Election Commission to hire private firm to monitor media coverage of polls in five states: Report

The ECI has drawn criticism over its stand on alleged violations of electoral processes in the past

DH Web Desk,

Nov 26 2021, 12:16 ist
updated: Nov 26 2021, 15:00 ist

Representative picture. Credit: Reuters Photo

In a first, the Election Commission of India (ECI), as part of its preparations for polls in five states next year, will hire a private firm to monitor coverage of electoral processes and get feedback from the ground.

The reason the poll body wants to hire a private agency is to get timely feedback from the ground, especially from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, Sheyphali Sharan, a spokesperson for the ECI told News18.

A request for proposal (RFP) was also floated by the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) on behalf of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. A deadline of November 30 has been set for bids.

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Detailing the role of the agencies, the RFP stated that the firm will have to closely track all print, television and online media, alongside social media platforms and foreign press on the coverage of the ECI and the poll processes in the five states.

“The list would change periodically as per the states going to polls and it is not feasible to meet the ECI’s requirements with the standard list of the Press Information Bureau,” Sharan told the publication.

In the past, the ECI has drawn criticism over its stand on alleged violations of electoral processes, another reason for its move to hire a firm.

Sharan said that the ministries like the MEA have feedback agencies exclusively suited to their requirements and the EC also felt the need to have a specific agency tailored to its needs.

The firm will generate periodic sentiment analysis reports, categorising news reports and opinion pieces generated by the media as positive, neutral or negative. Additionally, the firm will be required to create an interactive dashboard for all platforms, where related content will be uploaded, alongside real-time notifications, on poll-related developments, the report said.

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