When media credibility is at its peak during general elections, it translates into a higher percentage of popular votes for ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), according to a survey carried out by a local academician.

The dean of the International Islamic University's (IIU) Research Centre and coordinator of its Election Studies Unit Prof Dr Syed Arabi Idid and his team have plotted BN's performance during the past four general elections against the results of their surveys on media credibility during the campaigns and found a correlation.

For example, media credibility was at its highest in 1995, with 96 percent of survey respondents finding television coverage of the campaign credible and 92 percent giving the thumbs up for newspaper coverage. BN's percentage of the popular vote was also the highest that year, standing at 65.1 percent.

In the 1999 general elections, TV credibility plunged to 74 percent and newspaper credibility to 68 percent. BN's share of the popular vote also fell to 56.5 percent.

The results rose across the board in the March 2004 polls, with TV credibility at 89 percent, newspaper credibility at 80 percent and BN winning 64.4 percent of the popular vote.

"If people perceived the media as credible, they found the news more acceptable and were more likely to vote BN," Syed Aribi was quoted as saying in a Bernama report yesterday.

He also noted that when TV and newspaper credibility rose, Internet credibility dropped.

"When media credibility is low, people look for alternative sources, but when media credibility is high, they question the Internet," he said.

During the last campaign period, only 10 to 15 percent of respondents said they got their information from the Internet.

Give more space

The academician also conceded that the majority of the media coverage during election campaigns concerned BN and were favourable to the ruling coalition.

He cited last year's polls as an example where between 44 to 54 percent of the election reports in the Malay newspapers, between 45 to 51 percent of the reports in English newspapers and between 29 to 39 percent of the reports in the Chinese newspapers favoured BN, compared to between 4 to 11 percent of positive coverage for the opposition among the newspapers. "Neutral" coverage ranged between 27 to 48 percent among the various newspapers.

"But this did not have a correlation with the votes," claimed Syed Arabi.

Asked how the media could increase its credibility, the professor recommended giving more space to the opposition and concentrating on straight reporting rather than editorialising.

"Credibility now is quite high, but I doubt it could go back to 1995 level. The young today are quite sceptical and have more access to other forms of information," he pointed out.

His findings are expected to be published by June, in a book tentatively titled, Agenda Setting of the Press: The 2004 Elections .

The opposition has often cried foul over what it terms as 'unbalanced' coverage by the media during election periods.

Print and electronic media in Malaysia are governed by laws, which detractors point out, allow the powers that be to keep these organisations on a leash.