A peek at Malta's 2008 electoral campaign through the lens of in-Nazzjon and l-Orizzont

Abstract

Maltese language newspapers are considered to be the mouthpiece of the national parties in Malta. During electoral campaigns the papers are the battle ground on which issues are discussed and debated. Votes are won or lost with newspaper readership. For decades, the Maltese have been fascinated by the strikingly different portrayal of any debated issue in different media. This dissertation seeks to decipher the differences in the similar attitudes that the newspaper organisations adopt. It confirms such differences and delves into a world of propaganda, manipulation and character assassination. On the other hand, news editors explain these differences in terms of different perceptions and the commercial and ideological viability of the choice of news. For this analysis it was thought fit to fuse anthropological and phenomenology observations in the analytical process.