Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections 2013 - Media Programme Southeast Europe
Event Reports
Christian Spahr, head of the KAS Media Program South East Europe, and Orlin Spassov, head of FMD, presented the results of the media monitoring on the parliamentary elections 2013 at a press conference in Sofia on 20th of May.
The survey focused on the election coverage of the most important daily newspapers, such as “24 hours” and “Telegraph”, as well as magazines and online media. With the support of research agency Market Links, FMD and KAS analysed the media presence of politicians and political parties between January and May 2013.
The media monitoring showed a significant change in the political reporting after the protests in February 2013. Politicians of the former government that used to be judged in a highly positive way, quickly lost media support after their resignation. The election campaign was heavily influenced by different scandals. This led to an emotionally accentuated reporting and to a lack of in-depth discussions on the general situation in Bulgaria.
“Mutual accusations of political competitors have received broad media coverage”, analysed Christian Spahr. “The demonstrations and the election campaign did not trigger a real discussion in the media whether and how the political course of the country has to be set in the future. The protests and scandals turned out to be a matter of short-term interest”.
The most frequently mentioned politicians in the media from January until May 2013 were Ex-prime Minister Boyko Borissov and former Interior Minister Tzvetan Tzvetanov. Due to the political situation of transition after the resignation of Borissov, President Rosen Plevneliev and interim Prime Minister Marin Rajkov gained also more attention.
The study shows the development of the coverage of daily newspapers, tabloid and online media, lifestyle-magazines, the blogosphere and social networks during the election campaign.
