coverage.
· Party polemics was largely between BJP and Congress. Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin, personal attacks, India Shining, Scams dominated political discourse in the coverage.
· Human Development and National Issues receive negligible coverage.
· Post-election analysis has suggested that these elections were about state issues and the anti-incumbency factor in the states. However, regional issues had poor visibility.
FINDINGS

I) Election stories accounted for 50 per cent, and in some weeks going even up to 68%, of the news coverage monitored in each of the six weeks.

Percentage of Election Stories out of total number of stories in six weeks:

WEEK	Total stories	Total election stories	% of election stories
Week1 (8-12 Mar)	937	523	56
Week 2 (15-19 Mar)	982	485	49
Week 3 (22-26 Mar)	804	434	54
Week 4 (29Mar-2Apr)	990	524	53
Week 5 (5Apr-9Apr)	978	663	68
Week 6(12 Apr-16Apr)	1008	585	58

Week 2- The drop in proportion of election stories may be attributed to the ODI cricket series between India and Pakistan.

Week 5- The campaign was at its peek, and in full swing. Additionally there were several election related developments- the controversy over airing political ads and opinion polls, Sonia Gandhi and Bofors, Ayodhya, the release of NDA, Samajwadi Party manifestos and a Congress Vision Document.
A comparison with CFAR studies of General Election 1999 found that TV news channels for the same period had also devoted approximately 55% of bulletin time to the elections. Thus, there has been no significant rise in the proportion of coverage since the last election – though live, real time coverage has increased.

II) Across the channels, of the total number of stories, election stories accounted for more than 50% of the news coverage, with the exception of NDTV 24x7.

Election Coverage by Channel:

Channel	Total number of stories	No. of election stories	%
STAR NEWS	925	612	66%
AAJ TAK	736	454	61.7%
NDTV INDIA	1027	632	61.5%
DD NEWS	1072	567	52.9%
ZEE NEWS	879	464	52.8%
NDTV 24X7	1064	485	45.6%

It may be noted that channels such as DD News and NDTV 24x7 which had a higher number of stories in their bulletins had relatively lower election coverag

Week 6- The last week before Phase I of voting. Stories centred largely around filing of nominations, high pitch campaigning by candidates. This week was also the period of the sari stampede in Lucknow (12thApril) and the Supreme Court ruling on Political Advertising.
whereas channels such as Aaj Tak and Star News with lower overall number of stories, had higher election coverage.

Channel-wise week highlights On the Hindi news channels - Aaj Tak, NDTV India, Star News, Zee News – election coverage was approximately 60 % for the first 4 weeks and Week 6. DD News and Zee News had a 50:50 ratio of coverage between election and non-election stories in all weeks but Week 5 (67%) Week 5 saw coverage on Star News and Aaj Tak rise to 82 and 81 %, respectively.

III) The monitoring indicates that in terms of stories, the coverage was selective and intensive. Five categories accounted for 85% of the coverage.

The categories are:
1. Campaign Trail L.K.Advani Uday Yatra, Sonia Roadshow, campaign by other politicians
2. Electoral Procedures Nominations, Ticket Distribution, etc
3. Parties- Political/
Organisational processes Inter-party politicking, alliances, people joining parties, defections, etc.
4. Election Commission/
Legal issues regarding elections EC Code, Poll procedure, Security during Elections, Poll violations, Law-Supreme court and High court
5. Personalities Political and other personalities who featured during the campaign

Categories	Number of Stories	%
Campaign Trail	916	29
Electoral Procedures	756	23
Parties- Political/Organisational Processes	508	16
Election Commission/Legal issues regarding elections	354	11
Personalities	180	6

In comparison, other categories received minimal coverage. These are:

6. National Issues Globalization, Liberalization, Privatization and Reforms, Foreign Affairs, Corruption
7. Human Development Women, development-infrastructure-civic amenities, crime/violence and human rights.
8. Religion/ secularism/
communalism Ayodhya, Gujarat, secularism/communalism, fundamentalism and Hindutva
9. Crime & Politics
10. Caste/Minorities

Categories	Number of Stories	%
National Issues	73	2.2
Human Development	80	2.5
Religion/communalism/secularism	41	1
Crime and Politics	22	< 1
Caste/Minoroties	08	< 1

A comparison with the data of the first phase of the 1999 elections shows that religion-communalism-secularism had a higher coverage of upto 6.5%. During this phase the main issue under religion were the issue of Christian minorities, Ayodhya (Ram Mandir) re-visiting the Sikh riots and the issues of Hindutva.
IV) Week-wise breakdown shows highs and lows, in the coverage of categories.

Categories	Total No. of Stories						Total No. Stories
	8-12March	15-19 March	22-26 March	29-2March-April	5- 9 April	12-16 April
	523*	485*	434*	524*	6638*	585*	3214*
Campaign Trail	131	121	143	155	161	205	916
Parties-Political/organizational processes	117	114	77	64	69	67	508
Electoral Procedures	72	112	131	143	185	113	756
EC/Legalities	63	27	28	55	79	102	354
Personalities	29	35	39	25	29	23	180
National Issues	11	07	07	13	32	3	73
Religion/Communalism/Secularism	07	02	03	03	23	3	41
Human Development	03	12	04	06	29	26	80
Caste/Class factor/Minorities	03	01	00	02	1	1	8
Crime and Politics	00	07	05	05	0	5	22
Opinion /Exit poll					28	2	30

* Number of Election Stories in each week
** Number of election stories across six weeks.
Major Categories - Weekly Trends

i) Campaign Trail increases steadily, across the period, particularly from week 3 onwards to week 6.
The increase from the third week is due to coverage of Advani’s Uday Yatra (which had already gained momentum), followed by Vaypayee’s campaigning from Patiala and Rahul Gandhi’s campaign in the 4th week from Amethi. In the 5th week and 6th week it is campaigns of Vaypayee, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi along with others such as Mulayam Singh, Amar Singh, Mayawati, George Fernandes etc., which had picked up.

ii) Political/Organisational Processes show a high in the first two weeks but drop in the remaining weeks.
The reason being that these two weeks BJP and Congress were involved in party polemics over India Shining (Week 1) and Sonia Gandhi’s leadership and foreign origin (Week 2).

iii) Electoral Procedures are high from week 2 to week 6 with highest in week 5.
In week 2 and week 3 it is due to announcement by the different parties of their candidates and star personalities (Govinda, Hema Malini, Dharmender, Bhupen Hazarika) getting their party tickets. In week 4 it is mainly due to Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Amethi. In week 5 it was due to filing of nominations by Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Laloo Yadav, Govinda, Sunil Dutt. Also due to release of manifestos by the NDA government and Samajwadi party. In week 6 it was high mainly due to Vajpayee filing his nomination papers from Lucknow.

iv) Election Commission/Legal issues regarding elections was high in week 1, and from week 4 to week 6, when it peaked, with highest in week 6.
In week 1 the reason was the beginning of elections when EC plays a major role. From week 4 it gains momentum mainly because of the controversy over personal attacks on Sonia Gandhi by Vinay Katiyar (BJP), the SC ruling over political ads on TV. Week 6 shows the highest coverage (102 stories) due to the controversy over the sari stampede in Lucknow (on the 12th of April), SC’s ruling on it, and EC order to probe into the tragedy.

v) Personalities were consistent through the week with an increase in number of stories in week 2 and week 3.
This was due to star personalities like Govinda, Hema Malini, Dharmender and Bhupen Hazarika announcing their candidature from respective parties.

IV) In terms of topics of coverage data indicates intensive coverage in 6-8 areas.

High Coverage Topics:

Topics	No. of stories (Total Election stories- 3214)	Time (in minutes)*
Party Campaigns	529	989
Ticket Distribution	307	526
Advani’s Uday Yatra	254	485
Inter Party Politicking	267	470
Filing Nominations	218	407
Election Commission	253	396
Manifestos	132	271
Star Personalities	106	170
Alliance/Coalition	104	162
PR & AD campaign	82	143
Personal Attack on Politicians	61	125
Women's Property Rights**	74	111
Law-SC/High Court	61	98
Sonia's Road Show	55	80
New People Joining	35	55

*Note: These figures are subject to some variation and margin of error.
** The Jammu and Kashmir Permanent Resident [Disqualification] Bill, 2004 was prominent during Week One only.
Topics of Prominence- Week Trends

Party Campaign, Ticket Distribution, Uday Yatra, Inter–party politicking, Election Commission stories were common to all six weeks.

Advani’s Uday Yatra was dominant in the first four weeks. It received less coverage in Weeks 5 & 6 as it progressed

Sonia Gandhi’s road show decreased every week as it came to an end.

Weeks 5 and 6 brought in new topics, which found prominence:
-Corruption/Scam (Bofors) -week 5
- Ayodhya (Release of NDA manifesto) -week 5
-Poll Violations (sari stampede in Lucknow) - week 6
-Opinion Poll (by Channels) – week 5 and 6

In Election 1999: Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins and Electoral Procedures/Election Commission received the highest coverage -10 % each. Political Parties (9%), Crime (8.5%) and Corruption Scams (8%) followed

V) Data shows considerable variation in coverage by different channels:
(Frequency of stories and Time in minutes)

Themes	AAJ TAK		DD		NDTV 24X7		NDTV INDIA		STAR		ZEE
	No.*	min	No.	min	No.	min	No	min	No.	min	No.	min
Manifestos	12	11	31	81	22	32	29	29	58	39	16	28
Advani’s Uday Yatra	26	45	79	188	35	47	42	73	33	52	39	73
Inter Party Politicking	58	110	37	84	35	49	44	74	62	95	30	46
Election Commission	26	50	52	67	42	42	60	79	51	71	36	50
Star Personalities	15	21	10	9	18	22	21	38	26	44	16	19
Sonia's Road Show	03	5	21	37	10	11	09	7	08	11	04	6
PR & AD campaign	13	19	14	24	12	15	17	28	17	29	09	10
Personal Attacks on Politicians	19	52	04	6	07	10	07	12	18	23	07	9
Party campaigns	66	141	109	226	79	117	97	159	77	176	107	161
Ticket Distribution	41	71	48	80	29	30	76	139	71	131	42	66
Alliance/Coalition	15	22	19	34	15	14	25	33	17	22	17	23
Filing Nominations	30	79	32	52	43	88	55	76	29	58	28	52

*Relates to number of stories

· The campaigns of individual politicians dominated all the channels (838 times/1554 minutes, i.e. 30 hrs). DD News registered the highest coverage (209 times/451 minutes) and NDTV 24X7 the lowest (124 times/175 minutes).
· UdayYatra was dominant on DD News (188 minutes). Its coverage was more than double the coverage of NDTV India and Zee News (73 minutes each), three
times more than Star News (52 minutes) and four times the coverage of NDTV 24X7 ( 47 minutes) and Aaj Tak ( 45 minutes).
· Overall, Uday Yatra received six times the coverage of Sonia’s roadshow. DD News gave Sonia’s roadshow the most visibility with 37 minutes – this almost equaled the combined coverage of the other 5 channels. Aaj Tak had the lowest coverage (5 minutes).
· Star personalities received the most coverage on Star News (44 minutes) and NDTV India (38 minutes). DD News had the lowest with 9 minutes.
· Personal attacks on politicians found highest coverage on Aaj Tak (52 minutes) - that was almost double of Star News (23 minutes). The remaining four channels accorded low priority: between 12 minutes (NDTV India) and 6 minutes on DD News.
· Inter-party politicking was high on four channels – Aaj Tak, Star News, DD News, and NDTV India – and low on NDTV 24x7 and Zee News.
· DD News had the highest coverage in five areas – party campaigns, Uday Yatra, manifestos, Sonia’s roadshow and alliances/coalitions
· NDTV 24X7 had lower overall coverage especially for Uday Yatra, Inter party politicking, Election Commission, personal attacks on politicians, party campaigns, ticket distribution and alliances. Zee had low coverage for Inter party politicking.

COVERAGE ON NATIONAL ISSUES AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

With India Shining and the `feel good factor’ kick-starting the elections, this was said to be an election about development and economic prosperity. However, in their news bulletins, TV news channels gave Human Interest themes/subjects little importance.

CHANNEL COVERAGE BY NUMBER OF STORIES (SIX WEEKS)

Channel	Total Election Stories	No. of National issues and Development Stories
Star News	612	33
NDTV 24X7	485	31
NDTV India	632	28
Aaj Tak	454	26
Zee	464	22
DD News	567	15

This represents a mere 5 % of the total election stories.

Trend Across Six Weeks
· In the Week 5 and Week 6 (5-9 April and 12-16 April) human development issues received as much coverage as they had in the first four weeks. This was mainly due to the release of NDA and Samajwadi Party manifestos that mentioned development issues and the Congress Vision Document.
· In week 6 Human and women’s rights gained prominence due to the sari stampede in Lucknow (12 April).
· In National Issues, Bofors and Sonia Gandhi surfaced in Week 5 after a newspaper revived the issue.

Coverage of Human Interest Issues · Development issues were covered mainly as part of party polemics, party manifestos or vision documents, or as examples of misgovernance. · Development was an election campaign slogan - ``vikas’’ – so politicians would speak of ``desh ke vikas’’ in an overall sense. · Local/self governance was the main development issue in the coverage. Other issues covered included poverty, employment, infrastructure, water, agriculture, calamities. · Local self-governance/schemes were part of Vajpayee’s campaign speeches in Patiala and Advani’s Uday Yatra in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In both cases the subject was raised in criticism of Congress rule. In week 5 and 6, this issue was raised in campaign speeches (mainly by Vajpayee) and the release of NDA manifesto in Week 5. · Unemployment/employment received some coverage in Week 1 and 6. In week 1 it was due to the `India Shining’ controversy between BJP and Congress. In Week 6 it recurred in campaign speeches (especially Vajpayee’s). · Poverty found mention in coverage of Congress’ Vision Document. · Starvation received coverage only in connection with Advani’s Uday Yatra in Andhra Pradesh and Vajpayee’s Andhra Pradesh campaign speeches. · Women’s issues received negligible coverage. When they did, it was in a specific context: J&K Permanent Resident [disqualification] Bill, 2004(Week 1) and the sari stampede in Lucknow (Week 6).

 

In 1999, Human Development was the most covered subject - 23%. The issues covered in 1999 and 2004 were almost identical- civic amenities, infrastructure, unemployment, poverty, water, etc. However compared to 2004, in 1999 women issues with reference to poverty, crime and health found greater mention. In 2004, as mentioned above, women’s issue was related to particular events.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND PERSONALITIES

I) The two main national parties- BJP and Congress - dominated the coverage. Coverage of BJP and Congress together, ranged between approximately 50% in Week 5 (April 5-9) to almost 70% in Week 2 (March15-19).
II) The study indicates an overwhelming presence of the top BJP and Congress leaders. In the 6 weeks, the top 6 BJP politicians account for 75% of the sound bytes from BJP leaders. Top 7 Congress leaders account for 63 % of Congress sound bytes.

Leading figures from the parties:

 

BJP TOTAL- 977/2832		CONGRESS TOTAL- 679/2832		OTHER PARTIES TOTAL- 486/2832
Spokesperson	Frequency	Spokesperson	Frequency	Spokesperson/Party	Frequency
L.K. Advani	299	Sonia Gandhi	143	Laloo Yadav (RJD)	37
A.B.Vajpayee	141	Kapil Sibal	130	George Fernandes (JDU)	36
Arun Jaitely	101	Rahul Gandhi	64	Mayawati (BSP)	28
V. Naidu	90	Ambika Soni