An Analysis of the coverage of the 2008 presidential election campaign in periodical press in Cyprus

Abstract

This article examines the performance of what is considered non-partisan newspaper periodicals in Cyprus during the 2008 presidential election campaign, in order to elucidate how the 21st-century periodical press engages with election campaigns and how liberal values of free speech and press freedom are put into practice in this cluster of periodicals. Implementing qualitative content analysis this article is differentiated from what has been published in JEPS and opens a new stream of thought and research with regards to the periodical press, as it sets in the centre of the examination the 21st-century newspaper periodicals and adopts a social sciences perspective and methodology. The findings provide evidence of the content of 21st-century periodicals during an election campaign and reinforce the distinctiveness of periodical press as a cultural object and not simply as a means to distribute information. The analysis illustrates that newspaper periodicals in the contemporary era constitute cultural objects that are autonomous and have certain policy lines. It further provides insights in order to understand better liberal values, such as the free speech and the freedom of the press and to clarify the understanding of the practice of journalism in the newspaper press and of the self-regulation by the press.  This article supports that newspaper periodicals remain valuable for historical research and essential in order to clarify the understanding of the functioning of the newspaper press industry. It further suggests that periodicals constitute key resources for restoring, at any time, the miscellany of conditions and circumstances that characterise different eras and various historical, social, and political moments.