Višnja Ba ćanovi ć

«FEMALE CANDIDATES» Monitoring the presence of female candidates in the Media during the pre-election campaigns for the Local and Provincial Elections 2008.

1. Introduction

Gender equity in politics i.e. the increase of number of female decision makers requires not only legal regulations and recommendations, but breaking of prejudices and promotion of female leaders as well. If female candidates want to be successful in elections and become decision makers first they should be listed on election lists. Moreover, they should become visible and well promoted during the pre-election campaigns. The manner in which female candidates are presented to the voters, issues they emphasize as important and political principles they advocate are all important for the public recognition and visibility of women in politics. Quantity and quality of females in politics are equally important. Quality of political contents, quality of performed activities, as well as the presentation of such activities is important for the braking of stereotypes and prejudices towards female politicians and for the promotion of females as quality politicians.

Data obtained during this monitoring should answer the following:

-whether the public services met the required standards regarding pre- election campaigns and the promotion of female candidates

-whether the quota system is effective regarding the media representation of female politicians; the ratio of female candidates in the media (compared to male candidates)

-who do the female candidates address in their campaigns and what is the message they are spreading

A media monitoring means a systematic tracking of media production in order to receive an objective insight into the characteristics of the media content offered to the audience. Media contents could be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively and the monitoring process implies the content analysis. During the monitoring process respective media contents are counted and classified and frequency of the content appearance determined.

Quantitative-qualitative content analysis conducted during this monitoring process has provided precise and reliable data that could be verified. Collected material has been processed and coded in accordance with the unique coding system determined specially for this monitoring research. Categories in the coding system have corresponded the monitoring aim thus enabling the deep analysis.

Data concerning the ratio of female candidates in the media (compared to male candidates) and the number of female candidates on individual election list has been collected. The categories in the coding system have included the genre category, the reason for reporting, audio visional presentation and professional standard usage. Listed categories determine the form of the media output about females, as well as the engagement level of the journalists and the media. Coding sheet has been adjusted to female subjects. The emphasis has been on the female presentation form – who are the females in the media, which issues they discuss about, the length of recorded speech and the length, contents and the position of newspaper text in the print media. Media outputs positioning females as objects, not subjects have also been registered. Furthermore, the value orientation towards female actors and issues concerning females has been assessed. The aim has been to monitor the overall media picture of female politicians and not only the pictures females create about themselves.

During the project period, the following media have been monitored:

1. Regional electronic Media in municipalities of . One television network from Srem –Sremska TV,Šid; Banat –TV Santos, Zrenjanin and Ba čka-RTV Panonija, Novi Sad.

2. RTV Vovodine, as Provincial Public Broadcaster, since the very status of this institution obliges it to act during the pre-election period.

3. The minority print Media (in Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian, Ruthanian, Slovakian and Roma language): Magyar Szó, Hlas l’udu, Руске слово , Them, Libertatea and in Serbian language.

The monitoring sample has included 4 TV stations, 6 print media in majority and minority media and 5 radio programs broadcasting on RTV Vojvodine in Serbian, Hungarian, Romanian, Ruthanian and Slovak Language.

Dnevnik is a daily newspaper in Serbian language. The newspaper was founded during the occupation of Vojvodina in 1942, and its original name was Slobodna Vojvodina (Free Vojvodina). The first editor was Svetozar Markovi ć Toza. On January 1 st 1953, the newspaper's name was officially changed to Dnevnik. First, it was the journal of the Socialisitic Union of the Working Labour of Vojvodina . Then it became the journal established by The Executive Council of The Autonomuous Province of Vojvodina. In 2003, Dnevnik was privatized. Editor in chief is Petar Petrovi ć. There are no data on newspapers' circulation.

Public Broadcasting Service of Vojvodina is transformed into public media in accordance with the Broadcasting Law, adopted in 2002. The official name of the PBS of Vojvodina is RTV Vojvodine and it includes radio and TV program broadcasting in 7 languages (Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Ruthanian, Roma, Ukranian, and periodically in Macedonian, German and Bunjevac dialect)

According to the data received from RTV Vojvodine this media produces 479.675 minutes of TV program. 63.83% of all produced TV programs is news, 27, 95% is culture program and 8, 21% is documentary program.

According to the Broadcasting Law, PBS Service of Vojvodina has 3USW networks and 2 MW networks. Also, it has 2 TV channels: one for program in Serbian language and other for programs in minority languages. According to the researches conducted from 21-27 th January by AGB Strategic Research 3, 8% of Vojvodina population watches First program of RTV Vojvodine. Editor in Chief is female- Dina Kurbatvinski – Vraneševi ć.

RTV Panonija is a TV station with regional frequency, covering the territory of Ba čka. The head office is in Novi Sad. This television started broadcasting in 2000. The program is broadcasted 24 hours a day. Prime time news program is Vojvoñanske vesti , broadcasted at 8 and 10 PM for 10-15 minutes. Editor of the news program is female; the owner of the station is male.

RTV Santos is a TV station with regional frequency, covering the territory of Banat. The head office is in Zrenjanin. Prime time news program includes several shows: Banat – broadcasted every weekday at 6 PM and Mozaik dana – broadcasted at 8 PM. Editors and presenters of both shows are females.

TV Super is a TV station with regional frequency with the head office in Subotica. Prime time news program is Stav plus broadcasted at 6 PM for 30 minutes.

Sremska TV is a TV station with regional frequency, covering the territory of Srem, with the head office in Šid. Prime time news program is Info. According to the IREX, 13, 3 % of Vojvodina population watches this TV station.

The focus of this respective monitoring has been Vojvodina and, more specifically, provincial and local elections. Therefore, the electronic media selected for this monitoring have been those we assumed would be covering the elections most intensively. Moreover, monitored print media in minority languages have a long tradition and fit the media habits of the minority communities.

The analysis units have been TV/radio feature and newspaper article . The second analysis unit has been the subject – with the focus on female politicians/candidates. It should be pointed out that the monitoring corpus for the electronic media has not included sports, weather forecast, announcing and ending credits. Moreover, the monitoring corpus for the print media has not included horoscope, service information, sport and entertainment pages.

Features not covering elections, internal politics or politicians and female politicians have been registered but not analyzed. These features have been registered in order to show the ratio between features covering elections and features covering other issues. All domestic subjects (not foreign and not from Kosovo) have been registered in each feature. The analysis unit has been subject when it is a female as an actor or as an object.

The monitoring has been conducted from 2 nd to 9 th May 2008, during the last week of the pre-election campaign i.e. two weeks before the election silence. Prime time news has been monitored on electronic media whereas the print media have been monitored as a whole. Monitoring corpus for the print media has been adjusted to the publishing timeline.