By Anwar al-Ziadat

The following report sheds light on election media outside the capital. It is observed that the local electoral scene in the governorates, away from the center, is somewhat special.

A quick look at election media will allow us to easily discern that the candidates and lists of the capital districts dominate the media scene. Meanwhile, the governorates have created their own local election media.

In the capital, as well as in the governorates, confusing news stories with advertisements is the most visible violation in view of the intensity of advertisements in the electoral process as a whole. However, if the capital-based media outlet, which decides to accept the principle of violating this standard, can do that with a measure of camouflage, the situation in the governorates is different to an extent that made one site acknowledge this openly and reveal its position to its readers, urging them to show understanding of this position, as we will see.

The following are highlights of some aspects of the media scene outside the capital. We have selected Al Balqa as an example of observation.

The report monitors items published on four news sites concerned with Al Balqa or carrying its name between 4 August and 4 September 2016. These are Al Balqa Net, Al Balqa Today, Jebal Al Balqa, and Salt News. The monitoring was carried out by using advanced search on the search engine Google on these sites by using the following key words (candidate, female candidate, list, and elections).

During this period, the four sites published 242 news stories on the elections in general, averaging eight news items per day. This includes 95 news stories about the governorate by 39%, which covered electoral activities and functions in it.

The following table shows the distribution of election-related news in general and news of the governorate:

According to the table, news sites in Al Balqa governorate presented to their readers important news on the national level and devoted good coverage to local news that concerns the governorate and local details of interest to the population.

As is expected in any local community, media establishments are directly connected to the public, which knows the establishment and its owners and staff. This could influence professional performance. It could also form an instrument of oversight of a personal nature of this performance. Therefore, measuring professionalism and the observance of standards in the media of the governorates requires a special perspective.

Perhaps, this explains why Al Balqa Net, which is the oldest news site in Al Balqa, published a clarification under the following eye-catching headline: "For These Reasons Al Balqa Net Did Not Cover the Opening of Headquarters of All Candidates." This item goes to great lengths to be candid with readers. The site explains that it is aware of the model professional practice in handling news and not confusing it with advertisements. However, it says that there is another norm, which is prevalent, when it comes to election news, based on "considering reporting news, activities, moves, and slogans of candidates of parliamentary elections as advertising material, which even daily newspapers get paid for publishing, without the media outlet interfering with its details. Based on this, the effort of Al Balqa Net news site in Al Balqa governorate vis-à-vis candidates and the effort made to cover their news and activities is a legitimate advertisement effort that does not express the viewpoint of the site toward any candidate because the administration of the site and its chief editor stand at the same distance from all candidates and do not promote any candidate over another."

The site is saying explicitly that it handles news as advertisement material for which it is paid because "positive or normal" news indeed serves election advertising. We in AKEED have observed that some professional sites and newspapers practice this without saying it.

The candidness of the site in addressing readers, though a transparent practice, is misplaced as it acknowledges and consolidates a clear professional violation.

Influenced by the special relationship between the local community and local media outlets, another site, which is Jebal Al Balqa news site, published an item in the form of a short statement under the headline "We Stand at the Same Distance From All Electoral Lists." The statement said: "As election advertising of electoral lists and candidates to the next parliamentary elections kicked off, we assert to everybody that we in Jebal Al Balqa news site stand at the same distance from all electoral lists and candidates and that what will be published during the election advertising period in the coming days is either a "general news item about the parliamentary elections" or an "election advertisement of the list or candidate." This is a media role carried out by all Jordanian media outlets."

The sensitivity and special character of media work prompted the site to be careful, especially with regard to the standard of bias, which, as proven by the monitoring, is relatively little. This includes the following examples:

Why Were Posters of Youth Candidate Mu"taz Abu Rumman Burned and Damaged in a Deplorable Manner?

Candidate With Strongest Chances Jamal Qamwah Sends Invitations to the Opening of his Election Headquarters

Election Statement of Candidate Mu"taz Abu Rumman for Al Balqa Governorate, Al Adalah List 5

Amid Large Public Attendance, Headquarters of Candidate Dr. Ra"id Qaqeesh Opened

As for the oversight role, the sites published items that reveal actions that harm the fairness of the elections, including:

Complaints About Attempts by Some Officials To Support Candidates in Al Balqa

The Candidate and the Mortadella

Including Two in Al Balqa…Associations Interfering With Elections Referred to Judiciary

Also, sites of the governorate published news that affects candidates. One new story said: Candidate of a "Medium" Caliber Intends To Withdraw From Elections. Another news story was published under the headline: "Candidate From Al Balqa Resorts to Fortuneteller in Ain al Basha."

Although both news stories avoided mentioning the names of the candidates, the mechanisms of electoral action and the nature of local relations are sufficient to reveal the names to the public, which means that the published material constituted a special type of rumor.

Other published material carried headlines of electoral lists, in which Al Balqa was different from other governorates, including:

Announcing "Shabab al Urdun" List in Al Balqa With Participation of Two Women

Al Tajdid Only Bloc To Field Two Candidates for Christian Seat

Concluding Remarks:

The media could be used, especially during the election stage, to influence the positions of voters and the progress of the electoral process, sometimes directly and on other occasions indirectly. Publishing a news item about a person running in the elections or forming a list, and not publishing about another candidate or another list, reflects bias and imbalance.

Tribalism and the overall narrow circles of allegiance could be, in general, a reason or motive for bias. In other cases, we find that this contributes to the neutrality of sites and the news that they publish so as not to be accused of bias in favor of one side against another and not to lose its audience and credibility with the end of the election season.

News sites in the governorates are forced to get into a difficult and unfair competition with major sites that cover national news in general. The sites of Al Balqa governorate offered the usual advertising service, but it is noticed that direct advertisements are mostly for individual candidates and are not linked to electoral lists. This created a general impression that individual competition beats competition between lists.

The number of candidates in Al Balqa governorate is 113, including 18 women and 10 candidates for the two Christian seats within 13 lists. The electoral seats allocated to Al Balqa governorate include the city proper, Mahis, Al Fuheis, southern Shuna, Deir Alla, and Ain Al Basha. The governorate is represented by 10 deputies. The number of voters totaled 298,746.