Dec. 1 elections: Scholars fear media outlets have sold out

People should ponder the local media's performance once today's elections are over, scholars and media workers said, pointing to biased campaign coverage.

"I think Taiwan should be governed by the AC Nielsen [ratings-measurement company], since Taiwanese spend a lot of time watching TV and AC Nielsen decides TV stations' survival," said Chen Hao (陳浩) of TVBS.

Media analysts say news organizations this campaign season are faced with the dilemma of balancing professionalism with commercial benefits. Most cable TV stations claim their reports are professional and balanced, while they also broadcast campaign rallies for commercial benefit.

Reviewing the media's performance, scholars and local media workers complained that the media adopted biased positions in campaign reports and sacrificed their professionalism by cooperating with political parties -- being unable to turn down the chance to make money in a sluggish economy.

Kuo Li-hsin (郭力昕), a professor at National Chengchi University, complained that local media organizations "had given up their last moral principle under this sluggish economy."

"When these media organizations are facing financial problems caused by the weak economy, they have no choice [but] to compromise their values for commercial benefit," said Tsai Shih-ping (蔡詩萍), an editor with the United Evening News.

Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University's Graduate Institute of Mass Communications, said that the marketing strategy used by media organizations is the main factor influencing their reports.

"Media organizations believe that they can survive by attracting certain audiences with reports containing a particular political position. Media used to face pressure from authority, but now the stress is from the market," Hu said.

Ma Yung-jen (馬詠仁), deputy general manager of ETTV's news department, admitted that targeting certain audiences is the station's marketing strategy and argued that scholars are reviewing this phenomenon with old-fashioned ideas.

"It's reasonable for commercial media to broadcast a campaign rally for commercial benefit. TV stations don't belong to the government; why can't we broadcast campaign activities?" Ma asked.

Before the Central Election Commission reminded TV stations on Nov. 20 that broadcasting campaign activities would violate the Public Officials' Election and Recall Law, most cable news stations had broadcast rallies for parties every evening in November.

"TV stations have acted like temporary political public-relations companies. The appropriateness of this performance is a debatable issue, since this performance means that news stations have given up their professionalism and commercialized their channels and broadcasting time," Hu said.

But Ma said that "the Central Election Commission never enforces the regulations when media organizations violate them, and the public only looks at the media's performance [when the government is also to blame]."

Prior to the election commission's reminder, TVBS had broadcast at least 10 evening rallies, which included President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) Premier Voyage of the Century campaign activities around Taiwan and the New Party's promotions in Taipei County.

TVBS also won the bid to produce and broadcast the KMT's music concert, which was scheduled to be broadcast after 10pm last night. The Public Officials' Election and Recall Law states that campaigning must be confined to the hours between 7am and 10pm.