***Estudio
revela el sesgo abusivo de la televisión venezolana a favor del régimen de
Maduro
Un
estudio publicado en America Quarterly del Council of Americas por Javier
Corrales y Franz Von Bergen, hace 48 horas, revela el gran sesgo
anti-oposicionista en la televisión venezolana. En el estudio se comparan las
noticias favorables y desfavorables para el gobierno y la oposición en las
televisoras Globovisión, Venevisión y Venezolana de televisión, VTV.
Ver el
estudio completo en: http://www.americasquarterly.
Abajo
transcribo los resultados del estudio y parte de las conclusiones a las cuales
llegan los autores:
“Coverage time
All
three stations devoted far more time to government electoral campaigns than to
the opposition’s (see Table 1). VTV in particular gave zero time to covering
the opposition’s campaign.
Table 1: Percentage of total political news coverage time devoted to electoral campaigns
Table 1: Percentage of total political news coverage time devoted to electoral campaigns
Positive sentiment
All
three stations devoted far more reporting to positive stories for the ruling
party or the Maduro administration than for the opposition (see Table 2). In
the case of VTV, 78 percent of its political news coverage time was devoted to
positive stories about the ruling party; there were zero positive stories on
the opposition.
Table 2: Percentage of total political news coverage time devoted to positive coverage of government and opposition performance
Table 2: Percentage of total political news coverage time devoted to positive coverage of government and opposition performance
Negative sentiment
The good news is that negative reporting on candidates and
campaigns, from both sides, has been very low (see Table 3). All three TV
stations kept negative reporting on campaigns to a minimum.
Table 3: Percentage of total air time devoted to negative coverage of campaigning stories
Table 3: Percentage of total air time devoted to negative coverage of campaigning stories
The situation is a bit different regarding coverage of government
or opposition performance, rather than electoral campaign stories (see Table
4). Here we see far more negative reporting. Globovisión and Venevisión offer
critical views of government performance 10 percent and 20 percent of the time,
respectively, whereas VTV offered zero negative reporting. When it comes to the
ruling party, it is clear that all three stations offer far more positive
coverage than negative.
The reverse is true for coverage of the opposition. The opposition holds few state offices, meaning that there is not much that TV media can do to criticize the opposition’s performance. The one area where criticisms of the opposition are made has to do with stories about “economic sabotage,” which is in line with the government’s position of blaming Venezuela’s economic crisis on economic warfare waged by the opposition. If we add the amount of time devoted to negative coverage of performance of the opposition and stories about economic sabotage, we find that all three stations offer more negative coverage of the opposition’s performance than positive.
Table 4: Percentage of total air time devoted to coverage of performance, by sentiment (positive or negative)
The reverse is true for coverage of the opposition. The opposition holds few state offices, meaning that there is not much that TV media can do to criticize the opposition’s performance. The one area where criticisms of the opposition are made has to do with stories about “economic sabotage,” which is in line with the government’s position of blaming Venezuela’s economic crisis on economic warfare waged by the opposition. If we add the amount of time devoted to negative coverage of performance of the opposition and stories about economic sabotage, we find that all three stations offer more negative coverage of the opposition’s performance than positive.
Table 4: Percentage of total air time devoted to coverage of performance, by sentiment (positive or negative)
Conclusion
In a recent letter to
Venezuela’s electoral authorities, OAS Secretary General Luis
Almagro denounced, among other things, the “lack of guaranteed access to the
media” offered to the opposition. Essentially, he was echoing what most media
observers have long
said about Venezuela: Media bias is a chronic problem during campaigns.
The pre-campaign period shows that biased reporting by Venezuela’s main TV media is getting worse. All TV media displayed obvious forms of pro-government bias. Even the independent and privately owned media (Venevisión and Globovisión) offered far more attention to the ruling party’s electoral activities and performance in office than to opposition affairs. In all three stations, positive stories about the ruling party far outweighed negative stories. In VTV, there were simply no critical stories of the ruling party.
The pre-campaign period shows that biased reporting by Venezuela’s main TV media is getting worse. All TV media displayed obvious forms of pro-government bias. Even the independent and privately owned media (Venevisión and Globovisión) offered far more attention to the ruling party’s electoral activities and performance in office than to opposition affairs. In all three stations, positive stories about the ruling party far outweighed negative stories. In VTV, there were simply no critical stories of the ruling party.
Opposition candidates, in contrast, were hardly covered, and in
the case of VTV were not covered not at all. Negative stories about opposition
electoral activities, while not that common, outweighed positive coverage…..
In sum, a strategy of “invisibilization” of the opposition has
replaced TV polarization. Today, no station seems to be providing much
pro-opposition coverage. All national-level TV media, both public and private,
is now pro-government. This invisibilization strategy helps explain why so far
negative reporting on the opposition is also relatively low: If little in
general is being said about the opposition on TV, there is also very little to
criticize”.
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