Critical Analysis of Political Economy of Media in Pakistan s General Elections 2013

Transcription

1 Critical Analysis of Political Economy of Media in Pakistan s General Elections 2013 Muhammad Osama Shafiq, S. W. Rehman Abstract: Political economy of media is the phenomenon of information age. The term political economy emerged from USA. Social scientists debate about the role of media in the society and how the media acts impartially. Somehow media is influenced by the sponsors of the media organizations. Media have to obey their orders because the economy of media depends on them. Media portray the image of society as per desire of the sponsors. This act erodes the impartiality of the media around the globe and there are some serious questions raised by many scientists that impartiality of the media is no more. In the paper we have discussed the political economy of the Electronic media (TV only) during Pakistan s general elections This analysis is based upon the guide line for the media issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan and the political parties media coverage during elections. We can say it is analyses of the rules and regulations and the media practice. It is quite visible that media is unable to obey the regulations, the thing that keeps the media away to obey it, is the political economy of the media. Key Word: TV, Pakistan General Elections 2013, Political Economy, Media and Elections, Private TV Channels, Political Communication, Media and Democracy. 91

2 Journal of Mass Communication, Vol. 9, 2013 The political economy of media has emerged dramatically since the 1960s and is the result of the information age that we are living in. Other than the known functions of media that is to inform, to educate and to entertain; media has become the centre part of the capitalist political economy and marketing system and a source of great profit in their own right. Since 1960s the media s role has been changed from a public representative medium to the profit making medium. Media does not explain everything because the political economy of the media they pick and choose the content and use it for the communication, with the help of such practice media getting power and money simultaneously. The political economists of media believe that the current media system is not neutral. They believe that the media system is one of the results of the policies made in the name of public but without public s consent and these polices just serve some individuals for making more money and for the vested interest. Political economists also believe that the media system and its hierarchy are unable to reflect the functions of media which is the prime responsibility of any media organization. Some concerns were raised in late 1980s when scholars took interest in media economy and performed some focused research work in this particular field. Some early examples are Compaine s Who Own the Media? (1979) and text books by Robert Picard Media Economics (1989), Allison Alexander et al. (1993), Alan Albarron (1996), (1998) and Gillian Doyle s Media Ownership (2002). In 1988 the Journal of Media Economics was introduced with the theme of to broaden understanding and discussion of the impact of the economics and financial activities on media operations and managerial decisions. (Janet Wasko, 2011) Media in information age: In the information age the media s role is more vital in every aspect of life. Media impacts everything from culture to politics. Although the role of media is debatable about what is right and 92

3 Muhammad Osama Shafiq & Waheed ur Rehman: Critical Analysis of Political.. what is wrong in the media business, but we are focused on, the impact of media on the society and the impact of political economy on media. It means that media is dependent on the economy and the powers that fund the media in the form of sponsors or by some other means are responsible to make the policies of the media indirectly. The same underlying power sources that own the media and fund them as advertisers that serve as primary definers of the news, and that produce flak and proper-thinking experts, also, play a key role in fixing basic principles and the dominant ideologies. (Chomskey, 2010, p. xi) Chomsky pointed the fact with in the US media, the media that is labeled as more reliable, more democratic and more liberal but the inner fact is, it is also controlled by some powers. Who got ultimate power how, when and what content to be broadcast. It means that the editorial control is nothing just to obey the instructions. The new role of media has become more dominant and the news and information flow getting impartial. (Chomskey, 2010, p. xii) These facts also haunt the society even within USA. Over the past generation, it has become increasingly clear to those on the left that the U.S. mass media, far from performing an autonomous and adversarial role in U.S. society, actively frame issues and promote news stories that serve the needs and concerns of the elite. (Chomskey, 2010) Somehow various media organizations have still got some limited autonomy, those individuals and professionals influence the media work, they enforce the policy and give some room to the reporters 93

4 Journal of Mass Communication, Vol. 9, 2013 to ask the questions and accept the viewpoint on merit. The media managers, editors, have to comply the agenda but they give autonomy to find the truth which does not directly conflict to the major stake holders. Some Media scholars think that it is the autonomy of media but it is just a limited autonomy of the media which the editor has got. Editor is still unable to set the goals and agenda. Editor has to follow the agendas with a limited autonomy. The things are getting worst when the high time of media comes up. One of the high time of the media is Elections. Media role in democracy is always important since the media emerged as the fourth pillar of the state. The role of press and media has got prime importance to run the state affairs and for opinion making. Media and the Elections: The political communications influence the attitude and behavior of citizens and affect the quality of political life in established democratic system. (Richard Gunther, 2000, p. 2) Nowadays more than ever before the politicians, governments and the marketing companies try to reach out people through the mass media rather than in person. The information generated through mass media makes a face of such individuals and when they reach out the public directly people have their opinion about them. In the modern world we have evidence that the mass media changed the attitude of political campaign. (Shaw, 2006) As Bernard Berelson discussed in his research about the voting pattern in US elections On any single subject many hear but few listen. (Berelson, 1954, p. 244) He also found that The more media exposure on the campaign, the more political interest and strength of support for the candidate. (Berelson, 1954, pp ) It means the media exposure is directly proportional to the opinion making and on the other worlds more political communication becomes the nation more interested in electoral process. 94

5 Muhammad Osama Shafiq & Waheed ur Rehman: Critical Analysis of Political.. Likewise, the recent rise in the political influence of the media is attributed to the decline in the extent of party affiliation (Chaffee and Hochheimer, 1982) In this study we will focus on the Television and its role in the democracy in Pakistan specially the role of TV in the political communication during the general elections Television in recent world has become the principle source of the political information for the masses. Somehow the role of media in political communication is recognized in the modern world where the age of the media is about more than six decades. In contrast, the electronic media s age is not more than two decades. The private electronic media organizations in Pakistan were established in 2002 after the formation of PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) and since then three general elections were held in Pakistan. Pakistani TV Channels and Elections 2013: General Elections 2013 and the role of electronic media in Pakistan are still in debate. The debate is still going on about the media and role of media in the change of opinion. One of the top slot political party, Pakistan Tahreek Insaf (PTI) blamed media organizations that they did not give the justified coverage to the PTI. Ten general elections were held in Pakistan and the 2013 elections was the tenth election. According to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) till February 2013, they have issued licenses to 89 satellite channels, 34 of them are news channels and 27 actually broadcasting. (Jabbar, 2013, p. 41) The huge Electronic media has never covered any general elections in Pakistan in the past. The huge news media with 27 news channels dedicated maximum air time for the political communication. The Election 95

6 Journal of Mass Communication, Vol. 9, 2013 Commission of Pakistan announced on 20 th March 2013 that the date of Elections will be 11 th May Due to the relatively short time period where the candidates have to file nomination papers, scrutiny and then campaigning, the media s role becomes prominent. Another reason was terrorist attacks and poor law and order situation in some parts of the country, some parties have potential threat so they tried to reach out the voters through media. Elections 2013 is also remembered as the media elections in Pakistan. The political communication was on its peak during April and May On 2 nd April 2013 Election commission of Pakistan also issued 16 points detailed guidelines for the media. The main theme of the guidelines was free and fair media coverage. This guideline was applied on the media organizations, media practitioners, political parties and the candidates. ECP guideline number 2 for media is about Duty of Balance and Impartiality it says Guideline 2: Duty of Balance and Impartiality 2.1. Publicly owned or funded media have a specific mandate requiring fairness and non discrimination in their election reporting and not to discriminate against any political party or candidate. All media houses should follow professional standards and strive for accuracy, balance and impartiality. 2.2 News Media will try to the best of its ability that, news and current affairs, interviews, talk shows, analyses, and information programs are not biased in favour of, or against, any party or candidate. In particular, media shall encourage journalism of the highest ethical standards in their election coverage and shall 96

7 Muhammad Osama Shafiq & Waheed ur Rehman: Critical Analysis of Political.. a) Try to the best of its ability to avoid all forms of rumour, speculation and disinformation, particularly when these concern specific political parties or candidates, b) Ban all forms of hate speech that can be interpreted as incitement to violence or has the effect of promoting public disorder. 2.3 While it is not always possible to cover all candidates in an election, the media should strive to ensure that all candidates/parties shall be subject to journalistic scrutiny and appropriate media coverage. And the guide line 9 about fair and balanced news coverage says Guideline 9 News Coverage: Fair and Balanced 9.1 All media should also be careful to comply with any obligations of balance and impartiality that the law may place on them. 9.2 The duty of balance requires that parties/candidates receive news coverage commensurate with their relative importance in the election and the extent of their potential electoral support. 9.3 State and private media are urged to keep a clear distinction between editorial/opinion news and paid content. There will not be paid or sponsored news election evaluation analyses and editorial opinion. 9.4 All paid materials media campaigns for elections paid by candidates or their supporters 97

8 Journal of Mass Communication, Vol. 9, 2013 must be clearly shown as Paid advertisements/campaign/content and should be done in a transparent manner in accordance with the code of ethic for elections issued by the ECP. Guideline 10 Direct Access Programs Publicly owned media should grant all political parties/candidates airtime and news space for direct access programs on a fair and nondiscriminatory basis Direct access programs by the state media should be aired at times when the broadcasts are likely to reach the largest audiences. The duty of balance would be deemed to have been breached if the programs of some parties/candidates are aired at less favourable times than those of others Direct access slots should be made available by the private media on equitable financial terms for all parties/candidates. State media should provide all parties/candidates a reasonable amount of time free of charge a party/candidates are to be allowed to purchase airtime/space for political advertisements they should have access to such time/space in a transparent manner in accordance with the Code of Ethics for political Parties. (Pakistan, 2013) With a clear guideline by the Election Commission of Pakistan how the media operate during the Elections 2013 just a brief report of TV Channels as follows 98

9 Muhammad Osama Shafiq & Waheed ur Rehman: Critical Analysis of Political.. Table 1 Time Allocated to the Political Parties during the Prime Time Programming Political Parties PTV ATV ARY News Dawn News Express News Geo News PMLN 23% 18% 15% 28% 31% 25% PTI 17% 23% 18% 16% 17% 21% PPPP 16% 22% 18% 10% 11% 12% MQM 6% 2% 13% 14% 15% 13% APML 6% 10% 8% 7% 6% 7% ANP 6% 3% 4% 10% 5% 6% JI 3% 5% 4% 4% 3% 2% Caretaker Govt 6% 4% 2% 2% 3% 2% PMLQ 5% 2% 3% 2% 2% 3% JUIF 3% 3% 2% 1% 1% 2% OTHER 8% 7% 14% 5% 6% 6% PTV ATV ARY News Dawn News Express News 21% 24% 17% 16% 27% 17% 17% 19% 16% 16% 14% 9% 11% 13% 11% 14% 6% 4% 2% 3% 7% 12% 8% 12% 12% 5% 3% 3% 1% 3% 4% 5% 17% 22% 16% 3% 5% 9% 10% 6% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 3% 3% 2% 1% 1% 1% 2% 3% 2% 1% 8% 12% 5% 3% 2% 99

10 Journal of Mass Communication, Vol. 9, 2013 PTV ATV ARY News Dawn News Express News 26% 69% 27% 25% 48% 24% 0% 24% 14% 16% 4% 15% 18% 27% 12% 5% 9% 7% 10% 10% 2% 4% 2% 9% 2% 23% 0% 1% 1% 3% 1% 0% 1% 3% 3% 0% 0% 5% 0% 0% 0% 3% 2% 5% 1% 0% 0% 5% 2% 1% 8% 0% 2% 1% 2% 6% 0% 5% 3% 3% (European Union Election observation mission, 2013) This is a fact sheet of the political parties media coverage during elections The tables 1, 2 and 3 show the percentage of the television coverage in the leading television channels. According to the political parties statements submitted in the election commission of Pakistan Pakistan Threek Insaf (PTI) paid about Rs410 million for advertising and marketing expenses; Rs235 million for public events expenses; Rs24 million in salaries; Rs11 million for entertainment; and Rs53 million for printing and stationery. (Khan Z. G., 2013) Another leading political party Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif group (PMLN) spent Rs560 million in the general elections in Pakistan People s Party (PPP) spent Rs232 million in general elections. (Khan Z. G., 2013). This is the situation in terms of media coverage and the budget of elections by the leading political parties in Pakistan. 100

11 Conclusion: Muhammad Osama Shafiq & Waheed ur Rehman: Critical Analysis of Political.. As per guidelines of Election Commission of Pakistan media should be impartial during the election campaign. Guide line 10.1 says publicly owned media should grant fair and non discriminatory coverage to all political parties. Table no 1 shows that there is visible unbalanced media coverage during the prime time programs. Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz got maximum media coverage even in the state owned PTV, similarly Dawn News and Express News gave 28% and 31% time to PMLN during primetime programming. Former ruling party Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got 16% on PTV, 10% on Dawn News and 11% on Express News in the primetime programming. Third major party Pakistan Threek Insaf (PTI) got 17% on PTV, 16% on Dawn News and 17% on Express News. This shows the participation in the prime time programming was not fair. We particularly discuss the prime time programming because with the help of talk shows political parties reach out to the masses and convey the message effectively. It is more effective way to reach out masses without spending money like on advertisements. Secondly it is not on the bases of political activities like news coverage, where the table no 2 show that the news coverage of political parties, in that segment any one could argue that TV channels cover the events only, if any party has done more political activities so it deserves more coverage accordingly. In the programming segment, TV channels were bond to give fair chance to all political parties as per directives of Election Commission; we are just analyzing the top three political parties because somehow it seems unfair to compare all the political parties with same scale. On the other hand when we see the money spent in the elections 2013 according to the statement submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan; PMLN spent Rs 560 Million, PTI spend Rs 410 Million and PPP spend Rs 232 Million. As we know in the general elections 2013, all major political parties spent a handsome amount of money on media so now you can see the results. The party who spent more got more media coverage and the party who spent less got less media coverage. This is not only the violation of election 101

12 Journal of Mass Communication, Vol. 9, 2013 commissions guide line but also the violation of media ethics. We could analyze the money speaks on the media and the people become judgmental on behalf of media and media is regulated by the money that is the political economy of media. 102

13 Muhammad Osama Shafiq & Waheed ur Rehman: Critical Analysis of Political.. References: Berelson, B. (1954). Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. Chomsky, E. S. (2010). Manufacturing Consent, The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books. European Union Election observation mission. (2013). Islamabad: European Union Election observation mission. Jabbar, N. A. (2013). Report and Recommendations of The Media Commission. Islamabad: Friedrich Ebert Shiftung. Janet Wasko, G. M. (2011). The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications. Oxford: Wiley-BlackWell. Khan, Z. G. (2013, December 27). Talking money: PTI cash dwarfs rivals in campaign splurge. The Express Tribune. Pakistan, E. C. (2013, April 2). Election Commission of Pakistan approved Media Guide Lines for Elections Election Commission of Pakistan approved Media Guide Lines for Elections Islamabad, Pakistan: Election Commission of Pakistan. Richard Gunther, A. M. (2000). Democracy and the Media: A Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shaw, M. E. (2006). The Agenda Setting Functions of Mass Media. In D. McQuail, Audiencesand effect of Mass Communication (pp ). California: Sage Publications Ltd. 103