FYI. Presedential elections in Ukraine are only a few week away. According to various polls, Kuchma --the current prez-- is leading. -A
10-16-99 While the U.S.-based volunteer grassroots effort 'Coalition To End Media Bias' [CEMB] [http://www.egroups.com/group/cemb/fullinfo.html] is all about media bias in American political news reporting, some interesting news to report from abroad regarding media bias and elections. In a recent opinion poll, distributed this past Friday at a Capitol Hill briefing on Ukraine's pending elections [now only several weeks away], a whopping 64% majority say that the Ukrainian news media has shown "partisan support for different candidates and parties in their coverage of the 1999 presidential election so far." In the 1999 poll, conducted for the International Foundation For Election Systems [IFES], by SOCIS-GALLUP, Kiev, a majority of Ukrainians said that the "media has the responsibility to provide in-depth analysis of candidates and parties in order to aid voters' decision-making." However, even though voters there insist that the media should provide unbiased critical analysis, the media has continued to present a partisan view of the pending elections, according to the polling results. In a question the asks about the importance of the media to analyze differences between the candidates and parties on various issues, 71% said that this is "at least important" to do. The results also indicate that one-third of the people questioned say that this type of analysis is "very important." In their final report, the researchers write that the poll findings may indicate that the failure to perceive clear differences between the candidates' approaches to solving Ukraine's problems is due to the public _not_ receiving this type of analysis from the media. It gets even more interesting. According to an IFES report, "Ukrainian Political Issues and Media Focus Groups: A Summary of Findings,' released earlier this year, most Ukrainians "believe that the media is dominated by foreign and domestic political agendas and personalities." The report further finds that, "the [Ukrainian] public sees the problem as not just a lack of quality reporting, but an attempt to influence public opinion through presentation of factual information taken out of context or unsubstantiated claims." It's no surprise that folks are just plain sick of media bias when it comes to political news reporting. And why shouldn't they reject the media's attempts to shape public opinion? After all, a democracy, such as the kind trying to break out in Ukraine, does not need media interference. Quite the opposite -- it rejects it. Furthermore, in its conclusion, the report finds that, "The expectation [on the part of Ukraine's citizenery] is for the media to attempt to inform rather than influence the public." Even though these conclusions go further [i.e. lack of critical information on the verge of national elections] than to simply reveal a corrupt and biased media, it's important to realize that, sadly, media bias does not only exist in the U.S. political news reporting but in various countries across the world as well. The briefing was co-sponsored by the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe [http://www.house.gov/csce/]and the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus. -Andy CEMB, [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
