OBJECTIVITY OF PRESS COVERAGE ON THE FIRST DISTRICT COUNCIL ELECTIONS OF THE HKSAR

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1 OBJECTIVITY OF PRESS COVERAGE ON THE FIRST DISTRICT COUNCIL ELECTIONS OF THE HKSAR Winnie Y. M. Shiu A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Communication Supervisor: Mr. Y. M. To School of Communication Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong August 2000

2 Acknowledgement This dissertation was carried out by myself under the supervision of Mr. Y. M. To. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. To for his continuous guidance and advice. Special thanks have to be made to Dr. Clement So, Chinese University of Hong Kong as well who has generously provided me relevant information for my reference. Winnie Y. M. Shiu M.A. in Communication School of Communication Hong Kong Baptist University 27 August 2000

3 Abstract This project is conducted with the objective to evaluate the extent to which the press was objective in covering the 1999 District Council elections, with particular focus on the balance and neutrality of the press. Three newspapers, including Apple Daily, Ming Pao and Wen Wei Po were selected for study; representing papers from the mass circulation, elite and pro-china groups respectively. Story coverage, headline coverage, photo coverage and tone coverage of the three papers were measured to provide a comprehensive picture of their performance so as to determine if the hypothesis holds. The findings support the hypothesis which states that the three papers would show varying degrees of fairness measured in terms of quantity and bias. Performing the role of a propaganda tool, Wen Wei Po performs the worst in the area of tone coverage as the paper attacks the democratic camp while highly praises the pro-china parties/candidates all the time.

4 Table of Contents 1. Introduction Literature Review Media Performance. 2.2 The Objectivity Concept. -- The Rise of Objectivity The Critique of Objectivity. -- Definition of Objectivity. 2.3 Structure of the Hong Kong Press Research on Media Performance 3. Hypothesis Methodology Measuring Instruments 4.2 Press Sample Period for Study.. 5. Findings Story Coverage Headline Coverage Photo Coverage Tone Coverage Discussion Limitation Small Sample Size Insufficiency of the Measuring Instruments Story Amount Fairness Index.. -- Photo Amount Fairness Index. -- Tone Amount Fairness Index Involvement of Subjectivity in Tone Coverage Analysis Conclusion 44 References

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6 1. INTRODUCTION The Western model of journalism emphasizes values such as, freedom, justice / equality and order / solidarity which are basic principles used to assess media performance. Despite many reforms in the history of Western journalism, professionalism and the cult of objectivity have remained as two defining characteristics (Schiller, 1979; Schudson, 1978). A Hong Kong study in 1990 also showed that nearly all Hong Kong journalists (95 percent) considered objective reporting and rapid dissemination of information important (Chan et al., 1996:88-9). However, in practice, it is not uncommon to find cases in which the Hong Kong press violates the basic principles, resulting in bias, inclusion of opinion when reporting facts, imbalance in presenting different points of views and others. Such occurrences can partly be attributed to the market-oriented operation of the press. Equally important, of course, will be the factor of ideological bias which is commonly reflected in the coverage of political news. According to So and Chau, political communication studies in Hong Kong in the past few decades indicated that for issues that have a political overtone, an ideological factor or press partisanship played a central role in explaining the differences among newspapers (Y. M. So & M. Chan, 1999). Take the coverage of elections as an example, it is noticed that pro-china papers tend to have more coverage on pro-china groups and very often report in a favourable tone. Such selection and reporting of stories based on one s political ideology indicate that norms of objectivity and balance are not held by editors and reporters. There has been various studies of press performance concerning Legco elections since 1985 (C. Chan, 1992; K. C. Chan, 1993; Y. L. Lee, 1987; E. Wong, 1993). However, there are very few studies on local council elections. Therefore, taking the chance that the first District Council elections of the SAR is just over, and the fact that the large number of candidates and constituencies all make a record as compared to past elections, it is worthwhile to conduct a study on how the press reported the 1999 District Council elections. Page 1

7 Though the Electoral Affairs Commission has asked the print media to give fair and equal treatment and coverage to all candidates of the same constituency, taking into consideration the following factors, including a vast number of 390 constituencies and 798 candidates, the limitation of column space and staff resources of the print media, the political ideology of the press and the lessening degree of public concern with elections on a district level; the journalistic norms of objectivity, balance and neutrality may even be more difficult to uphold. Besides, as reported by the Electoral Affairs Commission, the issue of factualness in reporting has not been a problem. Instead, in past studies of press performance concerning elections, it is common to find that some press performs not satisfactorily in the area of objectivity. Therefore, the current study will focus particularly on the issue of objectivity to determine if the press is evenhanded and neutral in the treatment of candidates for the major political parties. To conclude, this study is conducted with the objective to evaluate the extent to which the press was objective in covering the 1999 District Council elections. Did particular newspapers favor certain political parties or candidates in their coverage? If so, how serious was the bias? 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Media Performance Ideas of how media ought to, or are expected to operate are dealt with by normative theory. While each national society is likely to have its own more or less distinctive and differentiated version of normative media theory, some general principles of media performance can still be identified (McQuail, 1994). In his book of Mass Communication Theory, McQuail mentioned that when the Commission on the Freedom of the Press in the United States reported in 1947, the commission not only reaffirmed the principle of freedom but added to it the notion of social responsibility, which the press was called upon to accept, in recognition of its essential role in political and social life (McQuail, 1994). Page 2

8 The report criticized sensationalism and the mixing of news with editorial opinion. In general, it supported the concept that news media should be truthful, accurate, fair, objective and relevant as well as the idea that media should follow agreed codes of ethics and professional standards (McQuail, 1994). Actually, there are many different codes of ethical conduct. Most codes concentrate on matters to do with the provision of reliable information and on avoiding distortion, suppression, bias, sensationalism and the invasion of privacy (McQuail, 1994). Besides, McQuail outlined the most commonly accepted normative ideas concerning what the media ought to do or not do in the public interest. Among the ideas were media freedom; media equality; media diversity; information quality; social order and solidarity; and cultural order (McQuail, 1994). Looking at the idea of information quality, the most central concept in relation to it has been that of objectivity. Objectivity is a particular form of media practice and also a particular attitude to the task of information collection, processing and dissemination. The main features are adopting a position of detachment and neutrality towards the object of reporting (thus an absence of subjectivity or personal involvement); lack of partisanship (not taking sides in matters of dispute or showing bias); attachment to accuracy and other truth criteria (such as relevance and completeness); and lack of ulterior motive or service to a third party (McQuail, 1994). Though there is no universal consensus on standards of media performance, objectivity is surely one of the principles that is highly desirable as any news distortion or bias will prevent the public from knowing the reality. 2.2 The Objectivity Concept Page 3

9 The Rise of Objectivity Most historical accounts of the rise of objectivity point to the emergence of the penny press in the 1830s as the most significantly formative development in its initial phrase. It was during this decade that the expensive, partisan newspapers began to lose ground to the penny press a press much more closely aligned with commercial imperatives setting out to serve an expanding reading public instead of the dominant economic class (Bromley & O Malley, 1997). The penny press successfully claimed to speak for the public as a whole, giving all citizens an equal access to knowledge and direct personal knowledge of impartially presented news (McNair, 1996). It thus began to reflect a marked preference for factual news coverage and an objective provider of information over editorial explanation. The Critique of Objectivity The concept of objectivity was challenged in the 1920s and 1930s. According to Schudson, while objectivity, by the 1930s, was an articulate professional value in journalism, it was one that seemed to disintegrate as soon as it was formulated. It became an ideal in journalism, precisely when the impossibility of overcoming subjectivity in presenting the news was widely accepted and, precisely because subjectivity had come to be regarded as inevitable (Schudson, 1978). Criticism of objectivity can be divided into two broad categories. Firstly, there is the criticism, usually based on empirical research that journalism is biased (McNair, 1996). As Jeffrey Alexander put it, to the degree that the news media was tied to religious, ideological, political or class groupings, it was not free to form and reform public events in a flexible way. Without this flexibility, public opinion became artificial and biased (Alexander, 1981). The underlying assumption of such criticism is that there is a possibility of objective journalism, but that it is Page 4

10 not being realized (McNair, 1996). Another critique asserts that there can in fact be no objectivity. The rationale is the acknowledgement that journalism is not, and never can be, a neutral, value-free presentation of reality (McNair, 1996). As Paul Willis put it, once an item of news had been selected for transmission to the public, there was already bias, some selective principle, some value, quite apart from the way it was presented (Willis, 1971). Roger Fowler shared the view and stated that news was not a natural phenomenon emerging straight from reality, but a product (Fowler, 1991). Richard Hoggart argued that what news practitioners called objective news was in reality a highly selected interpretation of events (Glasgow University Media Group, 1976). News and journalism, in short, are social constructions. The idea is central to the sociology of journalism: news is never a mere recording or reporting of the world out there, but a synthetic value-laden account (McNair, 1996). Every news account should be considered the result of a structured orientation that reflects influences on its production. These influences may include partisan favoritism or political prejudices, but they also include criteria of newsworthiness, the technological characteristics of each news medium, the logistics of news production, budgetary constraints, legal inhibitions, the availability of information from sources and the need to tell stories intelligibly and entertainingly to an intended audience (Hackett, 1984). Though the presentation of news involves subjective selection principle, it does not undermine value of objectivity study. First, it is undeniable that many events happen on the same day and reporting all of them is impossible for all the media. Therefore, there is clearly the necessity to select valuable news to transmit to the public. What seems more important is the criteria the media use to select news items. It is totally unacceptable if favouritism or political prejudice is involved in the selection process. However, if the selection process has been based on professional codes of practice, objectivity journalism is already achieved. Page 5

11 Besides, how the media report the news is equally important. Should there be neutral presentation and no taking sides owing to favouritism or political prejudice occurs, objectivity journalism can be achieved. Therefore, though there are critiques of objectivity, the concept of objectivity is nevertheless valuable. Objectivity study is undoubtedly significant as it is a measure of success of journalism. At the same time, journalism does in fact provide spaces for alternative and oppositional views to be presented. Thus, it is still imperative for journalists to construct news in a methodologically objective manner, i.e. using professionally agreed rules which can minimize the impact of subjectivity on reporting. Definition of Objectivity It is not easy to define objectivity since there has been much controversy about the concept and its usage. It may be desirable to first look at how journalists view objectivity. Boyer conducted a study by seeking statements from editors defining objectivity and constructing a questionnaire to gather their reactions (Boyer, 1981). The results of the study were summed up by McQuail into six main elements about the meaning of objectivity (McQuail, 1992): 1. balance and even-handedness in presenting different sides of an issue; 2. accuracy and realism of reporting; 3. presentation of all main relevant points; 4. separation of facts from opinion, but treating opinion as relevant; 5. minimizing the influence of the writer s own attitude, opinion or involvement; 6. avoiding slant, rancour or devious purpose. Page 6

12 From the above six elements, it is obvious that objectivity does not limit to the lack of personal involvement only, but takes into consideration aspects, like balance and even-handedness in presenting different points of views, etc. Regarding how to measure objectivity, McQuail (1992) had a comprehensive discussion on the matter. According to him, measuring objectivity can be approached from two dimensions, namely news as information and the evaluative dimension of news. For news as information, which is the factual component of objective performance, factualness, accuracy and completeness are deemed to be the three most essential aspects. They are closely inter-related, but the keystone of the three is the first, since accuracy and completeness can only be investigated in news texts once basic facts have been identified. Facts can be considered as self-contained units of information in any account which claims to report on actual events or situations. A fact is clearly different from a subjective opinion or a comment and it should, in principle, be verifiable by reference to reliable sources or to other independent accounts (McQuail, 1992). There are different reasons for investigating factualness, within the scope of objectivity research. One is to check whether the principle of separation of facts from comment is being observed. A second objective is to assess the reliability of reporting, given the importance of accuracy in the journalistic norm. Thirdly, degree of factualness is also a general indication of the degree of informativeness, according to the definition of information as uncertainty reduction. Thus, the more facts, the less uncertainty (McQuail, 1992). Other elements of factualness include information value, readability and checkability (McQuail, 1992). Concerning the evaluative dimension of news, that is, news as values, Page 7

13 McQuail (1992) pointed out that all news information was bound to be an expression, reflection and outcome of values as well as a recital of facts, although the two varied a good deal. In general, news is values for three main reasons: 1. The sources of news are usually pursuing some value goal of their own; 2. The media and news producers are also influenced by their values; 3. The audience for whom news is produced and selected, not only looks for information, but also needs to make sense of the world in evaluative terms. According to McQuail, the evaluative dimension of news is more pervasive, enduring and powerful than the cognitive aspect. Measuring objectivity in the evaluative dimension of news has been guided by the notion of impartiality. The idea of impartiality is a complex mixture of elements. It can be dealt with under two main headings: balance and neutral presentation. The balance component of the impartiality concept refers mainly to matters of selection or omission in respect either of facts which may imply values or of expressions of points of view on the supposed facts by the parties involved. The requirements of balanced reporting can be taken to require either equal attention to the main protagonists, e.g. all contending political parties in an election campaign are given appropriate access to the audience; all relevant parties have been sought for comments in response to a new policy; or attention proportionate to the varying significance of the actor s involvement in an event, e.g. the amount of news coverage on each political party should be in proportion to the number of candidates representing that party. Impartiality, in the sense of balance, calls for even-handed allocation in Page 8

14 texts as between the relevant sides, actors or interests. Also relevant to balance is the topics of news with which actors are associated, especially where negative or positive value is implied. In essence, the model relies on the assumption that facts are given meaning and thus an implied evaluative direction (positive, neutral, negative). To conclude, balance in news reporting means the overall balance of attention to relevant objects, plus any excess of positive over negative indicators of evaluation, or vice versa. Another component of the impartiality concept, neutral presentation, refers to the requirement that reporting be dispassionate, cool, restrained and careful in order to be objective. Hence, all forms of sensationalism, which can be a high degree of personalization, emotionalism and dramatization in content; use of loaded words; or color in presentation in the forms of stereotypes, juxaposition and linkages are departures from neutrality and objectivity. As according to Westerstahl, neutral presentation implies that the report not be composed in such a way that the reporter is shown to identify with, or repudiate the subject of the report (1983), it thus applies only to pure news reports and not to commentary, where taking sides is permissible. Applying to the context of election reportage, the criteria of balance and neutral presentation seem especially important and desirable. 2.3 Structure of the Hong Kong Press Political ideology has been an important determinant of the Hong Kong press. Chan (1981) divided the Hong Kong newspapers into the leftist, centrist and the rightist. The leftist papers were pro-ccp ones as represented by the Ta Page 9

15 Kung Pao, the Wen Wei Po, the New Evening Post and the Hong Kong Commercial Daily. These papers served as mouthpieces for the CCP. The centrist papers, represented by the Sing Pao Daily News, the Ming Pao Daily News, and the South China Morning Post, were usually pro-hong Kong government, supporting social stability and prosperity. The rightist papers supported the KMT and were represented by the Hong Kong Times, the Kung Sheung Daily News and the Sing Tao Jih Pao (later Sing Tao Daily). However, to fully understand the nature of the Hong Kong press, merely focusing on the political dimension is not enough. Commercial criteria should also be taken into consideration. So (1982) proposed four types of newspapers in Hong Kong: (1) leftist-political (e.g. the Wen Wei Po and the Ta Kung Pao); (2) rightist-political (the Hong Kong Times and the Kung Sheung Daily News); (3) popular-commercial (the Tin Tin Daily News and the Sing Pao Daily News); and (4) elite-commercial (the Ming Pao Daily News and the Wah Kiu Yat Pao). The division of the centrist press into the popular/mass and elite/quality papers makes the typology more refined and recognizes the importance of the target audience. This classification was valid until the early 1990s. After the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the long transition period beginning in 1984 greatly affected the local news media scene. The pro-taiwan press gradually declined with the folding of the Hong Kong Times in 1993; the retreat of the Hong Kong United Daily and the China Times Magazine from Hong Kong in late 1995 and 1996 respectively; the cease of operation of the Wah Kiu Yat Pao in 1995 and the moving of the Sing Tao Jih Pao closer to the centrist press (Y. K. So & M. Chan, 1999). The traditional leftist-centrist-rightist continuum lost its relevancy. Instead, the press began to reflect Hong Kong s internal dynamics and contradictions, which were increasingly distinguished by either a pro-hong Kong or pro-china stance (Y. K. So & M. Chan, 1999). For the pro-china press, represented by Page 10

16 the traditional leftist papers, they remained relatively stable in number and position. The pro-china camp comprised the two flagships, the Wen Wei Po and the Ta Kung Pao, together with the Hong Kong Commercial Daily. While these papers also covered local affairs, their primary focus was to report and interpret China s views. From the 1990s onwards, the centrist papers became pro-hong Kong papers with two sub-types: the conservative and the liberal (Y. K. So & M. Chan, 1999). Traditionally, the centrist press referred to those papers not taking a clear position on the CCP-KMT strife. They remained more or less neutral on the issues of Chinese politics and focused mainly on making profits. Even when local issues were involved, they tried to avoid clashes with the Hong Kong government. Many of these newspapers, especially the popular press, still maintain that position. However, the rise of the Apple Daily represents a new type of centrist paper which distinguishes itself from the conservative commercial papers by a sharp local stance and critical attitude towards China. In sum, the decline of the rightist papers and the evolution of the centrist papers have made the leftist-centrist-rightist classification obsolete. From the 1990s onwards, the conceptualization of the political dimension in the Hong Kong press has been replaced by a pro-china and pro-hong Kong paradigm. The commercial dimension remains relevant. When this is considered as well, pro-hong Kong papers can be further divided into two types. According to Lee & Chu (1998), existing papers can be classified into three main categories, namely mass, elite and pro-china papers. Both mass and elite papers are profit-making but they have clearly different target readers and readership sizes. The political/pro-china papers, though having to consider basic economic survival, their primary goal are not to make a profit but to serve as mouthpieces for the Beijing government. 2.4 Research on Media Performance Research on political communication in Hong Kong did not really start until Page 11

17 the 1970s and has so far focused on the newspapers, not the electronic media (Y. K. So & M. Chan, 1999). According to Y. K. So (Y. K. So & M. Chan, 1999), early studies focused on patterns in press coverage, compared to the political ideologies of various newspapers. J. Chan (1981) studied journalistic paradigms on social protest by using the case of the Jubilee School Affair. Y. L. Lee (1981) examined how the partisanship of Hong Kong newspapers affected their social role and ways of handling news by using the 1967 riot in Hong Kong as the case study. The results of both studies indicated that the use of political factor successfully accounted for the performance of the press. The leftist papers took an anti-hong Kong government stance and supported the Chinese government, whereas the rightist papers employed an opposite strategy and supported the KMT. For centrist papers, they usually took a neutral stance and supported social stability and prosperity. There has been various studies of press performance concerning Legco elections since In the study of Y. L. Lee (1987), she proposed a photographic theory of newsmaking in analyzing reportage of the first Legco elections by the press, with particular focus on the newsmaking and framing process. Four lenses the political lens, the economic lens, the structural lens and the professional lens were used. The political lens refers to how journalists exercise news judgements from the political standpoint of their news organizations. The economic lens refers to how journalists make news decisions by evaluating the financial costs and benefits for their news organizations. The structural lens refers to how the job is done in relation to various organizational constraints in terms of personnel, news space, time pressure and news source. Finally, the professional lens refers to the news profession s standards and practice. Results of the study revealed that the nature of the press did affect the strength of the lenses in the case of a political election. The strengths of the four lenses for the leftist papers were in the following order: political lens > economic lens > structural lens > professional lens. For the rightist papers, news decisions were made according to the following priority: structural lens > political lens. Economic lens and professional lens were totally insignificant. Page 12

18 In the elite-commercial papers, journalists judgements were influenced in the following order: economic lens > professional lens > political lens > structural lens. Finally, for the popular-commercial papers, the order of importance for the various lenses were: economic lens > structural lens > political lens, with the professional lens of minimal significance. In the study of C. Chan (1992), she investigated whether the press was impartial in its coverage of the 1991 Legco election, in terms of the amount of news, news display and content of favourability. Using politics as the sole independent variable, research results showed that the two political papers, the leftist Wen Wei Po and the rightist Hong Kong Times, were ranked somewhere in between the two extremes in terms of impartiality. Instead, some centrist papers (Hong Kong Daily News) were very impartial but others were not (Ming Pao, Oriental Daily News and Sing Tao Daily). Also focusing on the 1991 election, E. Wong (1993) and K. C. Chan (1993) both found similar results, i.e. commercial papers portrayed pro-democracy candidates more favourably than pro-china candidates and remained neutral towards independent candidates. By contrast, pro-beijing papers were more favourable to pro-china candidates and were negative towards pro-democracy and pro-taiwan candidates. For pro-taiwan papers, they tended to cover all candidates in a positive tone except pro-beijing candidates. K. C. Chan (1993) also made a conclusion that for commercial papers, such bias was more often owing to an individual reporter s political stance, while for political papers, bias was almost the result of the organizations policies. The 1998 Legco election taking place after the transfer of sovereignty proved a good case study for many political communication researchers whom would like to see if the principle of one country, two systems would work in Hong Kong. Among the many studies were those focusing on media coverage of the election, mainly to test whether the shift of political power towards China would result in greater amount of coverage given to pro-china candidates and political parties. Page 13

19 The study of Y. M. Nip and Y. M. To (1999) evaluated television news about the 1998 election. They concluded that there was no evidence that the handover s effects had been reflected in the balance of election reporting, with more coverage of pro-china groups nor was there evidence that pro-democracy groups enjoyed greater coverage. However, in terms of neutrality, the largest pro-democracy group, the DP, seemed to enjoy consistent advantage over the DAB in having more positive and less negative coverage. Besides, the television news coverage succeeded only in a very limited way in terms of its public service role. By including more voter-oriented information, candidates views on substantive issues and so on, newspapers could have better performed the public service role and promoted public participation in elections. In his study of fairness of press coverage, Y. K. So (1999) found that the press was generally fair in the amount of coverage which reflected the parties weighting. The three largest parties all had the top three positions in all papers. In terms of neutrality, the overall tone of the press towards the parties was negative, showing that the press had a tendency to report negative stories. The political factor was evident in resulting in the reporting bias. Wen Wei Po performed the worst in the tone of its coverage for it was very negative towards the democratic group in terms of stories, headlines and photos but was markedly favourable towards the DAB. The commercial newspapers reporting was mostly factual but there were some subtle differences between them. Apple Daily s news coverage adhered to factual reporting but also exhibited a pro-democratic stance in its editorials, commentaries and its treatment of photos. The SCMP was factual in its reporting but its commentaries and use of photos were somewhat favourable towards the democratic camp. Both Oriental Daily News and Ming Pao showed no clear party preferences. However, Ming Pao tended to treat most parties negatively. On the whole, the least biased papers were the HKEJ and the Oriental Daily News. The study indicated that political ideology was still the dominant factor affecting the press handling of election news. The above studies are common in a way that they all concern Legco elections of different years. There has not been much research on media Page 14

20 performance of reporting local council elections. However, unlike Legco elections, the number of constituencies and candidates is much larger. Together with the fact that both column space and staff resources of the print media are limited; the less concern shown by the general public to District Council elections as compared to Legco elections which renders the issue of District Council elections a relatively lower news worthiness; all these can make it even more difficult for the press to adhere to the principle of objectivity as the press may only report on more prominent candidates. Besides, as both Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong and Democratic Party got similar number of candidates (176 and 172 respectively) and competed directly with each other in nearly 100 constituencies, the amount of coverage given to the two parties should be more or less the same. However, as the relationship between the Democratic Party and the Beijing government has not been improved much and it seems to get worse, will this lead to certain newspapers giving more coverage to pro-china parties and candidates and marginalizing the Democratic Party purposely in order to embrace the Beijing government? Therefore, it is worthwhile and interesting to evaluate press performance in covering the first District Council elections of the SAR from the perspective of objectivity. 3. HYPOTHESIS The newspapers would show varying degrees of quantity fairness and tone fairness towards the political parties. Specifically, in the area of tone coverage, the pro-china press treated the pro-china parties extremely well but just the opposite for the democratic camp. Page 15

21 4. METHODOLOGY 4.1 Measuring Instruments Past election studies in Hong Kong adopted various measuring instruments. C. Chan (1992) used amount of coverage, display of story and direction (favourability) to measure press performance. K. C. Chan (1993) and Y. L. Lee (1987) focused on the direction of coverage (favourability). E. Wong (1993) used favourability, balance, consistency and importance, measured by placement and size. So (1999) focused on the amount of coverage and tone of coverage (or favourability or bias). As this study primarily examines the press performance in covering the District Council elections from the aspect of objectivity, by referring to the framework of McQuail (1992) on how to measure objectivity, this study will not consider the perspective of news as information. First, it is not of much meaning to compare newstories on the ground of whether they are facts. Second, the element of accuracy is not easily measured because lack of accuracy can only be known when complaints are filed. This study is thus going to focus on the evaluative dimension of news, that is, the issue of impartiality, which consists of two areas, balance and neutral presentation. The various measurement instruments, including amount of story coverage, amount of headline coverage, amount of photo coverage and tone of coverage as employed by So (1999) in his study, will be adopted. The first three measurements are employed to measure the issue of balance reporting, or in other words, fairness in quantity. The last instrument is used to measure the aspect of neutral presentation. Several indices are constructed with respect to the newspapers coverage of nine major parties/groups, including Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Page 16

22 Hong Kong (DAB), Democratic Party (DP), Liberal Party (LP), Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People s Livelihood (ADPL), Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (HKPA), Civil Force (CF), 123 Democratic Alliance (123), The Frontier (TF) and independent candidates. One is the Story Amount Fairness Index. The number of story items about each party in each paper is calculated and the number is compared and ranked with other papers (Table 1). Since the parties sizes, measured by the number of candidates, is known, a ranking can also be determined. The story amount fairness index of each paper can then be calculated by comparing that newspaper s ranking of coverage devoted to the parties with the actual ranking of the parties. When two or more parties were mentioned in a news item, only the party focused on in the news item was counted as receiving coverage. If more than one party was highlighted, each party would receive proportionate coverage by counting the number of paragraphs devoted to each party. Assigning proportionate coverage by counting the number of paragraphs is deemed to be appropriate as most paragraphs are of similar length and the relatively small numbers of extremely long or short paragraphs should not affect the results much. The number of stories devoted to each party no doubt reflects a particular party s exposure. But story coverage to a large extent depends on actual activities initiated by the candidates and parties. By examining the mention of parties in headlines and the exposure of party candidates in news photos, the two can serve as supplementary measures which can better reflect the ideologies of editors who usually exercise a greater degree of autonomy in mentioning parties and candidates in headlines as well as in choosing photos. Thus, Headline Amount Fairness Index and Photo Amount Fairness Index are calculated as well. For Headline Amount Fairness Index, it includes both story and photo headlines. The proportions and rankings of headline coverage and photo coverage of the major parties by the newspapers together with the respective amount fairness indices are shown in Tables 2 and 3. When two or more parties were mentioned in a headline or shown in a Page 17

23 photo, each party would be counted as receiving proportionate coverage. For example, if both DP and DAB were mentioned in a news headline, 0.5 would be assigned to each in tabulation. However, if a headline consists of a main headline and a sub-headline, the party/candidate mentioned in the main headline would be counted as receiving coverage. Another index is the Tone Fairness Index which is used to reveal the degree of favourability by a newspaper s coverage towards a particular political party (Table 4). For each news item, a tone score of +1 is assigned for positive, 0 for neutral and 1 for negative. For each particular party covered in a newspaper, the tone index is calculated by dividing the sum of the scores by the total number of news items. The index can range from +1, total favourability to 1, total unfavourability. For a newspaper, an average tone fairness index is determined by calculating the mean of the tone indices, using the absolute values of the index. 4.2 Press Sample As discussed in Section 2.3 Structure of the Hong Kong Press, Lee & Chu (1998) has classified 13 existing papers into three main groups, namely mass, elite and pro-china papers. The classifications are listed in the following table: GROUP Mass circulation Elite Pro-China NEWSPAPERS Oriental Daily News, Apple Daily, Shing Pao, Tin Tin Daily News, Hong Kong Daily News and The Sun Ming Pao, Sing Tao Jih Pao, Hong Kong Economic Times and Hong Kong Economic Journal Ta Kung Po, Wen Wei Pao and Commercial Daily Owing to time and resource constraints, not all 13 newspapers will be Page 18

24 analyzed. In order to make the sample more representative, one paper from each group will be selected. The rationale for selection is mainly based on the circulation, political view and readership orientation criteria. For mass newspapers, Apple Daily is chosen because it is one of the two Chinese papers with highest readership figures. Besides, when compared to the Oriental Daily News, Apple Daily adopts a more critical attitude towards China and more often voices critical commentaries. When coming to elite papers, according to Lee & Chu (1998), Sing Tao Jih Pao has been recently defined by many as pro-beijing. It is thus not chosen for the inclusion of this paper would result in the sample consisting of two papers that were pro-china because all papers in the third group are pro-china. Ming Pao is then chosen as it is of the highest circulation among the three newspapers in the group (Ming Pao, Hong Kong Economic Times and Hong Kong Economic Journal). The third newspaper in the sample comes from the pro-china group. Wen Wei Pao is selected because it is of the highest circulation among the three. Besides, Commercial Daily is not an ideal choice because this newspaper tends to put more emphasis on financial news. 4.3 Period for Study The study period was from 8 Oct, the first day of candidate registration to 30 November, the second day of result publication. All newstories and features on the elections, excluding editorials, letters to the editor, commentaries as well as columns in the supplement pages were analyzed. Unlike So s study (1999), editorials, commentaries and columns were excluded as the study focuses on the objectivity aspect and the inclusion of items allowing the presence of opinions is likely to sway the figures when calculating tone fairness index. For each news item, information related to its headline, photo, type of content, major candidate/party covered and tone was recorded. Page 19

25 5. FINDINGS 5.1 Story Coverage Table 1 shows the story coverage of major political parties by the three newspapers in terms of total percentage and ranking, in brackets. Wen Wei Po has the highest number of stories, 549, devoted to the elections, almost 5 times that of the second-place Ming Pao which has 118 stories. Apple Daily has the lowest number of stories, 81, which is only about one-seventh that of the first-place Wen Wei Po. Dividing the total number of stories of each paper by the number of days of the study period, 54, Wen Wei Po has an average of about 10 stories per day; while Ming Pao and Apple Daily have an average of only about 2 and 1.5 stories per day respectively. Actually, only Wen Wei Po published stories on elections each day throughout the study period. For both Apple Daily and Ming Pao, there were days within the study period with no election stories at all. The former did not have any election stories for 18 days, exactly one-third of the period. Nearly half of the stories, 40, appeared in the last three days of the study period, i.e. the election day and the following two days when the election results were announced. The latter also did not publish any stories for 15 days. Again, the greatest number of stories, a total of 40, representing almost 34%, appeared in the last three days. Similarly, for Wen Wei Po, the number of stories in the last three days, 24, 21 and 18 respectively, were much higher than the other days. Page 20

26 Table 1 Story Coverage of Major Parties by Newspaper Size of party Apple Daily Ming Pao Wen Wei Po Total % b % % % % Party a (Rank) (Rank) (Rank) (Rank) (Rank) IND 39.6 (1) 16.5 (1) 7.1 (4) 10.9 (2) 10.9 (3) DAB 22.1 (2) 14.0 (3) 15.6 (2) 29.2 (1) 25.4 (1) DP 21.6 (3) 16.4 (2) 18.6 (1) 10.4 (3) 12.3 (2) LP 4.0 (4) 11.4 (4) 12.6 (3) 4.3 (6) 6.4 (4) ADPL 3.9 (5) 2.0 (6) 1.6 (7) 4.4 (5) 3.7 (6) HKPA 3.8 (6) 3.5 (5) 1.8 (6) 6.5 (4) 5.4 (5) CF 1.8 (7) 1.2 (9) 0.0 (9) 0.3 (8) 0.3 (8.5) (8) 1.5 (8) 0.3 (8) 0.1 (9) 0.3 (8.5) TF 1.1 (9) 1.9 (7) 4.2 (5) 0.5 (7) 1.2 (7) N (3) 118 (2) 549 (1) 748 Story Amount Fairness Index c 0.9 (1) (3) (2) a IND=Independent Candidates, DAB=Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, DP=Democratic Party, LP=Liberal Party, ADPL=Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People s Livelihood, HKPA=Hong Kong Progress Alliance, CF=Civil Force, 123=123 Democratic Alliance, TF=The Frontier b The column total does not add up to 100% since some stories were about the other smaller parties, the HKSAR government, etc. c This index is expressed in Spearman s rho, the statistical correlation between the rankings. A higher score means more fairness. After reviewing the absolute number of stories, it is even more important to take a look at the proportion of coverage of the nine parties/groups. According Page 21

27 to the definition of objectivity discussed at the beginning, one of the elements of objectivity, balance in news reporting, can be taken to require attention to the main protagonists proportionate to the varying significance of each one s involvement in an event. Applying to the case of elections, balance in reporting is upheld if the amount of news coverage of each party is in proportion to the number of candidates representing that party. As newsholes are limited, only stories that are of news value will be covered. Of course, there must be events or candidates that become the focus of press attention. There is no exception for this District Council elections. There were a number of stories that received much media attention (Appendix 1). All these stories did sway the press coverage. However, discounting these random factors, the pattern of coverage as a whole should be based on the size and prominence of the parties, which can be represented by the number of candidates fielded by each party. According to the data released by the government, the Independent category was the largest with 316 candidates. For political parties, the DAB fielded the largest number of candidates, 176; followed by the second-place DP with a total of 172 candidates. The other political parties had much lesser candidates. The third-place LP fielded 32 candidates only which was followed by the ADPL and the HKPA, with 31 and 30 candidates respectively. The CF had 14, the 123 Democratic Alliance had 11 and the Frontier had 9. The ranking of the party coverage is compared with their size ranking to see if a newspaper s pattern of coverage mirrors party size. By comparing these rankings for each paper, a Story Amount Fairness Index is calculated, which is the statistical correlation, Spearman s rho 1, between the rankings. A higher index shows that, a newspaper s coverage closely mirrors the parties actual sizes and means more fairness; whereas a lower index shows a marked deviation in the coverage from the parties actual sizes. Page 22

28 The Story Amount Fairness Index 2 of the three papers ranges from to 0.9. Apple Daily has the highest index score, showing that its distribution of coverage is closest to the actual ranking by party size. Wen Wei Po ranks second and its index, 0.867, is close to that of Apple Daily. Ming Pao is a distant third with an index score of For Apple Daily, the four largest parties/groups had the top four positions and the other smaller parties were covered much less. For Wen Wei Po, the pattern of coverage mirrored party size for the three largest parties/groups only. The paper devoted the largest number (nearly 30%) of its stories to DAB candidates. The amount was notably high as the number of stories devoted to the second-place independent candidates was 10.9% only. Another point to note is that its coverage of the HKPA ranked the fourth even though the party ranked the sixth in its actual size. For Ming Pao, its pattern of coverage deviated much from the parties actual size. Though the DP ranked the third in size, the paper devoted the largest number of stories to it. For the largest group, the independent candidates, the amount of story coverage of the group ranked the fourth only. However, the amount of coverage of the smallest party, TF, was just behind that of the independent candidates, possessing a fifth rank. All these result in Ming Pao getting a relatively low Story Amount Fairness Index. When looking at the amount of story coverage of the three papers as a whole, the DAB received the most coverage, more than 25%; though it was second in the number of candidates. This can be attributed to the large amount of coverage devoted to the party by Wen Wei Po. The DP, ranking the second, received 12.3 % of the total amount The group of independent candidates, though having the largest number of candidates, ranked only the third in total story coverage. It is not unexpected as most independent candidates were not prominent and were therefore not attractive to the media. The Frontier, though having the least number of candidates, still ranked the seventh in total amount of story coverage. Page 23

29 5.2 Headline Coverage Table 2 Headline Coverage of Major Parties by Newspaper Size of party Apple Daily Ming Pao Wen Wei Po Total % b % % % % Party a (Rank) (Rank) (Rank) (Rank) (Rank) IND 39.6 (1) 9.1 (2.5) 2.9 (4) 9.6 (2) 8.5 (3) DAB 22.1 (2) 8.5 (4) 6.4 (3) 27.2 (1) 21.8 (1) DP 21.6 (3) 13.4 (1) 11.7 (1) 8.4 (3) 9.5 (2) LP 4.0 (4) 9.1 (2.5) 11.3 (2) 3.4 (6) 5.3 (4.5) ADPL 3.9 (5) 1.8 (6) 2.5 (5.5) 4.2 (5) 3.7 (6) HKPA 3.8 (6) 3.0 (5) 2.0 (7) 6.4 (4) 5.3 (4.5) CF 1.8 (7) 0.0 (9) 0.0 (8.5) 0.3 (8) 0.2 (8) (8) 1.2 (7.5) 0.0 (8.5) 0.0 (9) 0.1 (9) TF 1.1 (9) 1.2 (7.5) 2.5 (5.5) 0.9 (7) 1.2 (7) N (3) 122 (2) 551 (1) 755 Headline Amount Fairness Index c (2) (3) (1) a IND=Independent Candidates, DAB=Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, DP=Democratic Party, LP=Liberal Party, ADPL=Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People s Livelihood, HKPA=Hong Kong Progress Alliance, CF=Civil Force, 123=123 Democratic Alliance, TF=The Frontier b The column total does not add up to 100% since some stories were about the other smaller parties, the HKSAR government, etc. c This index is expressed in Spearman s rho, the statistical correlation between the rankings. A higher score means more fairness. Page 24

30 Apart from story coverage, amount fairness can also be measured in terms of headlines and photos. Table 2 shows the headline coverage of the various parties by the papers in terms of total percentage and ranking, in brackets. The Headline Amount Fairness Index is also calculated. The results in Table 2 resemble those in Table 1. Again, Wen Wei Po has the highest number of headlines, 551, followed by the second-rank Ming Pao which has 122 headlines. Apple Daily has the lowest number of headlines, 82. The Headline Amount Fairness Index 2 ranges from to Just like the Story Amount Fairness Index, Apple Daily and Wen Wei Po have a higher index score than Ming Pao. But this time, Wen Wei Po and Apple Daily switch their rankings with the former getting the highest index score, 0.867; whereas the latter ranking second with an index score of which is quite close to that of Wen Wei Po. Ming Pao does not perform as good as the other two papers and has an index score of Both Ming Pao and Apple Daily devoted the largest number of headlines to the DP, accounting for 14.33% and 11% respectively though the party ranked only the third in its actual size. By contrast, their coverage of the DAB, second in actual size, was lower. For Ming Pao, the coverage of the DAB ranked the third. For Apple Daily, the coverage even ranked the fourth. Besides, both papers had more than half of the headlines not mentioning any political party or candidate name. For the former, 74 out of 122 headlines fell into this category; whereas the latter had a number of 43 out of 82 belonging to this type. Another point about Ming Pao that deserved attention was that its coverage of the largest group, independent candidates, ranked the fourth only; partly contributing to its lower index score. For Wen Wei Po, the three largest parties/groups had the top three positions. The paper devoted the largest number of headlines, , to the DAB, accounting for 27.2% of the total. This percentage was almost three times that of the second-place, the independent candidates which received 9.6% of the total. Besides, its headline coverage of the HKPA was comparatively high since the Page 25