AKEED team

Municipal and decentralization elections saw intensive media coverage on Election Day and on the day when the results were announced, while press coverage dropped during the period of election campaigning and over a month before the polling. This did not contribute positively toward preparing the media for this event despite its news value in terms of its importance and the inclusiveness and expansion of public and community interest in it.

The team of the Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor (AKEED) monitored the volume of press coverage of the elections of municipalities and governorate councils. The monitoring included five daily newspapers over a month from 15 July to 15 August. It showed that the daily press covered election campaigns through 607 press items published in five local daily Arabic-speaking newspapers. The coverage in Al Rai, Al Dustour, Al Ghad, Al Sabeel, and Al Anbat featured 358 news items, 188 reports, and 61 articles. The highest number was in Al Rai, with 174 items; followed by Al Dustour, with 144 items; Al Ghad, with 136 items; Al Anbat, with 86 items; and Al Sabeel with 85 items.

Compared with the volume of coverage by the daily press of the elections to the 18th Lower House of Parliament, which took place in the fall of 2016, the five daily newspapers covered those elections during a similar period by around 1,513 items.

Thus, the figures show that municipal and governorate council elections did not generate a lot of media interest, compared with the parliamentary elections. The coverage of these elections constituted around 40% of the coverage of parliamentary elections, specifically during the period of preparing people for the elections, while the coverage on Election Day and on the day of announcing the results and the week that preceded them was relatively intensive.

According to the monitoring carried out by AKEED, Al Dustour was the highest in news items with 115 items, at 32.1% of the total news items; followed by Al Rai with 87 news items, at 24.3%; then Al Anbat with 60 news items, at 16.7%; then Al Ghad with 50 news items, at 14%; and finally Al Sabeel with 46 news items, at 12.9% out of the total news items on the elections.

With regard to reports, Al Ghad was higher than other newspapers with 72 reports, at 38.8%; followed by Al Rai with 64 reports, at 34%; then Al Anbat with 20 reports, at 10.7%; then Al Dustour with 16 reports, at 8.5%; and finally Al Sabeel with 15 reports, at 8%.

As for articles, Al Rai was in the lead with 23 articles, at 37.7%; followed by Al Ghad and Al Dustour with 13 articles each, at 21.3% for each; and finally Al Sabeel and Al Anbat with six articles each, at 9.85% for each.

Patterns of Coverage

Al Rai led in the number of press items that handled the municipal and decentralization elections during the month that preceded Election Day. The number of items published by Al Rai totaled 174, divided into 87 news items, 64 reports, and 23 articles. The number of items increased in the two weeks that preceded the elections. Al Rai published 52 news items, 41 reports, and 16 articles. Meanwhile, in the last two weeks of July, it published 35 news items, 23 reports, and seven articles. Al Rai intensified its coverage on the last two days. On 14 August, the number of press items included 15 news items, seven reports, and seven articles. On the election silence day, Al Rai published seven news items, seven reports, and four articles.

Al Dustour came second in the number of press items during the period from 15 July to 15 August. It published 144 items, divided into 115 news items, 16 reports, and 13 articles.

The distribution of items was balanced when comparing the last two weeks of July with the first two weeks of August. The number of items between 15 and 31 July totaled 60 news items, seven reports, and four articles.

As for Al Ghad, it had more reports during the month that preceded the elections. It published 136 press items, more than half of which are reports (73 reports), while news items totaled 50 and articles totaled 13. Al Ghad made greater efforts during the first two weeks of August; it published 27 news items, 50 reports, and eight articles. Meanwhile, it published 23 news items, 23 reports, and five articles in the last two weeks of July.

The Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor (AKEED) observed that Al Ghad devoted pages with banner headlines about the municipal and decentralization elections during the three days that preceded Election Day and intensified its coverage starting 12 August. On 14 August, for example, it carried four news items, nine reports, and three articles. Meanwhile, on Election Day, 15 August, it published eight news items, 10 reports, and one article.

The interest of Al Anbat and Al Sabeel in the municipal and decentralization elections was close. The former published 86 press items, while the latter published 85 items. During the month that preceded the elections, the coverage of Al Anbat included 60 news items, 20 reports, and six articles. The last two weeks of July had 29 news items, seven reports, and four articles, while the first two weeks of August saw relative stability in the number of news items and articles at 31 news items and two articles, while the number of reports increased to a total of 13.

The 85 press items of Al Sabeel included 64 news items, 15 reports, and six articles. Interest in the elections differed between the first half of the month that preceded Election Day and the second half. Al Sabeel published 27 news items, four reports, and one article during the period from 15 to 31 July. Between 1 and 15 August, it published 37 news items, 11 reports, and five articles.

Electoral Press: One Step Forward and One Step Backward

A quantitative reading of the coverage of the daily press shows that it was not up to the presumed level, compared with parliamentary elections. In light of the importance of these elections, which take place for the first time in Jordan on the level of governorate councils (decentralization); and in light of the pressing need for the media to pave the way for greater popular involvement, which plants the seeds of local democracy, the features of the development of professionalism have not changed. This shows the modest involvement of the electoral press, with its professional and ethical standards, despite the fact that Jordan has seen five elections within less than a decade.

AKKED has monitored the key weaknesses and strengths of the electoral press, from a qualitative perspective, as follows:

First, there has been a decline in the opportunities of in-depth and investigative journalism. In-depth reporting is a key journalistic tool that helps the press to provide information about the elections and the platforms of political parties and forces and candidates. Consequently, it is a tool for activating public debate.

The daily press has not published in-depth and intensive reports that address specialized topics in the local elections from different angles. Meanwhile, press features on elections have strongly declined.

In-depth electoral press strongly affects the election scene in the media. While the public that relies on daily newspapers for news has declined, the news of daily newspapers and their websites is still a main source for the digital press and for public debates in the virtual world and on social media networks.

Second, the oversight role is still modest, with the prevalence of press that depends on rhetoric, judgments, and generalizations. These practices reflect on the reports by newspaper correspondents in the governorates, who continued to report on strong competition that suggested a larger turnout--something that was belied by ballot boxes. In general, mobilization-filled rhetoric permeated many headlines and a lot of the content at the expense of information and criticism of practices that conflict with the law and public interest.

Third, the headlines of the front pages on the day that followed the election, on which the results were announced, reflected a phenomenon that has a positive aspect when the newspapers had different headlines as follows:

Al Rai: Marvelous Jordanian Day

Al Ghad: Election in Muwaqqar in the Limelight Again

Al Dustour: Jordanians Converse Through Ballot Boxes

Al Anbat: Dull Election                 

Al Sabeel: 32% Turnout in Municipal, Decentralization Council Elections

It is also noticeable that these headlines show a clear difference in assessing the election results; this is what the public needs. Some of them offered headlines that contained information, while others offered a professional headline that expresses an opinion. Some newspapers used mobilization-filled or rhetorical headlines that completely contradicted an assessment headline in another newspaper.

Fourth, there was visible interest in ethical values. There were no major ethical violations in the coverage of the daily newspapers, whether in the news content, opinion pieces, or pictures. On the other hand, there was selectivity in the choice of sources and elements that give prominence to news, specifically in the mobilization speech by some newspapers, as well as selectivity, concentration, and news deluge versus marginalization. While daily newspapers had inundated readers with news about the Rased coalition since the start of the election campaign, news about this coalition was almost completely absent from some newspapers in the coverage of the Election Day and the announcement of the results. This coalition presented an opinion poll, which was not borne out by the results, about the turnout. At the same time, however, it organized the largest campaign for monitoring the elections, as was announced.