Mass Media and Governor Candidates

Challenges of Neutrality and Trend of Alignments

Husnul Isa Harahap

Department of Political Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Governor Candidates, General Election, Democracy, Newspaper.

Abstract: Mass media is one of the main pillars of democracy. This is because the mass media is one of the channels to

obtain political information. Interestingly, the mass media are always actively involved in the reporting of

candidates who compete in the election. Thus, the phenomenon that can occur is the unequal amount of news

from each candidate in the mass media. At the time of the general election, mass media in North Sumatra

province also wrote information about the governor candidate. This study describes the state of the news

distribution in terms of quantity. This study has found that there are variations in the reporting of governor

candidates in terms of numbers. In some cases there is a phenomenon where the mass media only focus on

one candidate. Meanwhile, other candidates are rarely reported. But this study does not want to prove whether

the mass media has sided with one of the candidates or not. This study concludes that the trend of partisanship

has emerged from the news of candidates that can be seen from the quantity.

In the case of elections in northern Sumatra, the mass media selects its own news without considering the

issue of neutrality.

1 INTRODUCTION

A general election for Regional Head was held on

June 27, 2018. This activity was conducted

simultaneously in several regions in Indonesia,

including the Province of North Sumatra. Other areas

that also conducted an election were Provinces such

as Riau Province, South Sumatera Province,

Lampung Province, West Java Province, East Java

Province and several other areas, including some

areas in districts and cities located in Indonesia.

The mass media was involved in the election,

especially in terms of delivering the news about the

election. The coverage of the candidates was also the

focus of the news, even before the candidates were

fixed. After the official candidate was announced by

the election organiser, the focus of the news was on

the candidates. No newspaper ignored it.

As one of the pillars of democracy, mass media

play an important role in the election. The mass media

socialise election activities as well as the candidates.

The problem is the election moment is an arena of

political competition. Mass media inevitably have to

be in the competition room. Any coverage of the

candidate will affect public opinion. And public

opinion has an effect on political choice. Thus, the

mass media is considered as a communication tool for

the candidates. Furthermore, the mass media is

identified as part of a certain candidate's political

machine.

At the time of the general election, mass media in

North Sumatra province also reported information

about the governor candidate. The election of the

North Sumatra Governor (Sumut) 2018 is followed

by two pairs of candidates. Candidate number 1 was

Djarot Saiful Hidayat-Sihar Sitorus (DJOSS) and

candidate number 2 Edy Rahmayadi-Musa Rajekshah

(ERAMAS). A small number of candidates and split

voting conditions led to a very serious competition.

Is there a balance of news about the governor

candidate in the mass media, especially the

newspaper? Is there a difference in the amount of

news (about candidates in the paper) to illustrate that

the mass media has sided with the candidate? This

study will answer these questions.

2 APPROACH AND METHOD

This study uses a political communication approach.

The representative of mass media included in this

study is the newspaper in North Sumatra.

Harahap, H.

Mass Media and Governor Candidates.

DOI: 10.5220/0008815900150017

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs (ICoCSPA 2018), pages 15-17

ISBN: 978-989-758-393-3

 2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reser ved

Observations of news in local newspapers were

conducted in April 2018. The method of analysis in

data collection was quantitative and descriptive.

3 MASS MEDIA AND POLITICS

There are many studies related to mass media and

political relations. One earlier study revealed that the

less-known candidate is very little covered by the

print media. According to Licher and Smith they even

have a small chance of disseminating their opinions

in the mass media (Kaid, 2015, p. 309).

Other studies have revealed the things that often

become news during the election. Hess has explained

that one of them is the theme of what happened during

the campaign. It is also the strategy of the candidates

and their experiences, including personal qualities, or

leadership skills (Kaid, 2015, p. 309).

In the news, some candidates get fewer benefits

than other candidates. Kahn and Kenney revealed that

Republican candidates have received a favourable

report compared to candidates from the Democratic

Party. This case occurs in the United States. But the

evidence of partisan bias is still not found. So the

decision of reporters in choosing news about the

campaign, will affect the advantages and

disadvantages for candidates (Kaid, 2015, p. 308).

There is also a classic question that arises in

America in terms of media and political relations. The

question is whether news reflects a partisan or

ideological bias? (Kaid, 2015, p. 307). This question

is related to content evaluation and the quality of

media coverage in elections.

Chandrappa, in his studies The Influence of the

Media in Politics - Campaigns and Elections,

concluded that “…the media has a very strong effect

in politics, campaigns and elections by dictating what

issues are relevant, what candidates will get the most

coverage and what criteria they should use to evaluate

candidates.” (Chandrappa, 2014, p. 2312)

A more recent study (Moy, David, and Mark,

2016, p. 11), in the study Agenda-Setting, Priming,

and Framing, explains that in the digital age, news

readers have more choices. This means that fewer

voters are affected by the print media in determining

their political choices. They have direct access to the

news they have chosen. Therefore, they are not

dependent on one-way information.

4 THE NEW ERA OF MEDIA:

THE END OF NEUTRALITY?

The election of Governor of North Sumatra 2018

followed by two pairs of candidates. Have the

newspapers been identified as supporting particular

candidates? In this study there was a gap in the

amount of news content in each newspaper.

Quantitatively, Newspapers A and C mostly

contained candidate number 1 (DJOSS) news.

Newspaper B reported more on candidate number 2)

(ERAMAS) (see Diagram 1). However, the news

content does not always provide a positive image of

the candidates to the voters. Therefore, basically, the

quantity of news only describes how actively the

mass media reports on the candidates in the news.

Figure 1: Quantity of News Candidates in the Newspaper

(Source: results from data analysis).

Figure 1 illustrates that newspaper A reported

more on candidate number 1, i.e. 64.4 percent. That

means that newspaper A only reported on candidate

number 2 approximately 35.95 percent of the time.

Meanwhile, newspaper B reported more on candidate

number 2, 73.17 percent of the time. This means that

this newspaper only reported on candidate number 1

26.82 percent of the time. newspaper C reported on

candidate number 2 55.81 percent of the time and

candidate number 1 44.18 percent of the time. This

means that there is an 11 percent number of news

from candidate number 2 compared to candidate

number 1.

Although the news in the mass media reported

many activities of one candidate only, in fact,

individuals at this time tend to be autonomous in

choosing news, especially since access to news is so

easy through the internet with mobile phones.

Newspapers still provide news that reports the vision

of the candidates' mission, but controls on the news

ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs

are in the hands of readers. This is consistent with the

analysis by Patricia Moy.

Patricia Moy, in her study about mass media and

democracy, explains that “…as news audiences

migrate online, they exert increasingly greater control

over the nature of the news they choose to receive.

This newfound ability of individuals to select news,

perhaps on the basis of their comfort with the issue or

its frame…” (Moy, David, and Mark, 2016, p.

11).However, this condition does not automatically

change the core issue. The challenge of mass media

neutrality remains an important issue in elections and

democracy.

5 CONCLUSIONS

In 2018, the election of the governor of North

Sumatra was re-implemented. Candidates were

elected by general election. One of the interesting

things is the news about the candidates for governor

in the newspaper. There are differences in the

quantity of news on the candidates. The newspapers

tend to report the activities of one candidate only. Is

this evidence that the mass media has sided with one

of the candidates? The answer, of course, still needs

more research to prove it. This study only indicates

that there is a trend of newspaper alignments with

candidates, especially when viewed in terms of the

quantity of news on the candidates. There seems to be

a pattern that the newspapers tend to be positioned

only effectively to be sources of news activities on

certain candidates. Therefore, the issue of neutrality

in newspapers becomes a challenge in elections and

for democracy in Indonesia.

REFERENCES

Chandrappa, K. 2014. The Influence of the Media in

Politics - Campaigns and Elections.International

Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) 3 (12), 2310–

12.

Kaid, L. L. 2015. Handbook Penelitian Komunikasi Politik.

Translated by Ahmad Asnawi, Penerbit Nusa Media.

Bandung.

Moy, P., Tewksbury D., & Rinke E. M. 2016. Agenda-

Setting, Priming, and Framing. In The International

Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and

Philosophy, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/

9781118766804.wbiect266.

Mass Media and Governor Candidates