NORTH SOUTH SOUTH COURSE ON POLITICAL COMMUNI.pptVIP

NORTH SOUTH SOUTH COURSE ON POLITICAL COMMUNICATION 15-22ND JUNE 2010 COVERING ELECTIONS LIC.ERNEST K. MRUTU COVERING ELECTIONS Political reporting, in its many forms, often has been compared to sports writing, and with justifiable reason. Whenever victory is won, the winning campaign manager or coach is regarded as a genius while the losing coach or manager is regarded as incompetent. Okigbo, C. (1994:119) News of politics and government is of interest both to a general as well as to a specialized readership of newspapers, and to a listener ship and viewer ship of radio and television. The story of politics and government especially in the developing countries of Africa presents the news media with one of their greatest challenges. The process of such determination, them is the essential process. The political reporter must be familiar with the key events and institutions of the political process-the party caucus, the conventions the primaries where applicable, campaigns and elections, and also the electorate on whom the entire process is based by the mass media depends upon the ability of the political reporter to comprehend, articulate and interpret all of these components. The functions and responsibilities of the political reporter It is the responsibility of the political reporter to help the public, especially the voter, look closely, indeed, to catch a glimpse of political reality. A curious investigator would like to know what this responsibility is, and the functions that the political writer must fulfill if the public’s or voter’s picture of reality is not to become hopelessly skewed, blurred, or incomplete. Okigbo, C. (1994:121) points out that, George S Hage and others have identified the function of the political writer as: Reporting and interpreting events Defining issues Portraying personalities Investigation support Identifying trends, and Checking and analyzing public opinion. Handling political reporter A well trained and articulate po