Laura Baghdasaryan, who heads the Region Research Center, talked today about the role that facebook is playing in the run-up to the May parliamentary elections in Armenia.

For the past two month’s Baghdasaryan’s organization, with assistance from the Open Society Foundations-Armenia has been working on a project called “Facebook as a pre-election platform in Armenia”

This is the first time in Armenia that monitoring is being conducted of the facebook social website. Results will show whether or not it is actually perceived as a pre-election platform and a vehicle by which voters and political candidates can actually engage in debate and dialog.

“Facebook is the most accessible way to present anything to a wider audience and to creat links with the public. It is free and has no restrictions, unlike other venues,” Baghdasaryan said.

 The researcher said that several political parties in Armenia have availed themselves of the platform to conduct public outreach and to convey their platforms before the May elections.

In the first phase of the project, Baghdasaryan has looked at the facebook pages of the online media in Armenia and studied the coverage provided regarding the parliamentary elections.

She noted that such a study provides unique insights as to what readers of the online media think about how these outlets are covering the topic at hand.