Presentation of the minorities in
the Slovak electronic and print media.
(Slovak part of the common project)
Monitoring
of the print media has been realized between 8th of October and 8th
of December 2000 in 5 print media: Novy Čas,
Pravda, Práca, Slovenská Republika, SME. These are the daily newspapers,
policy/society oriented. The choice of these media outlets has been based on
the results of the different marketing researches, according which, media
listed above have highest numbers of readers. Print media have been monitored
with help the methodology, agreed on meeting in
Selected
programs (main news, broadcasts between
Since the
beginning of 2000, MEMO 98 has been carrying out monitoring focused on
presentation of information on minorities in the media. This monitoring is
based on the original methodology, used by MEMO 98 since 1998. The parameters
monitored with this methods are: time offered to
relevant themes by the media; manner in which the separate subjects (their
representatives) were portrayed; the occurrence of unfair pieces of news and
the key ideas and the specific themes, presented with subjects.
Second part
of the following information contains results of monitored major broadcast
media in the period of October – November 2000. We have monitored prime-time
news programs broadcast by STV, TV Markiza and TV Luna as well as Slovak Radio
and Radio Twist. In the above-mentioned media we recorded all information
concerning minorities (positive, neutral or negative), individual issues or
„cases“ related to them as well as information of
personalities representing the relevant minorities.
Almost all
of the stories and articles presented in Slovak mass media were related to Roma
minority. Stories on Hungarian and Ruthenian minorities were presented occasionally.
During monitoring period, other minorities were not mentioned at all.
Results of
the monitoring / common criteria:
Electronic media.
The
frequency of the presentation of the stories, relevant to minorities was low,
especially in the electronic media. During the month of the monitoring process
there was 45 relevant stories, showed in the main news of the five monitored
media at all.
The number
of the stories with the conflicting content was smaller in the radio stations,
then in the TV stations. The smaller number of the conflicting events has been
presented in the public media: STV and Sro than in the
private media.
The way, how
media presented the minorities, regarding to positive, negative and neutral
style of the information shows, that public STV and Sro have often used neutral
way of presentation information and also private Radio Twist has also preferred
this style of behaving. On the other hand, private TV stations presented more
stories, where minorities have been presented in the negative light.
Print media
During two
months of monitoring print media, MEMO 98’s monitors found 234 articles with
minority content. Approximately 1 of 5 articles in daily newspapers: Pravda and
Práca had a conflicting content. On the other hand, there was group of other
print media: Novy cas, Slovenska republika and SME,
where proportion between conflicting and non conflicting articles was
approximately 1:1.
SME, Pravda
and Praca took a neutral approach regarding to minority presentation.
Approximately 85% articles in these media were neutral and we found also some
number of articles with positive content towards minorities. In the Slovenska
republika and Novy cas, there where found any articles
with positive attitude towards minorities at all. Number of the negative
articles was higher then in the media listed above.
Results of
the monitoring / MEMO98 criteria:
Over the
months of October and November the aforementioned media broadcast a total of 1
hour, 28 minutes and 54 seconds of information on minorities while information
on minorities other than Roma were only aired in October and only on STV (2
min. 17 sec. on Hungarian and Ruthenian minorities) and TV Markiza (1 min. 15
sec. on Ruthenian minority).
From this
broadcast time Roma minority received 1 h. 25 min. and 13 sec. The coverage was
predominantly neutral (182) whereas most of it was broadcast by Sro – 65 and Radio Twist – 40. One piece of information
broadcast by Sro was even positive. 24 pieces of
information were negative 16 of which were broadcast in November.
As to
topics, much like in the previous quarters the media most often brought up the
case of „the Roma exodus“ – total of 20 min. 42 sec. while in October the
monitored media still echoed the murder of a Roma woman in Zilina – 4 min. 39
sec (diagram No. 3).
As to
content, most time was dedicated to politics – 30 min. 50 sec., while he most
broadcast time was dedicated to this topic by Sro in
October – up to 9 min. 7 sec. It is remarkable that both radio stations also
paid some attention to social issues – 4 min. 22 sec. Other issues included
self-government, resentment to Roma minority but Luna also brought up cultural
issues, which had hardly been the case in the previous quarters.
In
conclusion it is necessary to state that much like in January – September the
newscasts in October – November failed to bring up any positively relevant
changes. Coverage of the Roma has been dominated by „cases“ and their portrayal
is neutral or negatively hued from the point of view of the state trying to
change the perception of the Roma by majority of the society these tendencies
in the media can hardly be a contribution to the positive development.
Bias vs.
Neutrality in Reporting Hungarian Topics (in Slovak Language Daily Newspapers)
monitoring period: October 8 -
|
Daily |
Frequency |
Negative Bias |
Neutral report |
Positive Bias |
|
Nový čas |
5 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
|
Práca |
8 |
1 |
7 |
0 |
|
Pravda |
6 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
|
Slovenská Republika |
17 |
13 |
4 |
0 |
|
SME |
9 |
1 |
7 |
1 |
|
TOTAL |
45 |
17 |
26 |
2 |
Bias vs.
Neutrality in Reporting Roma Topics (in Slovak Language Daily Newspapers)
monitoring period: October 8 -
|
Daily |
Frequency |
Negative Bias |
Neutral report |
Positive Bias |
|
Nový čas |
16 |
6 |
10 |
0 |
|
Práca |
45 |
5 |
37 |
3 |
|
Pravda |
42 |
4 |
36 |
2 |
|
Slovenská Republika |
29 |
6 |
23 |
0 |
|
SME |
43 |
1 |
35 |
7 |
|
TOTAL |
175 |
22 |
141 |
12 |
Bias vs.
Neutrality in Reporting Minorities Topics (Roma and Hungarian) (in Slovak
Language Daily Newspapers)
monitoring period: October 8 -
|
Daily |
Frequency |
Negative Bias |
Neutral report |
Positive Bias |
|
Nový čas |
21 |
7 |
14 |
0 |
|
Práca |
53 |
6 |
44 |
3 |
|
Pravda |
48 |
5 |
40 |
3 |
|
Slovenská Republika |
46 |
19 |
27 |
0 |
|
SME |
52 |
2 |
42 |
8 |
|
TOTAL |
220 |
39 |
167 |
14 |
Bias vs.
Neutrality in Reporting Roma Topics (in Slovak Language TV and Radio Stations)
monitoring period: October 8 -
|
TV/Radio Station |
Frequency |
Negative Bias |
Neutral report |
Positive Bias |
|
STV |
4 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
|
TV Markíza |
4 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
|
TV Luna |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
|
SRo |
15 |
2 |
13 |
0 |
|
Twist |
9 |
2 |
7 |
0 |
|
TOTAL |
35 |
9 |
26 |
0 |
