6.2 Content: Is election coverage biased?
Analysis of coverage of the 2006 Queensland election by The Courier-Mail
Executive Summary
This research seeks to define and analyse various aspects of coverage of the 2006 state election campaign in Queensland as it appeared in the Brisbane-based daily tabloid newspaper, The Courier-Mail. The analysis quantifies and evaluates 420 editorial items that appeared in the paper during 34 days, commencing several days before the August 15 official announcement of the September 9 election by the Premier, Peter Beattie, and ending several days after Labor 's convincing victory that secured its fourth consecutive term in office. The study attempts to determine how the newspaper covered this election by application of a number of different methodologies:
- Data coding: All 420 items were coded on the basis of a range of spreadsheet categories. These were: story type, content type, story mood and setting, sources used, story placement, story scale and visuals, party and leader first and second mentions, tone of party coverage, leaders performances and relative importance of various issues.
- Graphics: The coded data was tabulated and transformed into a series of display graphs that illustrate trends in the coverage.
- Trend analysis: Trends thus exposed were analysed to draw out general observations on the way the newspaper handled the election institutionally. These related to the paper 's approach to election coverage, its coverage priorities and the implications of these things for the electoral process.
- Close reading of stories: A number of selected articles covering key aspects of the campaign were analysed to ascertain their relationship to the general trends in coverage identified elsewhere in the study.
The outcome provides an overview of the newspaper 's method of operation in covering the election campaign: its content priorities, volume of material, use of sources, treatment of party leaders, and many other facets of coverage. While qualities such as fairness, balance, accuracy and objectivity are difficult to define and verify, this study identifies elements of coverage in the The Courier-Mail that both bolster and work against these qualities. The analysis located no evidence of any direct, systematic and deliberate partiality or favouritism on the part of journalists and editors. Indeed, The Courier-Mail seems to have approached its tasks diligently and in accordance with accepted journalistic standards and practice. Within the constraints of its populist tabloid approach, the paper mounted an effective election coverage that maintained reasonable levels of fairness and impartiality balanced against news values and the requirement to make campaign coverage as interesting as possible.
However, the very business of shaping campaign coverage has major, unavoidable implications for the nature of the messages that the media sends to the public. News media are obviously integral to election campaigns as conduits for information; the electoral system could not work without access to large volumes of media space given over to election coverage. In return, the media demand access to information and reserve the right to tell stories and interpret the campaign in whatever ways they see fit. Thus the news media accept their obligation to provide adequate coverage of a key democratic institution but at the same time have a vested interest in talking up its most conjectural, conflicting aspects in order to maximise appeal to readers. Experienced political figures become accustomed to the requirements of the media and learn how to satisfy these, often generating mutual benefits in the process. Realistically, election campaigns are joint exercises involving both the media and the political establishment, with both sides trying to utilise the other to achieve their particular aims in connection with the target audience of voters. The ongoing development of this process had led to the development of ground rules by which all participants play the election campaign game; those who do not play by the rules may find themselves either ignored or castigated by the media and political opponents.
Some implications of the way the media in general play this game are well demonstrated in this analysis of election coverage in The Courier-Mail. Among the most important of these are:
Newspaper vested interest in the campaign process
The average of more than 12 items per day allocated to the election campaign reflects the vested interest The Courier-Mail had in this political process. As a major media outlet the newspaper assumes an obligation to devote a significant amount of space to state elections that on a sustained basis would be matched by few if other issues. The election scored a total of 26 front pages, making it far and away the most prominent story during this period. While this is a commendable recognition of the paper 's role in sustaining a viable democratic system, a significant outcome is that the newspaper takes on an institutional role in generating content throughout the campaign. This means the campaign is driven by a confluence of interests between the paper and other media, as well as political parties and other interest groups, all targeting the general public as an audience. In this instance The Courier-Mailgenerated a great deal of the material it ran, as opposed to simply reporting news as it happened. This is most obviously demonstrated by the preponderance of editorial, analysis and opinion items that made up nearly half the total coverage. As well, a great deal of the material - including heavy emphasis on opinion poll results - was generated by The Courier-Mail rather than by the political parties and other direct participants in the election campaign. This made the newspaper an active participant, rather than a detached observer of the process. In seeking to tell the story of the election campaign, the newspaper actually "invented" much of its own content, in the sense that this material would not have existed if The Courier-Mail had not deliberately sought it out. The large volume of subjective opinion items in relation to straight news reportage is a key indicator of the newspaper 's high level of active participation in the election process. This trend appears to be increasing across the media and has implications for notions such as objectivity and impartiality. It could be argued that a greater emphasis upon straight news reports would better assist readers to reach their own conclusions rather than receiving them from the newspaper. However, any such arguments need to be balanced against the market place realities of which media executives are only too aware.
The sports analogy
In common with many other media outlets, The Courier-Mail coverage continually portrayed the election campaign as a type of sporting contest in which the winner 's prize was a shot at government. In this tactical war of attrition the point score tally is reckoned by the opinion polls, which indicate the state of play at any given time up to the final score on election day. Every permutation of the polls is analysed and the actions of all political players are assayed primarily for the impact they will have on this scoreboard. The extent of this preoccupation is evidenced by both by the levels of interpretation and analysis discussed above and by the immense predominance of the election process among the issues covered in this campaign. This issue accounted for about one-third of the overall coverage, making it far and away the most discussed aspect of the campaign. The sports analogy can be carried further in that the election contest generates a set of rules that players must understand if they are to score points, while those who don 't play by the rules may be punished by either being castigated or ignored in the media. Campaign coverage in The Courier-Mail reflected the supreme political gamesmanship of the Premier, Peter Beattie, whose performance was portrayed variously as statesman-like, masterful, devious and dishonest - often within the same newspaper piece. At the other extreme, the hapless Liberal Party leader, Bruce Flegg, was dismissed as an inexperienced, poor player akin to a political clown. While the exciting dynamic of sport, which has so much appeal in Australia, is clearly a compelling model for political coverage, it is doubtful that it does much to foster rational consideration of policy alternatives or the personal merits of candidates. There is little doubt the obsessive focus upon winners and losers cheapens and trivialises the election process but this is not only an issue for the media. Political parties engage in the same political game because this helps to channel their campaign efforts into gaining media coverage and, hopefully, influencing people 's voting intentions. It is possible to argue that in conducting a copybook, professional campaign, the Queensland ALP proved itself more fit to govern than the Coalition, which undeniably had an inferior game plan and fumbled badly in its execution. However, the case is inconclusive because it is difficult to establish any direct correlation between election campaigning - which is chiefly about perceptions and impressions - and the actual business of government, which involves the complex business of making policy decisions that actually work in the real world.
Leaders ' leading role
If the media tends to treat election campaigns as a type of sport, leaders of political parties are clearly the team captains who dominate the spotlight of media attention. This election demonstrated the immense focus on leadership as an electoral issue that occupies vast amounts of editorial coverage, often to the detriment of matters that no doubt have much greater direct impact upon the electorate. Leadership was the third most-discussed issue in The Courier-Mail in terms of stories directly addressing the topic, however, it was a subtext running through most of the coverage. Specific issues-based stories made up less than one-third of the coverage, while parties and policies were relentlessly discussed in terms of leaders, especially the big three - Peter Beattie, Robert Springborg and Bruce Flegg. These leaders were far and away the main subjects for personality-based articles that accounted for one-in-five election articles. The same three men predominated in pictorial coverage and the fact that Mr Beattie could readily be visually identified as party leader no doubt added power to his campaign, while images of the dual Coalition front men emphasised the leadership problems, highlighted in the newspaper, that were possibly the main factor behind Labor 's victory. Further emphasising this problem, the Greens gained nearly 8 per cent of primary votes at the election but scored miniscule campaign coverage. No doubt this was partly due to the lack of Greens representation in Parliament but another likely factor is the absence of a distinctive figurehead upon whom to build media coverage. There is little doubt the media 's emphasis upon leadership is a distortion that bears little real connection with the realities of government but this trend is so deeply entrenched within the political-media complex that it would be naïve to assume it could easily be turned around. Needless to say it does little to inspire confidence that careful consideration of issues and policies is central to the media agenda or that of voters in general.
The advantages of government
While tone in news stories is a subtle matter, the clear trend in data on The Courier-Mail election campaign coverage is that the incumbent Government had a clear advantage in gaining media attention which it used to full advantage. Both the ALP and Mr Beattie dominated first mentions in articles of all types and scored remarkably positive coverage given that they were theoretically vulnerable on many fronts after a troubled term in office. The Premier in particular emerged as a dominant figure, somewhat emperor-like, persistently at the forefront of the campaign and implementing a copybook strategy based on tried and true strategies for success in Australian politics. While gaining first mention in stories does not necessarily involve a positive message, it has the advantage that readers skimming through stories - which might be most of them - are likely to notice a party or person named high up in the story rather than further down. In addition, first mentions tend to position the subject as an active, leading player while later mentions tend to be more reactive. The Opposition was reasonably competitive in terms of overall mentions but scored markedly badly in terms of first and positive mentions. National and Liberal mentions were fairly equal, which was not really a positive given the lack of cohesion evident in media coverage of the Coalition campaign. In particular, Mr Flegg performed disastrously in gaining nearly equal coverage, most of it negative, to Mr Springborg, the Opposition leader. In the absence of a strong Opposition able to pin the Government down on issues and policy, The Courier-Mail allowed Team Beattie to dominate the campaign by focusing attention on the perceived failings of the Coalition. This raises the question of how proactive the media should be in "keeping the bastards honest" and steering the campaign towards matters of substance rather than ephemera, image making and pointless point-scoring. There is no easy answer to this quandary but it seems unfortunate that the active media involvement in the campaign discussed above did not put more pressure on Labor to prove its real worth and justify its record in office.
Real news, in-depth: not the top priority
It is fair to say that deep exploration of election issues and competing policies was not a major preoccupation for the The Courier-Mail , given its populist, tabloid, tight and bright style. As stated above, issues-based items made up less than one-third of the coverage, well behind campaign analysis and slightly ahead of personality content. In addition, on any typical day during the campaign there were just one or two features, a story format that is commonly utilised to explore issues. Notable for their small numbers as well were set piece claim and response stories that made up about one in eight of the total number of stories. This story format allows the writer to cover an issue by stating the position of one side and juxtaposing against this the views of other relevant interests; the relative scarcity of these items in the The Courier-Mail emphasises the general scarcity of issues analysis.
Of the 164 items classified as news stories, more than one-third referred to only a single source and nearly an equal number referred to two sources. This leaves just 52 news stories quoting more than two news sources, a number that appears low in light of the fair expectation that journalists will seek out information from all sides of a public debate. Among the features, ten stories named either nil or only one source, while more than two-thirds noted two or more sources, which befits their greater length and breadth of content. Opinion and analysis items frequently mentioned no sources but this is not necessarily a concern given the nature of these items. As for news items, the average number of sources per story seems to be on the low side but simplistic criticism is not appropriate. Many single-source stories were short fillers and some others did not necessarily require a response or further comment. In addition, the need for concision is often paramount to the process of fitting material into available spaces. The matter is further complicated by the tendency of many media outlets to increasingly use online editorial space to expand upon story material appearing in conventional print media. Nonetheless, the sources issue is interesting, especially given that the Australian Press Council 's State of the News Print Media in Australia Report 2006 report found a relatively high number of single-source stories in its survey of major print media outlets.
Visual and digital journalism on the rise
No less than half of the editorial items in the election campaign coverage of The Courier-Mail included at least one visual element and in many cases there were several. The abundance of photographs, graphs, charts, drawings and other graphic elements is a very notable aspect of the coverage, reflecting the current widespread and increasing emphasis on visual journalism in print media. This election also saw new levels of interaction between print pages and the website, with plentiful pointers to online resources and quotes lifted from the newspaper 's blogging columns appearing in its op-ed pages.
| Total number of edition days surveyed | = | 34.0 |
| Total number of editorial items analysed | = | 420.0 |
| Average total of items/day | = | 12.4 |
| story type | count | percentage |
|---|---|---|
| News/Feature | 223 | 53 per cent |
| Analysis/Opinion/Editorial | 195 | 47 per cent |
| content type | count | percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | 202 | 49 per cent |
| Issue-based | 121 | 29 per cent |
| Personality | 90 | 22 per cent |
| mood | count | percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Serious | 352 | 85 per cent |
| Sensational | 34 | 8 per cent |
| Light-hearted | 30 | 7 per cent |
| setting | count | precentage |
|---|---|---|
| Media | 18 | 44 per cent |
| Political | 92 | 22 per cent |
| Set piece | 57 | 14 per cent |
| Other | 83 | 20 per cent |
| sources | 0/1 source | % | 2 sources | % | 2+ sources | % | claim sources & response | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All items | 117 | 35 | 77 | 24 | 91 | 28 | 41 | 13 |
| Features only - | 22 | 37 | 9 | 15 | 28 | 48 | ||
| News stories only - | 64 | 39 | 48 | 29 | 52 | 32 |
| position | count | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Page one | 26 | ||
| Pages two-five | 26 | ||
| After page five | 346 |
| story scale | visuals | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 10 paragraphs | 179 | |||
| 10 paragraphs or more | 231 | |||
| With visual | 215 |
| first mentions | percentage | second mentions | total mentions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | 247 | 55 | 89 | 350 |
| Liberal | 106 | 24 | 139 | 271 |
| National | 76 | 17 | 149 | 235 |
| Greens | 6 | 1 | 6 | |
| Others | 15 | 3 | 9 |
| Party | Positive | Negative | Initiative | Neutral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | 48 | 102 | 85 | 115 |
| Liberal | 13 | 101 | 70 | 87 |
| National | 21 | 59 | 63 | 92 |
| first mentions | %age | total story mentions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beattie | 210 | 66 | 272 |
| Flegg | 55 | 17 | 133 |
| Springborg | 53 | 17 | 130 |
| first mention | second mention | other mention | positive | negative | initiative | neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beattie | 210 | 36 | 26 | 29 | 65 | 64 | 62 |
| Flegg | 55 | 48 | 30 | 6 | 61 | 16 | 23 |
| Springborg | 53 | 56 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 31 | 46 |
| Issues | Count | Percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election process | 153 | 33 per cent | ||
| Healthcare | 80 | 18 per cent | ||
| Leadership | 73 | 16 per cent | ||
| Water supply | 50 | 11 per cent | ||
| Government services | 26 | 6 per cent | ||
| Regional affairs | 18 | 4 per cent | ||
| Transport | 15 | 3 per cent | ||
| Education | 12 | 3 per cent | ||
| Law and order | 12 | 3 per cent | ||
| Environment | 12 | 3 per cent | ||
| Other | 37 | 9 per cent |
Queensland election 9 September 2006
The election was held to elect 89 members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. It was announced on August 15 by the Premier, Peter Beattie, whose Labor Government had then been in power for three consecutive terms. The election saw the Beattie Government defeat the National-Liberal Coalition led by Lawrence Springborg and Bruce Flegg, giving Labor a fourth term in office. Beattie thus became the first Labor leader of Queensland since the 1930s to win four consecutive elections.
The ALP went into the election holding 60 of the 89 seats, a comfortable majority requiring a uniform negative swing of about 8 per cent for the Coalition to win sufficient seats from the Government to achieve an outright majority of 45. The Coalition held 23 seats (16 National and seven Liberal) and there were five Independents and a single One Nation Party member.
Despite its commanding margin, the Beattie Government appeared vulnerable in the wake of three by-election losses since the 2004 election. In addition, it faced mounting administrative and policy problems including:
- Alleged underspending on services and infrastructure
- Inadequacies in the power grid resulting in blackouts
- A pending water crisis blamed on poor government planning
- The so-called Dr Death scandal at Bundaberg Hospital and subsequent reports critical of bureaucrats and ministers
- A series of ministerial reshuffles resulting from controversies and resignations
- Environmental management and land clearing issues
- Transport and infrastructure in rural and regional areas
- Management of South East Queensland 's population growth
Thus there appeared to be widespread doubts about the Government 's competence and control over events as well as perceived deterioration in the quality of government services. Opinion polls during late 2005 and early 2006 indicated the Beattie Government 's standing had reached its lowest point since they took power in 1998. While the Government appeared at risk of losing public confidence to the point that it failed at the election, there were strong doubts the Opposition had convinced the electorate it was a better alternative.
The long-standing differences between the National and Liberal Parties were not resolved despite strenuous efforts in the 18 months leading up to the election. Negotiations to improve the relationship broke down and were followed in May 2006 by the sudden announcement of a merger that was rapidly rescinded. Then on the eve of the election, the Liberal leader Bob Quinn was unexpectedly replaced by Bruce Flegg, who went on to make a series of well-publicised blunders during the campaign. Partly due to their troubled relationship, the Coalition partners entered the election without a clearly articulated and integrated set of policies.
Despite some early signs the election would be close, Labor soon settled into a lead of about 10 per cent over the Coalition in opinion polls. The polls showed the Premier entered the campaign well ahead of the Coalition leaders and maintained a consistently higher standing throughout the campaign. Despite the handicap of a poor term in government, the Premier won public support for having a clearer vision than either of his opponents. As a result of all the above factors, the polls consistently showed that although many people believed the Government did not deserve to retain office, even more did not believe the Coalition did not deserve to win it.
The ALP emerged from its election win with primary support virtually unchanged at nearly 47 per cent and holding 59 seats, just one down on its pre-election tally. The Coalition partners picked up one seat each and both gained marginally in primary votes, mainly at the expense of the One Nation Party. The Liberals gained about 20 per cent of votes to hold eight seats and the Nationals nearly 18 per cent to hold 17. Independents gained nearly 5 per cent of primary votes to take four seats, one less than previously, while the Greens failed to take a seat despite gaining nearly 8 per cent of primary votes.
[Editor's note: The editor of The Courier-Mail, David Fagan, when he read the report on his newspaper's coverage of the 2006 Queensland election, sought to have the following comments published with the report. A more detailed response of his rebuttal has been published in the November APC News, and posted to the Council's website.
- The subject of the report is the question of accuracy, fairness and balance in reporting elections. It is clearly stated that in terms of coverage, balance and fairness, the researchers categorically state there was no evidence of systemic bias towards one political party.
- The researchers then make a number of conclusions and comments that appear to go far beyond their mandate. These comments and conclusions purport to be based on the data, taking into account the political context of the time. It is our very strong contention that these conclusions are ill-informed and inaccurate because:
- Mistakes made by the author, including getting the name of one of the key political figures wrong, indicate his knowledge of the broader political context leading up to and surrounding the election campaign is severely lacking. Because the conclusions draw significantly on an understanding of the broader events of the time - not just the 32 days of the analysis - the conclusions and comments in Dillon's executive summary should be dismissed.
- Crucial to an understanding of the election campaign and the newspapers coverage of it was the reporting on the key election issues the year preceding the poll. I think it is widely acknowledged that The Courier-Mail led reporting on the dominant issues of the campaign: hospitals, water, growth pressures and ability of the coalition to function. As this was not taken into consideration, either in the data analysis, the trend analysis, or the conclusions and comments, I believe they have no credibility.
- It appears from the loaded language used by the author (describing the newspaper as "populist, tabloid, tight and bright") and his dismissal of its interest in issues that he has a preconceived view about how a newspaper of The Courier-Mail's format reports elections. This insults its readers, journalists and publishers and appears to be prejudging the issue in a way the Press Council would condemn if published elsewhere.]