Comparative Journalism: Elections all around

Let's focus on the post-election news cycle about Russia.

So Putin was re-elected and nobody is surprised. Because Russia is Russia, there was, however, plenty of surprise about the fact that there were people who showed their doubts about a future built up around Putin. Whether that would be as prime minister, president, or the icon of a patron saint, guarding Russia in all eternity, amen. But after the dust settled, everyone moved on. Election fraud in Russia is not interesting in itself.

European, American and other Western quickly turned to the page, to different subjects. The front pages of their websites show absolutely no trace of elections in Russia. Neither Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Reuters, the New York Times (or its international version), Le Monde (or Le Monde Diplomatique). If you zoom in on the 'European' subsections, you will find news about... planned protest. Particularly on how the opposition leaders seek to sustain them.

But when we take a look at, say ITAR-TASS, the Russian agency, the main article is about the election commission that unanimously declared the elections a success and fair. A picture is included to show us just how dear this journalism is to them. This is not because of ITAR TASS's concern for Russian news. This can also be derived from the 'failure' of protests by the opposition movement, according to it. It is clear that the news agency represents the view of the Russian leaders. Thus, when they elaborate on the legitimacy of the elections, as sanctioned by the election commission, this is unrelated to a more elaborate treatment of Russian news by a Russian press agency. It is more likely due to a discrepancy in views between legitimate democracies and 'arguably less legitimate democracies'. Some regimes have to administer much more concern to issues of legitimacy because they feel a strong need to do so. The Russian will vehemently deny such a thing. However, one can see Western elections usually not paying any attention to legitimacy, at all. Usually this issue does not arise and no election commission is invoked.

Another beautiful indicator of this urgent need to stress legitimacy, long after the facts, is to be found on the Xinhua website. And when we give a closer look to Xinhua, it does not even mention a protest movement in Russia. The urgency of the need to stress legitimacy and remain quiet about protests, may very well be inversely proportional to the presence of the actual thing. Using this model offers us a very interesting way to analyze election cycles the world over.

It is with the greatest interest that I would like to use this approach in the future. One interesting event to try it on, is the 'election' of a new president, prime minister and central committee in China. Because of the highly original nature of this 'election', that may prove to be a long shot, however.