Elections are the bedrock of any democracy, and as the world transitions to an ever more digital marketplace of ideas, the election process itself demands more participation from more actors, more monitoring, and more care than ever before. Stratifying social distortions like poverty are known to compound the challenges of post-conflict or transitional states. Added to the list must be digitization and the weaponization of information and data.
As the global media system evolves, governments are ill prepared to regulate an increasingly adversarial and antagonistic digital arena. Citizens are ill equipped to filter the truth from fiction or distraction. Journalists are ill positioned to compete with fake news, social bots, and dis-, mal-, or misinformation. These challenges coalesce into a dire situation for the conduction of free and fair elections worldwide: from the USA to Iraq.
Fomenting media sector contraction, unregulated and untransparent social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, TikTok, Whatsapp) are challenging and partly even replacing legacy journalism. The utilization of these platforms by politicians, private companies, and foreign governments has led to global scandals and doubt on the viability of democracy itself. The increasing digitalization of societies has led to unprecedented opportunities to seek, receive, and impart political information and ideas. As a result, legacy media no longer serve as a primary broker between power and the people. Journalists find themselves struggling against politicians and influencers to be heard, while politicians, corporations, and governments enjoy unprecedented access to and knowledge about voters.
In parallel, the rules for journalists and legacy media--particularly during elections--do not apply in this wild wild web. The standards we hold for reporters is not the standard we set for a stranger who appears on your feed. Moreover, when people post mis, dis, or mal-information, the veracity of those claims are often measured by popularity—if we’re all talking about it, how could we all be wrong? This lack of transparency in the circulation of social media content renders it difficult to trace origins and assess accuracy. Questions like, “Is it a rumor?”, “Is it propaganda?”, “Is it fake?”, “Who made it?” are often answered long after the public has chewed up and spit out the byte.
The full range of consequences of these changes to communication are hard to predict, but it is clear that they have already and continue to jeopardize the credibility of elections and the legitimacy of their results.
Strategies to combat the degradation of truth and freedom must start before the ballot is cast. Guaranteeing informed, inclusive, and untampered public debate is therefore the first step towards peace. This struggle begins on the campaign trail, which is why MiCT supports voter education and continues to lead capacity building projects during elections in post-conflict and transitional countries such as Iraq, Sudan, Tunisia, and Sri Lanka. Supporting the continued professional development of journalists and independent media, as well as political party representatives, is essential for confronting the challenges that digitization poses for democracy. Equipping journalists with the skills to report, monitor, and safeguard elections has been and will continue to be a core tenant of MiCT’s strategy and ensuring that governments and parties are held accountable by the public guides our organizational programming. The time to invest in democracy is now, and both independent media and citizens must be the beneficiaries of that investment.
A woman casts her vote at a polling station in Ghana. Photo © 2018 Carol Sahley
MiCT’s past experiences – media related activities around elections and electoral campaigns
MiCT´s Voter Education Activities
For the past 15 years MiCT has implemented voter education projects across the world. As early as 2006, the radio programme “Election Monitor Iraq” focused on the preparation and implementation of the Iraqi elections followed by post-electoral analysis. Over three months, daily shows discussed election topics with candidates, presented the political parties and their platforms, and explained the details of the election process. The program was broadcasted in 11 Iraqi provinces. The content was produced by 20 correspondents that MiCT had specifically trained in conflict sensitive journalism and election reporting.
In the framework of the same project, MiCT also worked with print media: an election booklet that introduced and explained all candidates and parties was produced. This “Guide to Iraqi Parties” was distributed as a supplement in local newspapers. In 2011/2012, MiCT in cooperation with local journalists produced a similar booklet for the elections in Egypt.
MiCT has also used online applications for voter education activities. In Sudan, MiCT started implementing the “Electionnaire” concept in 2009. It draws on the concept of the "election quizzes" which have been used in a number of countries: the users could tick their own opinion by reacting to certain political statements relevant to local issues and finally identify overlaps with competing parties’ and candidates’ programmes. However, the Electionnaire concept goes beyond a quiz: It provides comprehensive information about political parties, their views and programmes, as well as their senior politicians. It also includes background information on the technicalities of the electoral process. MiCT has also implemented Electionnaire projects in Egypt and Tunisia (2011/12) and will implement it in Sudan again for the next elections.
In addition, MiCT has used Music to reach out to younger and / or illiterate audiences. Case in point is “Sudan Votes Music Hopes”: Musicians from the then northern and southern Sudan produced twelve tracks that conveyed messages encouraging peaceful participation in the political process of the 2010 referendum. The music was then put on 10,000 cassette tapes which were distributed all over the country. With a similar aim, “La Tunisie Vote x Musique Sera” gave young female singers a voice and a platform for creative expression around the 2011 Tunisian elections.
Election Reporting and Communication Training
Capacity building for journalists and media is the second component of our election programme history. Over the past 15 years MiCT has trained thousands of local journalist in the MENA region, in Africa, and in Asia. Guiding themes-- apart from journalistic basics and basics of campaign/election reporting-- were principles of conflict sensitive and solution-oriented journalism. In other words, the capacity building is focused on boosting quality, balanced coverage without fueling local tensions.
In addition, it has been an integral part MiCT’s capacity building projects to bring together cooperative networks of journalists from different regional, religious, or ethnic backgrounds, thereby providing avenues to challenge existing cleavages within society. As an example, MiCT has been working with a network of journalists from Singhalese and Tamil backgrounds in Sri Lanka, with Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish Journalists in Iraq, as well as with a network of journalists from Sudan and South Sudan.
The specific methodological approach in MiCT’s capacity building activities is to complement short term capacity building programmes with an editorial training process, in which local journalists work with experienced editors, and are guided and advised during the whole process of producing a media piece, from the first pitch to the final product: a high-standard text, audio or video report. As part of these projects MiCT usually facilitates publishing of all produced pieces in local media and online.
In Sudan, MiCT is currently developing communication trainings for political parties from the democratic spectrum. Spokespeople will receive training on all aspects of campaigning and political communication, especially in social media. While the training of journalists is key to fostering and preserving democracy, reporters are only one side of the coin. In countries like Sudan — countries that have recent history and political culture of authoritarianism — political parties must recalibrate their communication to fit and facilitate the democratic process. Working with journalists and parties simultaneously thus addresses transition from two complementary angles. The project prioritizes training parties on how to engage voters rather than steer them. In parallel, it will train journalists on election reporting/monitoring.
Media research during elections
MiCT monitored and analyzed Iraqi TV debates in the run up to elections in May 2018. The report presents findings from a qualitative analysis of talk shows on eight different Iraqi TV channels one week upfront parliamentary elections held on 12th of May 2018 in Iraq. The purpose of the study was to understand how types of media differ regarding the speakers invited, selection of topics and political positions, how “dogmatic” channels were when it came to alignment with a specific political agenda and how political rivals interact with one another in public.