Handbook on Radio and Television Audience Research

1 1 2 Copyright © 1999 UNICEF and UNESCO UNICEF and UNESCO published the first edition of this book in 1993 in Paris. UNICEF,UNESCO and the BBC World Service Training Trust jointly published a revised and expanded second edition in 1999. - ISBN 92-806-3393-7 This web edition has some minor corrections and amendments and was first posted on the CBA website in 2007 The published version is still available. There are also translations into Frnech, Slovak and Indonesian. For more information, write to the author at [email protected] 2 3 Preface....................................................................................................................................................5 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................10 Why Audience Research? ............................................................................................................14 2. History of Audience Research......................................................................................................16 3. Audience Measurement or Quantitative Research .......................................................................20 3.1 Sampling:....................................................................................................................................22 Theory and Practice......................................................................................................................22 Samples and Censuses..................................................................................................................23 Defining the "Universe" ...............................................................................................................24 Selecting a Representative Sample...............................................................................................24 The Sampling Frame ....................................................................................................................26 Random or Probability Samples...................................................................................................29 Stratified Random Samples ..........................................................................................................30 Random Sampling Within a Survey .............................................................................................33 Quota Samples..............................................................................................................................36 Telephone Samples.......................................................................................................................39 Snowball Samples ........................................................................................................................39 Sampling and Statistical Theory:..................................................................................................40 3.2 The Questionnaire: The Art of Asking Questions......................................................................46 Designing a Questionnaire ...........................................................................................................46 Questions To Ask Before Designing Questions...........................................................................52 Not All Questions are Answerable!..............................................................................................55 Types of Question ........................................................................................................................56 Comment: .........................................................................................................................................64 Making Questions Work ..............................................................................................................66 The Order of Questions ................................................................................................................69 Checking or Testing the Reliability of Questions.........................................................................71 Social And Cultural Acceptability and Self Portrayal..................................................................72 Validity.........................................................................................................................................72 3.3 Pilot Testing ...............................................................................................................................73 3.4 The Interview .............................................................................................................................74 The Role of the Interviewer..........................................................................................................74 Checking Interviewers..................................................................................................................78 3.5 Checking and Editing of Questionnaires....................................................................................80 Back Checking .............................................................................................................................80 3.6 Some Common Problems Encountered in Field Research and Some Solutions ........................81 3.7 Translation of Questionnaires into Different Languages ...........................................................85 3.8 Audience and Media Measurement Research Methods in Use Today .......................................87 Self-Completion Diaries...............................................................................................................88 Television and Radio Audience Meters........................................................................................92 Personal Interviews ......................................................................................................................96 3.9 Research among specific target groups ....................................................................................104 3.10 Survey Research for Small Stations .......................................................................................105 3.11 Other Methods of Audience Measurement Research .............................................................106 4 Audience Opinion and Reaction......................................................................................................109 4.1 Panels .......................................................................................................................................109 4.2 Postal Self-Completion Questionnaires....................................................................................115 4.3 On-air Questionnaires for Radio Stations.................................................................................119 4.4 Appreciation Indices.................................................................................................................122 4.5 Other Measures.........................................................................................................................124 5 Qualitative Research........................................................................................................................125 5.1 Focus Groups, sometimes known as Group Discussions .........................................................128 Role Play ....................................................................................................................................135 Photo Sorting..............................................................................................................................135 Collages......................................................................................................................................136 Personification............................................................................................................................136 Picture or Scene Completion ......................................................................................................137 Word Association.......................................................................................................................138 3 4 Product and Service Mapping ....................................................................................................138 Sentence Completion..................................................................................................................138 Obituaries ...................................................................................................................................138 Examples of Focus Groups used in Audience Research ............................................................139 5.2 In-Depth Interviews..................................................................................................................141 5.3 Participant Observation ............................................................................................................143 5.4 Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research ......................................................................146 5.5 Analysis and Reporting Qualitative Research..........................................................................148 6 Desk Research .................................................................................................................................149 7

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