REPORT the Other Duel: the Clash of Old and New Media
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REPORT Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. MEDIA PROGRAM SOUTH EAST EUROPE January 2013 The other duel: The clash of old and new media 2012 BULGARIAN MEDIA MONITORING REPORT OF FOUNDATION MEDIA DEMOC- RACY IN COOPERATION WITH THE MEDIA PROGRAM SOUTH EAST EUROPE OF KONRAD-ADENAUER-STIFTUNG As in previous years, the 2012 report of while politicians are reluctant to make deci- Foundation Media Democracy (FMD) has sions without the support of both journalists been prepared by the team of the Media and publishers. Monitoring Lab (MML) in cooperation with the Media Program South East Europe of In 2012 media wars spread beyond the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Apart from the press, and new media confronted traditional Lab members (Nikoleta Daskalova, Ger- ones. The occasion was the ecological pro- gana Kutzeva, Silvia Petrova, Marina Ki- test in the capital, organized through the rova, Bogdana Dencheva, Vasilena Yorda- social networks (the Orlov Most events). nova, Eli Aleksandrova and Maya The protest turned against the TV channels Tzaneva), two external experts have been too, especially against the one with the hig- involved, i.e. Georgi Lozanov and Vyara hest TV rating, protestors claiming about Angelova. By tradition, the FMD annual lack of objectivity in the TV coverage. The report does not melt down individual con- war was actually between the images of one tribution of analyzers into an anonymous event in two spheres of media publicity. expert discourse, but rather brings to the fore the diversity of their individual points Also to be reckoned within the range of me- of view. The main accents of the report, dia wars, which wars could be taken as do- by areas of monitoring, include: minant influence of the owners with their contradictions over media content, could be MEDIA WARS the large-spread migration of independent TV productions between major TV channels. Media wars were the 2012 hit. They were, Once gained popularity in one channel, the actually, not exactly wars between the me- productions pass the fronts of the rivals into dia themselves, but rather between the pri- another channel without any remorse, moti- vately owned capitals backing them up. vated by the respective material benefits. Throughout the year, the tension was un- The problem goes beyond owners and pro- folding mainly in the press. One of the rea- ducers, resulting in the programme deper- sons thereof is the lack of any statutory sonalization of the media as a whole. regulation. The prominent asymmetry be- tween the regulatory frameworks of the NATIONAL DAILIES print and the electronic media gave rise to a new row of debates around the idea of in- The print media publicity remains domi- troducing a press act in our country. Yet, no nated by the personality of the Prime Minis- consensus has been reached. Journalists are ter. Apart from him, it is the President and still more afraid of rather than relying on an the Chair of the National Assembly that re- act, publishers might cherish some financial ceive unambiguous support in the media. hopes but it is certainly not their priority, This in practice means that the three key 2 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. statespersons in 2012 fall outside the range to the digitization of the broadcasting in of the serious criticism in the press. The pa- 2013. The Bulgarian National Radio was MEDIA PROGRAM pers are moderately critical to the govern- quick to advertise its readiness for a full SOUTH EAST EUROPE ment and its members. The more critical switchover. The rest of the radio stations reviews are, to a large extent, reserved for are for now standing a bit aside from the the opposition leaders and parties. process, at least in public. January 2013 There is a significant difference between the ONLINE MEDIA & NEWS SITES approval of political figures and institutions in society on one side, and in the media, on The online information environment was the other. For example, an opinion poll ma- dominated, for yet another year, by the fig- de in September 2012 by the renowned so- ure of the PM Boyko Borisov. He remains cial research agency Alpha Research sho- the inevitable initiator of news in all public wed that the opinion for the Prime Minister spheres – from the political, through the Boyko Borisov in society was rather polar- economic, financial and criminal, to the ized, where ‘the mistrust in the PM Boyko sports one. There has also been a strong Borisov exceeds the confidence in him – tendency for a predominant institutional co- 37% to 32%’. At the same time, the Market verage, which gives significant advantage to Links data unambiguously showed a warm the ruling party and devaluates information. attitude towards Mr. Borisov in almost all In the meantime, news sites turn into an monitored papers, as well as a high media easy tribune for populist messages launched rating of the PM. Thus, many media are evi- by both the government and the opposition. dently ‘pumping up’ the public images of The President and the Prime Minister are key politicians. The mismatch between the the politicians enjoying the most favorable public opinion and the image built by the attitude on the part of information sites as a media is a clear sign of direct PR support, whole. but also of a direct dependence of some of the media on state power conjuncture. A key moment during the year was the cov- erage of the protests on the Eagle’s Bridge RADIO (Bulgarian: Orlov Most). There were two clearly discernible information streams on Radio remains the most preserved media the net: the social media (mainly Face- compared to the fast tabloidization in the book), the blogs, and some of the periph- press and the TV. The key event during the eral information sites confronted the main- year was the coverage of the earthquake in stream media (information agencies, elec- the town of Pernik (May 2012). In this ex- tronic media, and online versions of the treme situation, the public relied on radio press). Social media and sites helped the more than on the rest of the media, but re- net gradually emancipate itself and offer a mained disappointed by the speed and qual- tribune for diverse and bold observations ity of information. The reason – Bulgarian and comments. In Bulgaria there is already radio stations offer too much music and not a strong tendency (typical mostly of coun- enough speech. Even the few speech radio tries with difficult media environment and stations had difficulties in keeping watch in insufficiency of democracy) for the blogs, critical moments, which proved that the de- social networks and civil media to play the velopment and implementation of plans for role of a compensatory mechanism by fill- radio reaction in distress situations are ex- ing-in gaps of lack of information, analyses tremely needed. and objective points of view on issues un- comfortable for the mass media. An interesting phenomenon in radio broad- casting is the TV speech taking the place of EUROPE (EUROPEAN ISSUES IN the dying out radio speech. The success of BULGARIAN MEDIA) the bTV Radio and Radio Bulgaria On Air has showed that radio is, after all, developing. The coverage of European issues in Bulgar- The immediate future of radio is connected ian media is predominated by publications 3 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. that place the accent on national problems. lypses. There was a tendency of tabloid The interest of the journalists to suprana- content overflowing into the print media, MEDIA PROGRAM tional issues and analysis of European poli- the highest interest attracted by the reality SOUTH EAST EUROPE cies is limited. Against this background, the show VIP Brother. In 2012, yellow dailies information environment was dominated by adopted the role of obituaries – blew the the government’s declarative emphasis on horn over tragic events mixed with the feel- January 2013 results achieved through the use of Euro- ing of undelivered justice (the events in the pean funds. Within the context of the Bul- village of Katunitza), and even the decease garian public sphere, the EU label is still of Patriarch Maxim was turned into a tabloid used for PR purposes from both the gov- sensation. ernment and the opposition. During the second half of 2012, this tendency was BLOGOSPHERE complemented by a new shade, i.e. the un- critical attitude of the media towards the In 2012, the blogosphere, and the social government and the projects implemented media in general, was more irreconcilable, by it with European funds has started to operative and active. The event of the year crack and change to neutral and critical one. was the protests against the amendments in the Forest Act on the Orlov Most, where the LIFESTYLE demonstrators had spontaneously organized themselves via blogs, Twitter, Facebook. It While in 2011 the focus on the appearance was the social media who were most active and personal life of politicians activated in the dissemination of information on the mainly during the pre-election campaign, in events on Orlov Most. In 2012, bloggers 2012 this became a widely used and ex- turned from reasoning and writing to acting, pected technique, adopted by the enter- from criticizing to sobering down, from con- tainment and central media alike. The wide fronting to cooperating. circulation of the lifestyle discourse nears the construction of political images to the Apart from the Forest Act, bloggers dis- mechanisms of the social network Face- cussed actively and critically subjects like book. Politicians tend to create their identi- the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ties following the Facebook rules – offering /ACTA/, the shale gas extraction, nuclear only amusing and original pieces of them- power, the problems in the judicial system.