Covering Elections: The Challenges of Training the Watchdogs

"Covering elections is not just coverage of one 'grand event' and training must reflect that."

The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the United States (US)-based National Endowment for Democracy commissioned this study of training for journalists to cover elections in countries where media developers work to improve journalism.

Media trainers interviewed for this report indicate that, where specialised election coverage programmes have been mounted, they have tended to be "short term and timed directly before elections, with faulty recruiting of participants, little focus on skills to be imparted in the rush, and no follow-up. Donors, trying to show they have no vested interest in influencing how people vote have also had little input on the content of journalist training."

As explored in the paper, depending on the trainer, content and approach vary widely. "Reporters might be taught the need to root out and report on fraud by parties or the need to talk to citizens to discern and play up the issues that most matter to them in an election. Some trainers focus on compiling voting guides and educating the journalists and citizens about how democracy works. Others train in management and collaborative methods (organizational meetings and teaming between print and broadcast partners) as a way to get better election coverage. Still others believe emphasizing ethics and the need for accurate, fair, and balanced coverage is the best way to use the limited time given for election training. Trainers disagree about the need for teaching reporters in the developing world to dig into campaign finance records and write high-quality opinion and commentary - as well as on the possibility for success of such training."

The author emphasises that technology "makes political stories personal, urgent, and get[s] the audience involved. Even in places where computers have not reached a majority of the population, significant groups of users, especially young people, already exist. Journalists with both experience or personal backgrounds in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and training in the West have proven especially valuable as trainers in newly developing countries. They have had success teaching even sophisticated reporting techniques and are less easily discouraged by difficulties securing information. Also, better use might be made of increasingly sophisticated understanding of voting processes by academics in the fields of political science and statistics. Finally, election trainers need to reach out to election monitors who have worked for years in countries just now experimenting with elections. They have a wealth of experience and examples to draw from on what to look for in election processes. Election monitors acknowledge that outreach to journalists is an important but neglected area for them."

It is noted here that election trainings could be strengthened by, for example, increased cooperation between American and Western European donors in both funding long-range journalism training and improving the content of training. "Intensive, practical training - and maybe equipment - in the use of technology so that reporters can take advantage of social networking, cellphones, and computerized graphics is overdue."

From the conclusion: "More must be done to cast elections as part of a critical on-going political process and to equip journalists to understand, monitor, and report about that. Training journalists to cover elections must be paired with other legal and election infrastructure reform if meaningful change is the goal. International donors could have great influence by pushing harder for formation of election commissions with actual clout in countries where they work and for clear election laws, especially campaign finance transparency laws. Framing and passage of laws to protect journalists who cover politics also should be on donors' agendas."

Click here for the 36-page report in PDF format.