Viewership and Listenership Survey

VIEWERSHIP & Listenership Survey Lashio & North Okkalapa

Research conducted by Ah Yo, Su Mon, Soe Win Myint with the FEBRUARY 2017 assistance of LRC in Lashio, Saitta Thukha Development Institute in REPORT WRITTEN BY: North Okkalapa, and Xavey Research Solutions. Anna Zongollowicz, PhD FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Isla Glaister Country, Director of Search for Common Ground - Myanmar Email: [email protected] VIEWERSHIP & LISTENERSHIP SURVEY Lashio & North Okkalapa 2

CONTENTS

SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND VIEWERSHIP & LISTENERSHIP SURVEY Lashio & North Okkalapa 3

CONTENTS

Executive Summary 4 TV 5 Radio 6 Social Media 6 Reaction to News 6 Conclusion 7 Recommendations 7 Listenership & Viewership Survey 8 Introduction 8 Youth 9 Media 9 Methodology 11 Sampling 12 Limitations 12 Findings 13 Demographics 13 TV Viewership 14 Radio Listenership 16 Social Media 17 © Search for Common Ground - Myanmar (2017) Disclaimer Reaction to News 18 The research has been carried out with the financial assistance of the Peace Support Fund. Conclusion 19 The opinions expressed in the report are those of the authors and in no circumstances Recommendations 20 refer to the official views of Search for Common Ground or the Peace Support Fund. References 21

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The report contains findings from a quantitative survey examining TV viewership, radio listenership and social media usage, which was conducted in the third week of November 2016 in Lashio (Shan State) and North Okkalapa (Greater Yangon). The survey targeted 488 respondents. The goal of the survey was to gather data related to people’s access to, usage of and preferences for various media, be it TV, radio or social media to better inform the multi-media campaign, which Search for Common Ground is preparing with Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) as part of the 12-month “Let’s Think, Let’s Change: Promoting Diversity through Popular Culture” project funded by the Peace Support Fund. The survey was conducted alongside a qualitative rapid conflict assessment, whose objective was to understand the key driving factors for peace and conflict, and the dynamics and the actors in each of the target areas (available as a separate report).

The fieldwork was managed by an international consultant, who designed the methodology, and was supported by SFCG staff, local partners and Xavey Research Solutions - a private research solutions service provider in Myanmar. The data was collected using an electronic survey that was administered by enumerators equipped with tablets. Enumerators were drawn from the local partners’ networks and trained in North Okkalapa and Lashio by Xavey and SFCG staff. All the enumerators were Buddhist. The data was collected offline and uploaded at the end of each data collection day. Xavey Research Solutions created the SPSS data sheet that was used for analysis.

Of the 488 respondents, 48.6% were women and 51.4% were men. The overwhelming majority of respondents were Buddhists, followed by Christians, Muslims and Hindus. One reason for this disparity is that Buddhists are the dominant religious group in both survey locations. Another reason, which explains why a higher number of Christians rather than Muslims were surveyed can be attributed to the unease of enumerators who were predominantly Buddhist with limited links to the Muslim communities in the respected town.

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• The survey found that in Lashio 98.3% and in North Okkalapa 91.1% of respondents watched TV.

• In both locations, Monday and Saturday emerged as the most popular days for viewing TV. Of the 462 respondents who answered the question about their preferred TV viewing day, 39.4% identified Monday and 28.4% indicated Saturday. Wednesday and Thursday were identified as the least popular days for watching TV with Wednesday being the least popular in Lashio and Thursday being the least popular in North Okkalapa. It is not clear from the survey why certain days are preferred over others. It may be related to programming, e.g. new TV series episodes are shown on Saturdays and Sunday, and re-runs are likely to be shown on Mondays.

• The survey found that the most popular TV channels in Lashio and North Okkalapa were MRTV4, MRTV and Channel 7. It is noteworthy that the favourite channels are state-owned or controlled media and available free of charge.

• In both locations, Monday and Saturday emerged as the most popular days for viewing TV. It is not clear from the survey why certain days are preferred over others. It may be related to programming, e.g. new TV series episodes are shown on Saturdays and Sunday, and re-runs are likely to be shown on Mondays.

• The survey found that both women and men, in Lashio and North Okkalapa, were most likely to tune in to TV to watch ‘the news’. ‘Music programmes’ emerged as the second most popular viewing material for women, while ‘sports’ emerged as the second most popular viewing material for men. A clear preference for a specific TV series, film or programme did not emerge from the survey.

• The majority of respondents in both locations indicated that their preferred time to watch TV was in the evening, especially in the early evening between 6pm-8pm. The preferred times were almost the same for both sexes, although men were more likely than women to watch TV later in the evening, between 8pm-10pm.

• People learn about upcoming programming from the TV itself, followed by friends and social media. In Lashio and North Okkalapa, over 80% of women learnt about new programming from the TV, less than 5% knew about it from social media and in North Okkalapa only one woman said she learnt from a friend, while 5.5% of women in Lashio knew from friends. In the case of men, just over 70% knew about upcoming programming from the TV itself, around 10% learnt about it on social media and some 8% knew about it from friends. This small but notable discrepancy is reflective of the roles that women and men play in Myanmar’s society/ies with women being more house-bound and exposed to TV than men who can spend time outside the household more freely and access a variety of media.

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RADIO

• There was a notable difference in radio listenership between people in Lashio and North Okkalapa. Overall 67.8% of respondents in Lashio said they listened to the radio versus 42.7% in North Okkalapa. Almost 70% of respondents said they listened to the radio at home with women more likely to listen at home than men in both Lashio and North Okkalapa. The remaining 30% gave a variety of answers ranging from a teashop - particularly for men - to a public bus to a car or taxi. Among those who did not listen to the radio around 55% said they did not like the radio, 29.4% said they did not have a radio and 14.9% said they did not have time to listen to it.

• In both locations Mondays followed by weekends emerged as the preferred days for listening to the radio. Cherry FM was identified as the most received radio station in both Lashio and North Okkalapa. Following Cherry FM, Myanmar Radio and Shwe FM emerged as the second most popular radio stations in Lashio and North Okkalapa respectively.

• The survey found a clear difference in the listenership of radio talk shows. In Lashio respondents were more 12% more likely to like and listen regularly to talk shows than in North Okkalapa. In both places a similar percentage of respondents said they liked and listen sometimes to radio talk shows. People did not express an obvious preference for a radio personality/presenter.

• While the data shows that respondents in Lashio and North Okkalapa slightly prefer to listen to the radio between 6am-8am, the data also shows that people tend to listen to the radio throughout the day (much more so than watching TV, for which people had clearly preferred times) although they are least likely to do so between 4pm-6pm, which is the time when families regroup at home after a day’s work or school, prepare dinner, eat, do homework and tend to personal chores.

SOCIAL MEDIA

• The overwhelming majority of all respondents had internet access on their phones. In Lashio 94.6% of women and 96.9% of men said they had access to the internet on their phones. In North Okkalapa this was the case for 89.7% women and 96.7% of men.

• In line with popular knowledge in Myanmar, Facebook and Viber emerged as social media platforms of choice, with Facebook clearly ahead of Viber. Almost 85% of respondents at both locations said they accessed social media every day primarily to access the news and for fun. The majority used their phones for access.

• The 7 Daily, 11 Media and the Crime Journal were identified as the main sources of news. The downloading of apps and music emerged as common, with very few respondents downloading films, books, games or educational materials. Facebook emerged as the most popular app.

REACTION TO NEWS

• In both Lashio and North Okkalapa, men showed a greater tendency to worry about news about disagreements, while women were more worried about news about violence. Collectively, over 90% of people in Lashio worried about disagreements and violence, while in North Okkalapa, 71% worried about disagreements and violence and around 16% worried about crime.

The most common ways for people to establish the veracity of news was to check other types of news. The rapid conflict assessment found that this meant mostly checking print media against audio-visual media, especially TV news. ‘Other sources’ were revealed to be family and friends, and in both Lashio and North Okkalapa, men were more likely than women to check ‘other sources’.

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• In addition to checking other news sources, ‘reading comments’ emerged as the second most common way of checking news. The risk of this - currently much discussed in the international media - is that people’s opinions - however biased, prejudiced or misinformed - become legitimate information possibly contributing to the spread of false information. What is more, if the comments are directly on someone’s FB wall, rather than the newsfeed or as part of the news item, people tend to see their own thoughts and opinions reflected at them, confirming bias rather than challenging it.

CONCLUSION The survey found that young people prefer television to radio, that they are more likely to trust state media rather than private media, and that they are habitual users of social media. Young people rely on family and friends to discuss worrisome information and to establish the veracity of certain news. Young people need access to credible information. They are susceptible to other people’s opinions - especially ‘group think’ - and find social media, especially platforms such as FaceBook and Viber a good place to vent and garner support for what they think or worry about. Although the young know the risks of social media, they tend to see those risks apply only to non- plausible information rather than consider how bias and prejudice spread and contribute to stereotypes, who plausibility is seldom challenged.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Interactive training sessions for youth and their peers on the impact of online activity on their surroundings and beyond; interesting examples include teachers in other countries trying to show their young students the dangers of the internet by posting a message to Facebook and asking people to spread it and indicate their location in the comment section.

• A deeper and wider study of media usage in the households and beyond, e.g. to gain a better understanding of who controls, which channel or programme on TV will be watched. A deeper study would allow to gain a better understanding of the extent to which youth access media as opposed to being exposed to it by others.

• The most popular broadcasting times are in the early morning or evening, which correlates with the fact that news and films are shown at these respective times. It may be difficult to access those broadcast times with content that does not reflect the various stations priorities or desired rankings. It would be advisable, owever,h to ensure that any media content produced within the framework of the Let’s Think, Let’s Change project Is broadcast at times when people are very likely or likely to tune in rather than airing content when most young people would not be able to view it.

• The current survey did not explicitly reach out to disadvantaged youth, e.g. child labourers whose poverty compounds many of the issues that young people face, including discrimination on religious grounds. Child labourers, or youth labourers, tend to work very long days with little time off and may have limited access to any other media but social media. Specific pages on Facebook or Viber groups could be established to launch moderated discussions on topics of concerns and use the pages as a way to gather information for creating events and public services announcements (e.g. billboards) to draw a larger public to an issue.

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LISTENERSHIP & VIEWERSHIP SURVEY

The report contains findings from a survey examining TV viewership, radio listenership and social media usage, which was conducted in the third week of November 2016 in Lashio (Shan State) and North Okkalapa (Greater Yangon). The survey targeted 488 respondents across the two locations with the goal of gathering data related to people’s access to, usage of and preferences for various media, be it TV, radio or social media. The survey was conducted as part of the 12- month “Let’s Think, Let’s Change: Promoting Diversity through Popular Culture” project, which Search for Common Ground is implementing in an effort to address rumours that contribute to an enabling environment for violence in Myanmar. Funded by the Peace Support Fund, the Project combines community-based work led by youth leaders with a multi-media campaign, television public service announcements (PSAs), and a radio talk show in collaboration with Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) - Myanmar’s state-owned and most widely accessible television and radio stations.

INTRODUCTION

In Myanmar, armed conflict between central government forces - the Tatmadaw - and etnic armed groups (EAGs) is well-documented. The root causes may be found in the colonial period, events leading up to independence – such as the 1947 Panglong Conference - and events following independence, which was achieved in 1948. Emerging as a democratic and federal ‘nation-state’ in 1948, Myanmar (then known as Burma) became a one party state in 1962 after General Ne Win took power in a military coup abolishing the federal system and inaugurating “the Burmese 1 Way to Socialism” . Despite the economy undergoing reform in the early 1970s with some of those responsible for promoting rigid state control being moved aside, what followed were decades of military rule, discrimination against non-Burmans, insurgencies, and the suppression and persecution of political opposition and movements.

Inter-communal conflict, while not knew, emerged as an important governance challenge in step with the political transformation of the country, which began in 2011 under president Thein Sein. Decades of policies enacted to protect the Burman Buddhist identity – i.e. the national identity – have resulted not only in the insitituonalised discrimination of those whose identity does not conform to the desired norm but also in their demonisation. In an article on ethnicity and Burman privilege in Myanmar, the author Matthew Walton argued that such policies resulted in ‘Burman- ness [becoming] a form of institutionalised dominance similar to Whiteness’ and that ‘the inability of Burmans to recognise 2 this privilege and to actively work against it inhibits efforts to forge ethnic unity in Myanmar’ . Indeed, research has shown that changes brought about since 2011 did not only intensify the competition for resources but also ‘the desire 3 to protect the Burmese Buddhist identity’ .

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (DASSK) took power on March 30, 2016. The State Councillor made peace her priority. The ICG argued that by then ‘the peace process essentially was in stasis […] meanwhile the situation on the ground remained volatile, with fighting continuing to break out sporadically, and often unexpectedly, in many different parts of the 4 country’ . Since her term began, DASSK has come under frequent criticism for her handling of the peace process - 5 starting with the less than inclusive 21st century Panglong Conference - and her apparent silence on the human rights

1 Josef Silverstein, First Steps on the Burmese Way to Socialism, Asian Survey, Vol. 4, No. 2, A Survey of Asia in 1963: Part II (Feb., 1964), pp. 716-722 2 Matthew J. Walton, The ‘‘Wages of Burman-ness:’’ Ethnicity and Burman Privilege in Contemporary Myanmar, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 00, No. 0, Month 2012, pp. 1–27, p. 1-2 3 Rachel Blomquist, Ethno-Demographic Dynamis of the Rohingya-Buddhist Conflcit, Fall 2016, Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs, pp. 95-117, p.96; see also Matthew J. Walton and Susan Hayward, Contesting Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nation- alism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar, Honolulu: East-West Center, 2014 4 International Crisis Group, Myanmar’s Peace Process: Getting to a Political Dialogue, Crisis Group Asia Briefing N°149, Yangon/Brussels, 19 October 2016, p.2 5 Richard Dolan, The Problem With the 21st Century Panglong Conference, The Diplomat, August 06, 2016, accessed on January 11, 2017 at http://thediplomat.com/2016/08/the-problem-with-the-21st-century-panglong-conference/; see also Radio Free Asia, Myanmar’s Panglong Peace Conference to Begin on Aug. 31, August 8, 2016, accessed on January 11, 2017 at http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/myanmars-panglong-

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YOUTH

In Myanmar, there does not exist a consistent definition of youth. On the one hand, the 1993 Child Law, which is currently under review, defines youth as those between 16-18 years of age. On the other hand, in November 2016, 7 The Myanmar Youth Forum defined ‘youths as people between the ages of 16 and 35’ . The Forum together with the 8 National Youth Congress, and the National Youth Network claim to represent all youth in Maynmar . The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement began developing the National Youth Policy in April 2016.

The lack of consensus on the definition of youth exists on the international level too. The 2015 United Nations Security Council resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security, which represents‘an acknowledgment of the urgent need to engage young peacebuilders in promoting peace and countering extremism’ defines youth as those who fall into the 18-29 age range. This definition differs from those of the General Assembly (A /RES/50/81 and A /RES/56/117), which consider youth to be between 15-24 yrs. Search for Common Ground’s definition of youth encompasses 18-35 year olds.

9 The main challenges faced by Myanmar youth are lack of affordable and adequate education, poverty, unemployment . These challenges, especially those due to poverty stand in the way of youth’s ability to participate fully in the development of their communities and beyond. The obligation to help their families financially and the restrictive social norms, e.g. those, which do not allow young women to leave their homes in the evening until they reach a 10 certain age are formidable obstacles to youth’s public engagement .

This does not mean that young people do not want to be involved in matters affecting their communities and country, especially the peace process. Until now, the Myanmar youth has played only a marginal part in the peace process but 11 it has made repeated calls for a more prominent role in the peace talks . A significant initiative in this direction was 12 undertaken by the Ethnic Youth Conference which brought together some 800 youth delegates in August 2016 . The summit resulted in the creation of the Ethnic Youth Alliance, whose aim was to have youth voices considered at the the 21st Century Panglong Conference.

MEDIA

The 2011-2016 government of Thein Sein introduced reforms that transformed Myanmar media. The most significant reforms included ‘the 2014 of the Printing and Publishing Enterprise Law (PPEL), which officially abolished past prior censorship and allowed newspapers to become editorially independent from the state; the Broadcasting Law of 2015, which enables private, public and community media to flourish [and the 2015] establishment of the Myanmar News

peace-conference-to-begin-on-aug-31-08082016160444.html; The Myanmar Times, Union Peace Conference 21st Century Panglong, accessed on January 11, 2017 athttp://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/panglong-2016.html 6 See: Editorial, Aung San Suu Kyi’s Cowardly Stance on the Rohingya, May 9, 2016, accessed on December 10, 2016 at https://www.nytimes. com/2016/05/09/opinion/aung-san-suu-kyis-cowardly-stance-on-the-rohingya.html; Mehdi Hasan, Aung San Suu Kyi’s shameful silence on the Rohingya, Aljazeera, December 3, 2016, accessed on December 3, 2016 at http://www.aljazeera.com/pr ogrammes/upfr ont/2016/12/aung-san- suu-kyi-shameful-silence-rohingya-161202091601640.html; Annie Gowen, Aung San Suu Kyi defends herself against claims she’s ignored Rohingya Muslim persecution, The Independent, October 20, 2016, accessed on December 5, 2016 at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/aung- san-suu-kyi-rohingya-muslims-burma-humanitarian-crisis-a7371626.htm 7 Coconuts Yangon, Myanmar Youth Forum defines youths as people aged 16-35, November 18, 2016, accessed on December 3, 2016 at http:// yangon.coconuts.co/2016/11/18/myanmar-youth-forum-defines-youths-people-aged-16-35 8 Youth Policy. Org, Myanmar Factsheet, accessed on December 3, 2016 at http://www.youthpolicy.org/factsheets/country/myanmar/ 9 MITV, Myanmar Youth: Key Issues To Prioritize, March 23, 2016, accessed on November 30, 2016 at http://www.myanmaritv.com/news/myanmar- youth-key-issues-prioritize 10 Action Aid, Being young in Myanmar: poverty, solidarity and expectations, August 13, 2012, accessed on Decemver3, 2016 at http://actionaid. org/2012/08/being-young-myanmar-–-poverty-solidarity-and-growing-expectations 11 Eleven Media, Myanmar youth call for role in peace process, December 22, 2015, accessed on December 1, 2016 at http://www.elevenmyanmar. com/local/myanmar-youth-call-role-peace-process; Lun Min Aung, Ethnic youths call for greater role in peace process, January 28, 2016, accessed on December 1, 2016 at http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/18695-ethnic-youths-call-for-greater-role-in-peace-process.html 12 Thu Thu Aung & Fiona McGregor, Youth ethnic alliance emerges after summit, Augsut 3, 2016, accessed on Decemver 4, 2016 at http://www. mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/21733-youth-ethnic-alliance-emerges-after-summit.html

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13 Media Council’ .

In addition to the above changes, in 2014, Telenor and Ooredoo entered the telecommunications market providing access to affordable SIM cards and mobile internet connections. Since then, the usage of mobile phones has been growing at a furious pace. In August 2016, there were 45 million sim subscriptions in the country - up from 3- 4 million 14 in 2014 - and 60-80% of those were for smartphones growing. The number of FB subscribers, estimated at 6.4 million 15 in 2015 is also growing.

The results of the media reforms have been mixed. The 2016 Freedom House report on Myanmar ranked the country’s press as ‘not free’. The reasons for this ranking include the fact that ‘the media is deeply polarized along political lines, and the government maintained tight control over the media sector through various methods, including the employment of harsh laws dating to the era of military rule that remain on the books’. In addition, media workers risk threats, violence and even death while investigating news, and independent outlets struggle to survive due to the 16 structure of the media market in the country .

The 2015 Freedom House’s report on Myanmar ranked the country’s internet freedom as ‘not free’. The organisation found there to be intimidation of social media users during protests, arrests of internauts whose views were found to be offensive, the rise of religious nationalism and associated hate speech, predominantly aimed at Muslims and 17 political polarisation – especially in the run-up to the 2015 elections .

The spread of hate speech on social media in Myanmar garnered a lot of attention in 2016. While ‘the advocacy of hatred based on nationality, race or religion’ has a long history in Myanmar reaching into colonial times when Indians and Muslims were vilified, and continuing through the decades of military rule, ‘the advent of explosive internet connectivity has meant an unprecedented new reach’ due to the rapid mobile phone penetration.

Media experts, international and national non-governmental staff and anti-hate speech activists have been quick to blame the spread of hate speech on the public’s ‘low media and information literacy rate’, the lack of a discerning eye 18 and the inability to distinguishing fact from fiction . Yet, as research around the world has shown – e.g. during the course of the 2016 US elections – personal bias, prejudice and the desire to find confirmation for one’s thinking may 19 be greater drivers of the spread of false and misleading information, rumours and hate speech . The rapid conflict assessment, which was conducted alongside the survey, appears to confirm this analysis wiht many respondents saying that FaceBook allowed them to share their thoughts and feelings with likeminded people and that if they trusted ‘the source’ they were likely to share a news piece without reading it first.

13 UNESCO & International Media Support, Assessment of Media Development in Myanmar, 2016, accessed on December 15, 2016 at http://unesdoc. unesco.org/images/0024/002447/244760E.pdf 14 http://www.forbes.com/sites/susancunningham/2016/08/10/myanmar-45-million-mobile-phones-and-the-19-3g-smartphone/#3e1c3f5b2fe8 15 http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/13/burma-gives-a-big-thumbs-up-to-facebook/ 16 Freedom House, Freedom of the Press, Myanmar, 2016, accessed on December 15, 2016 at https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2016/ myanmar 17 Freedom House, Freedom on the New, Myanmar, 2015, accessed on Decemver 15, 2016 at https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom- net/2015/myanmar 18 Nick Baker, How social media became Myanmar’s hate speech megaphone, The Myanmar Times, August 5, 2016, accessed on December 16, 2016 at http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/21787-how-social-media-became-myanmar-s-hate-speech-megaphone.html 19 See: Caitlin Dewey, 6 in 10 of you will share this link without reading it, a new, depressing study says, The Washington Post, June 16, 2016, accessed on October 30, 2016 at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/06/16/six-in-10-of-you-will-share-this-link-without-reading-it- according-to-a-new-and-depressing-study/?utm_term=.3511cd40fced;Stanford History Education Group, Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning, Novemver 22, 2016, accessed on December 2, 2016 at https://sheg.stanford.edu/upload/V3LessonPlans/Executive%20 Summary%2011.21.16.pdf

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METHODOLOGY

20 The quantitative survey targeted 488 respondents across the two locations. The survey was accompanied by a non- exhaustive literature regarding media in Myanmar. The goal of the survey was to gather data related to people’s access to, usage of and preferences for various media, be it TV, radio or social media. The guiding questions revolved around preferred locations, times and barriers to media consumption in addition to gauging people’s programme preferences. The survey was conducted alongside a qualitative rapid conflict assessment, whose objective was to understand the key driving factors for peace and conflict, and the dynamics and the actors in each of the target areas (available as a separate report).

95.6% of women in Lashio and 82% of men in Lashio and 91.7% of women in North 86% of men in North Okkalapa said they watched Okkalapa said they watched TV TV at home. at home. The teashop was the second most popular place for men to watch TV.

The fieldwork was managed by an international consultant, who designed the methodology, and was supported by SFCG staff, including the SFCG Project Manager, Project Officer and M&E Coordinator, local partners and Xavey 21 Research Solutions - a private research solutions service provider in Myanmar. The data was collected using an electronic survey that was administered by enumerators equipped with tablets. The data was collected offline and uploaded at the end of each data collection day. Xavey Research Solutions created the SPSS data sheet that was used for analysis.

Enumerators were drawn from the local partners’ networks and trained in North Okkalapa and Lashio by Xavey and SFCG staff. Enumerators were between 18-35 years of age, with Standard 10 education, basic English skills and preferably previous experience in field data collection. It should be noted that due to limitations of time, stakeholder accessibility - especially in North Okkalapa was SFCG is new and in the process of gaining community trust - and enumerator selection criteria, all the enumerators were Buddhist.

RESEARCH LOCATIONS

The criteria for choosing the research locations included divided ethnic, religious and social communities disposed to trust deficit, negative stereotyping of the ‘other’ and hate speech.

Lashio is the largest town in Shan State. It is home to 323,405 people, 209,137 of whom are between 15-64 years of age. Buddhist and Muslim Shans, the Wa, Ta-aung, Chinese and Burman peoples live in Lashio, which saw anti-Muslim riots in 2013 when a mosque, an orphanage and shops were burnt. The city hosts migrant workers from central Myanmar and other parts of Shan State, as well as internally displaced persons due to armed conflcit between ethnic armed groups and the Tatmadaw. In addition, Lashio is the center of the Tatmadaw’s North-East Command - its main base in Northern Shan State – resulting in a large army population. In 2015, MaBaTha, with offices in Naung Pain, a town on the road from Lashio to Mandalay and where the population is predominantly Muslim, had some 5000 members in Lashio.

On November 20, 2016, while SFCG staff were conducting the rapid conflict assessment in Lashio, the Ta’ang National

20 The original target was 422. The enumerators were able to reach more respondents, i,e, 488. Since this type of data collection is not common in Myanmar, SFCG decided to analyse all the responses. 21 http://xavey.com

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Liberation Army (TNLA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Arakan Army (AA) and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attacked the Tatmadaw in Northern Shan State22. All four are non-signaties of the Nationwide Ceasfire Agreement. Military helicopters were spotted over Lashio and fears over army attacks increased, becoming the dominant concern expressed by the interlocutors.

North Okkalapa is a township comprising 19 wards. Built in 1959 as a satelite city to expanding Yangon, it was integrated into Yangon municipality after 196223. Today, it is home to 333,293 people, 242,616 are between 15-64 years of age. In 2007, many of the townships’ monasteries were raided and monks were arrested in retaliation for anti- government protests during what became knowns as the ‘Saffron Revolution’24. On July 2, 2013, in recognition of inter- religious conflicts threatening rural and urban centres in Myanmar, Buddhists, Muslim, Hindu and Christian leaders in 25 the township’s Ward 1 held the ‘Peace and Unity for all Religious Groups of North Okkalapa Township Meeting’ . It is not clear whether these meetings continue. Research findings presented in this report come from Ward 2 where the majority of the population is Buddhist. There are no mosques in Ward 2. The closest mosque is in Ward 1.

SAMPLING

The non-probability quote sampling method was used to select survey respondents. The enumerators select participants according to sex, age and self-identification aiming for a balanced representation of religious, ethnic, gender and age groups at each location. It is worth noting that the bias associated with quota sampling can result in a sampling error. This is because it does not meet the basic requirement of randomness as some interlocutors may not have a chance of being selected or their chance of being selected may be unknown.

LIMITATIONS

The survey experienced numerous limitations. First and foremost, the time available for the survey was short, which increased SFCG’s reliance on local partners. In Lashio, where SFCG had worked previously and was known in the community, this was less problematic, however, in North Okkalapa where SFCG is only beginning to work, the local partner’s presence and network were necessary to enable the fieldwork. At both locations, the local partners’ assistance in the selection of enumerators and the identification of respondents ensured feasibility and efficiency. Their assistance, however, also introduced a bias into the process whereby selection of enumerators and research participants was done by relying predominantly on the partners’ established network members, and hence all the enumerators were Buddhist, which appears to have impacted their ability to reach respondents among the Muslim, Christian and Hindu communities.

Research ethics are of specific concern when conducting research around sensitive issues in Myanmar. In their 2014 academic paper dedicated to this subject, scholars Lisa Brooten and Rosalie Metro remarked that ‘years under military dictatorship, its ongoing ethnic and religious conflicts, and the current shifts in the political landscape all present unique challenges for researchers seeking to behave ethically with their informants, their institutions, each other, 26 and the public sphere’ . Basing their paper on the written contributions of scholars of Myanmar, Brooten and Metro summarise key debates and best practices, which include ‘contextualizing the political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of the scene of study so as to address structural as well as local factors in a study’s findings’, ‘including as data multiple perspectives’, revealing the biases of the researcher and creating space for people in Myanmar to address

22 Lawi Weng, Ethnic Armed Groups Launch Joint Offensive in Northern Shan State, The Irrawaddy, November 20,2016, accessed on November 24, 2016 at http://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/ethnic-armed-groups-launch-joint-offensive-in-northern-shan-state.html 23 Frauke Kraas, Hartmut Gaese, Mi Mi Kyi, Eds. Megacity Yangon: Transformation processes and moderndevelopments, Second German-Myanmar Workshop in Yangon/Myanmar 2005 24 The Guardian, We don’t want to shoot anyone, October 2, 2007, accessed on December 1 2016 at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/ oct/02/burma 25 Mizzima News, July 5, 2013, Religious groups plan peace meetings in Okkalapa http://archive-1.mizzima.com/news/myanmar/9639-religious- groups-plan-peace-meetings-in-okkalapa 26 Lisa Brooten & Rosalie Metro, Thinking about Ethics in Burma Research, The Journal of Burma Studies Vol. 18 No. 1 (2014), pp.1–22, p.1, accessed on January 10, 2017 at http://www.academia.edu/7854782/Thinking_about_Ethics_in_Burma_Myanmar_Research, p.1

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27 what is written about them .

In Myanmar there exists apprehension towards the concept of research and researchers. Distrust and/or misunderstanding of research can lead to conflicting findings. In her 2013 discussion of research about media in Myanmar, Chris Larkin from the BBC Media Action remarked that the irony in conducting research to inform media projects to support improved governance in Burma is ‘that the restrictions people perceive to remain around freedom 28 of expression and association influence how they react when posed with questions on these themes’ .

The findings in the current report are a partial rather than an exhaustive interpretation of media usage data. The short time spent in the field, relative lack of trust between the researchers and the communities, limited focus and the researchers’ personal and professional experiences among other factors all impacted the quality of collected data as well as the subsequent analysis of it.

FINDINGS

DEMOGRAPHICS

Of the 488 respondents, 48.6% were women and 51.4% were men, although more women than men were interviewed in Yangon than in Lashio. The overwhelming majority of respondents were Buddhists, followed by Christians, Muslims and Hindus. One reason for this disparity is that Buddhists are the dominant religious group in both survey locations. Another reason, which explains why a higher number of Christians rather than Muslims were surveyed can be attributed to the unease of enumerators who were predominantly Buddhist with limited links to the Muslim communities in the respected town29. An additional, plausible reason, which was glimpsed during the accompanying rapid conflict assessment and included focus group discussions with Muslims can be attributed to the unease that Muslims experience when dealing with Buddhists peers. This unease is compounded by the scrutiny of Muslims throughout the country, which makes them reluctant to be interviewed. Ethnicity was not recorded.30

27 Lisa Brooten & Rosalie Metro, Thinking about Ethics in Burma Research, The Journal of Burma Studies Vol. 18 No. 1 ( 2014), pp. 1 – 22, p.1, accessed on January 10, 2017 at http://www.academia.edu/7854782/Thinking_about_Ethics_in_Burma_Myanmar_Research, p.7 28 Chris Larkin, The challenges of conducting research in Burma, BBC Media Action, November 22, 2013, accessed on January 10, 2017 at http://www. bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmediaaction/entries/807b69eb-8202-3a58-b842-764ab9c2b978 29 See methodology section for enumerator selection criteria. 30 The question of race, ethnicity and religion are wrought in Myanmar with the tendency to roll the three into one. This is facilitated by the Burmese language, which does not automatically distinguish between the three concepts the same way that the English language does. In some cases being ‘Muslim’ is considered to be of a certain race or ethnicity. While ethnic discrimination is a well-known and studied phenomenon in Myanmar (decades long armed conflicts between the government army and ethnic armed groups is but one manifestation of this) the main objective of the current survey was to focus on ‘youth’ and their media habits. While the enumerators were asked to capture data about respondents’ religion, to focus analysis on religion and ethnicity would have been beyond the scope of the present survey. A much deeper and longer study would have been required especially if there were a desire to draw conclusions about media consumption habits based on religion/ ethnicity/ race.

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31 The respondents were between 17- 37 years old , the majority of whom fell into the 18-25 age category. In North Okkalapa, 18 and 19 year olds were the dominant respondents, while in Lashio it was the 19, 20 and 21 year olds who were mostly interviewed.

TV VIEWERSHIP

The survey found that watching TV is a popular activity for women and men in Lashio and North Okkalapa. In Lashio 98.3% and in North Okkalapa 91.1% of of respondents said they watched TV. While in Yangon, the likelihood of women and men watching TV was the same, in North Okkalapa, men were more likely to watch TV. This may be indicative of the different roles than women and men play in and outside the household, especially in rural areas, where a woman whose traditional role is that of a home-maker may spend more time on chores than men giving her less time for 32 leisure. Among the few respondents who said they did not watch TV, most did not specify the reason why, while most others said they did not like TV.

In both locations, Monday and Saturday emerged as the most popular days for viewing TV. Of the 462 respondents who answered the question about their preferred TV viewing day, 39.4% identified Monday and 28.4% indicated Saturday. Wednesday and Thursday were identified as the least popular days for watching TV with Wednesday being the least popular in Lashio and Thursday being the least popular in North Okkalapa. It is not clear from the survey why certain days are preferred over others. It may be related to programming, e.g. new TV series episodes are shown on Saturdays and Sunday, and re-runs are likely to be shown on Mondays.

The survey found that both women and men, in Lashio and North Okkalapa, were most likely to tune in to TV to watch ‘the news’. ‘Music programmes’ emerged as the second most popular viewing material for women, while ‘sports’ emerges as the second most popular viewing material for men. Both sexes were just as likely to watch movies, however, this preference did not rank highly. Less than 1% of both women and men said they watched reality TV 33 shows .

31 Target group was 18-35 32 The 2013 Gender Inequality Index (GII) ranked Myanmar 83 out of 149 countries, http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/proles/MMR.html; Women of all religions and backgrounds face restrictions in Myanmar. Research has shown, however, that ‘Burmese Buddhism’ - the dominant religion in the county - enormous influence on the role of women in the country even affected Christian and Animist communities. ‘Frequent references made to Burmese Buddhist tradition in the media, public documents and every day expressions illuminate the way women are viewed generally and help to cement women’s subordinate position to men. Special emphasis is placed on women as the protectors of traditional culture’ - Brenda Belak, Gathering Strength: Women from Burma on their Rights, Images Asia, January 2012 accessedon January 18, 2016 at http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/ docs/GS07.social-roles.pdf; Myanmar women’s roles are shaped by patriarchy, religion and ethnicity and despite their being well educated and active in the labour force, their value is predominantly perceived as that of home-makers and family carers with high value placed on their modesty and chastity. 33 TV reality shows are new to Myanmar and there are few of them. ‘The Myanmar Model Academy’, which aired in late 2013 appears to be the first of

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The viewing preferences correlate with the findings regarding preferred viewing times. The majority of respondents in both locations indicated that their preferred time to watch TV was in the evening, especially in the early evening between 6pm-8pm, followed by morning time, especially between 8am-10am. The preferred times were almost the same for both sexes, although men were more likely than women to watch TV later in the evening, between 8pm- 10pm.

A clear presence for a specific TV series, film or programme did not emerge from the survey. What did transpire, however, is that people learn about upcoming programming from the TV itself, followed by friends and social media. The survey found a small difference in this regard. In Lashio and North Okkalapa, over 80% of women learnt about new programming from the TV, less than 5% knew about it from social media and in North Okkalapa only one woman said she learnt from a friend, while 5.5% of women in Lashio knew from friends. In the case of men, just over 70% knew about upcoming programming from the TV itself, around 10% learnt about it on social media and some 8% knew about it from friends. This small but notable discrepancy is reflective of the roles that women and men play in Myanmar’s society/ies with more women being house-bound and exposed to TV than men who can spend time outside the household more freely, making them not only more likely to interact with people but also use other forms of media.

The respondents showed a The survey found that the most popular TV channels in Lashio 34 wide ranging variety of tastes and North Okkalapa were MRTV4, MRTV and Channel 7. In when it came to their favourite Lashio, 42% and in North Okkalapa, 40.6% of respondents celebrities. indicated that MRTV4 was their preferred TV channel. In Lashio, Women showed a preference for Aung Ye Lin 2.5% of respondents preferred MRTV over Channel 7, while in and Phway Phway. North Okkalapa both channels were equally liked. It is noteworthy that the favourite channels are state-owned or control media Men preferred Lay Phyu and Myint Myat. and available free of charge, unlike SkyNet, which is popular but A significant number of women and men said expensive and people tend to watch it at teashops, barbecue their favourite star was Pyay Ti Oo and Nay Toe. restaurants or beer stations.

such shows. A popular show called ‘Let’s Go’, which aires on MNTV focuses on travel. 34 It is possible that many respondents indicated MRTV as their preferred channel because they knew that SFCG is working with MRTV on youth programming. Another reason, however, is that MRTV is free and easily accessible. What is more, the rapid conflict assessment, which was conducted alongside the survey revealed that people are beginning to distrust private media and re-establishing trust in public media, following the various media reforms, which began under the government of Thein Sein, and elections, which brought Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her government to power.

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The rapid conflict assessment, which was conducted in parallel to the survey, revealed that many people trusted state media more than private media. While it might be the case that people prefer state media - especially since they associate it with the new, elected government and despite state media’s propaganda of years past - it is also possible that people prefer it because it is free. The fact that private media are motivated by profit was one reason why respondents said this type of media was not trustworthy.

RADIO LISTENERSHIP

The survey found that around 50% of respondents listened to the radio and there was a notable difference in listenership between people in Lashio and North Okkalapa. Overall 67.8% of respondents in Lashio said the listened to the radio versus 42.7% in North Okkalapa. Almost 70% of respondents said they listened to the radio at home with women more likely to listen at home than men in both Lashio and North Okkalapa. The remaining 30% gave a variety of answers ranging from a teashop - particularly for men - to a public bus to a car or taxi. Among those who did not listen to the radio around 55% said they did not like the radio, 29.4% said they did not have a radio and 14.9% said they did not have time to listen to it. It is interesting to note that the majority of survey respondents watched TV and that among those who did not watch TV lack of time was not a notable reason.

67.6% of women in Lashio and 67.9% of men in Lashio and 43.7% of women in North 41.7% of men in North Okkalapa said they listened to Okkalapa said they listened the radio. to the radio.

The survey found that in Lashio and North Okkalapa people preferred to listen to the radio on Mondays. In both place people did not like to listen to the radio mid-week. At weekends, Lashio residents preferred Saturdays while North Okkalapa residents preferred Sundays for listening to the radio.

Cherry FM was identified as the most received radio station in both Lashio and North Okkalapa. Following Cherry FM, Myanmar Radio and Shwe FM emerged as the second most popular radio stations in Lashio and North Okkalapa

SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND VIEWERSHIP & LISTENERSHIP SURVEY Lashio & North Okkalapa 17 respectively. It would appear that in North Okkalapa respondents had a greater listening choice, with stations such as Mandalay FM appearing to be somewhat popular and stations such as Padamayar FM and City FM, which were not indicated by Lashio respondents. Cherry FM also emerged as the favourite radio station - although this could be due to its wide reach - followed by Myanmar Radio in Lashio and Shwe FM in North Okkalapa.

THE SURVEY FOUND THAT 73.8% THE SECOND MOST POPULAR OF RESPONDENTS IN LASHIO RADIO STATION IN LASHIO AND 43.1% OF RESPONDENTS WAS MYANMAR RADIO (20.7%) IN NORTH OKKALAPA RECEIVED WHILE IN NORTH OKKALAPA CHERRY FM. SHWE FM (15.4).

The survey found a clear difference in the listenership of radio talk shows. In Lashio respondents were more 12% more likely to like and listen regularly to talk shows than in North Okkalapa. In both places a similar percentage of respondents said they liked and listen sometimes to radio talk shows. In North Okkalapa respondents were 30% more likely than respondents in Lashio to be unaware of radio talk shows. People did not express an obvious preference for a radio personality/ presenter.

The survey did not find anything conclusive regarding people’s preferred programmes or reasons for why they do or don’t listen to radio programmes, such as talk shows. It may be that questions were not clear enough as many respondents appear to confuse a radio frequency (channel) with a radio programme. It may also be due to the fact that people listen to the radio is a passive and/or dynamic manner - unlike watching TV, which requires a static position and visual focus.

Preferred listening times seem to support this analysis. While the data shows that respondents in Lashio and North Okkalapa slightly prefer to listen to the radio between 6am-8am, the data also shows that people tend to listen to the radio throughout the day (much more so than watching TV, for which people had clearly preferred times) although they are least likely to do so between 4pm-6pm, which is the time when families regroup at home after a day’s work or school, prepare dinner, eat, do homework and tend to personal chores.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The overwhelming majority of all respondents had internet access on their phones. In Lashio 94.6% of women and 96.9% of men said they had access to the internet on their phones. In North Okkalapa this was the case for 89.7% women and 96.7% of men. The small discrepancy in having phone internet access between men and women does not appear attributable to religion or age. Respondents indicated that they have other devices through which they can access the internet, although they did not specify what those were.

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In line with popular knowledge in Myanmar, Facebook and Viber emerged as social media platforms of choice, with 35 Facebook clearly ahead of Viber. The majority of respondents indicated that in addition to being able to access social media on other devices, they used their phone to do it. The few who said they did not access social media on their phones said it was because they did not know how to do it. Almost 85% of respondents at both locations said they accessed social media every day primarily to access the news and for fun.

36 The 7 Daily, 11 Media and the Crime Journal were identified as the main sources of news. The downloading of apps and music emerged as common, with very respondents downloading films, books, games or educational materials. Facebook emerged as the most popular app.

REACTION TO NEWS

The survey found that the majority of respondents worried about news about disagreements/ conflict and news about violence. Very few people said that news about the economy or the future worried them. Among those who stated ‘other’ the given examples of rapes, robberies and car accidents suggest that people worry about crime. In both Lashio and North Okkalapa, men showed a greater tendency to worry about news about disagreements, while women were more worried about news about violence. Collectively, over 90% of people in Lashio worried about disagreements and violence, while in North Okkalapa, 71% worried about disagreements and violence and around 16% worried about crime.

In Lashio, people live much closer to armed conflict, which has affected the area on and off for decades. During survey data collection, new clashes between various ethnic armed groups and government troops broke out bringing to the fore people’s concerns. What is more, the 2013 inter-communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims has left many people apprehensive of “the other” even if, or perhaps especially if, that other had once been a good neighbour, 37 acquaintance or friend .

In North Okkalapa, where people are not accustomed to armed conflict, news about violence and crime are of greater concern to people than news about disagreements/ conflict. The rapid conflict assessment, which was conducted in parallel to the survey showed that people saw armed conflict as something that happened between other people and in other parts of the country without impact on Yangon, with the exception of conflict in Rakhine

35 Insert reference to other reports on this topic 36 Insert Burmese name 37 See SFCG’s Rapid Conflict Assessment

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State, which Buddhists and Muslims thought might spill over to Yangon, albeit in different ways. While the Buddhists thought the “Bengali illegals” might invade Yangon, Muslims worried that discrimination and violence against Muslims in Rakhine State could spill over and affect them in Yangon.

The survey found that in Lashio and North Okkalapa respondents had three principal ways to deal with worrying news. They either shared the news online or discussed it with family or friends. Some differences between women and men were observed. In both Lashio and North Okkalapa, women were more likely to share the news online than men, and in both places women were more likely than men to discuss the news with family. Men at both locations were more likely than women to discuss the news with friends.

The survey, not unlike the assessment, found that people discuss news with family and friends as one way of establishing the veracity of what they read, see or hear. The rapid conflict assessment also found that people tended to discuss the news with people close to them.

In addition to checking other news sources, ‘reading comments’ emerged as the second most common way of checking news. The risk of this - currently much discussed in the international media - is that people’s opinions - however biased, prejudiced or misinformed - become legitimate information possibly contributing to the spread of false information. What is more, if the comments are directly on someone’s FB wall, rather than the newsfeed or as part of the news item, people tend to see their own thoughts and opinions reflected at them, confirming bias rather than challenging it.

CONCLUSION

The survey found that young people prefer television to radio, that they are more likely to trust state media rather than private media, and that they are habitual users of social media. Monday and Saturday mornings and evenings were the most common times for people to watch TV and Mondays were the most common days for them to listen to the radio. Eleven Media, 7 Daily and the Crime Journal emerged as the most commonly read news sources online. ‘News’ was the most common reason why people turned to TV, tuned to the radio or accessed social media.

Young people rely on family and friends to discuss worrisome information and to establish the veracity of certain news. The accompanying rapid conflict assessment found that the turn to family and friends was spurred by lack of trust in authorities and most media. The survey did not delve into what type of news inspired the most confidence, however, the parallel rapid conflict assessment revealed that young people rely on their gut feelings and common sense to decided whether something is ‘probable’ and therefore ‘possible’ for it to be true.

Young people need access to credible information. They are susceptible to other people’s opinions - especially ‘group think’ - and find social media, especially platforms such as FaceBook and Viber a good place to vent andgarner support for what they think or worry about. Although the young know the risks of social media, they tend to see those risks apply only to non-plausible information rather than consider how bias and prejudice spread and contribute to

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The space that social media offers young people to air their thoughts and frustration is positive, especially for those who feel constrained in their daily lives. The power of social media, however, to confirm people’s biases and prejudices - as has been shown not only in Myanmar but elsewhere - make it a dangerous tool in a country ridden with conflict and tensions for violence.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Programming needs to address the youth’s clear preference for TV and social media, especially the latter, which is ‘news on the go’. It should also tap into the already existing scepticism and the reliance on family and friends to confirm the veracity of news.

In the short-term:

• Interactive training sessions for youth and their designated family member on news sources, fact-checking, critical thinking in the context of news reading, and exposing the link between online activity and real life. A number of training sessions for the same ‘pair’ could be prepared addressing a variety of issues selected by the participants, e.g. a specific conflict, a law, criminal activity

• A deeper and wider study of media usage in the households and beyond, e.g. to gain a better understanding of who controls, which chanel or programme on TV will be watched. A deeper study would allow to gain a better understanding of the extent to which youth access media as opposed to being exposed to it by others whose choices are motivated by possibly different thinking

• The most popular broadcasting times are in the early morning or evening, which correlates with the fact that news and films are shown at these respective times. It is probable that TV stations, and to some extent radio networks, are aware of their viewers’ and listeners’ daily habits and have planned around those. It may be difficult to access those broadcast times with content that does not reflect the various stations priorities or desired rankings. It would be advisable, however, to ensure that any media content produced within the framework of the Let’s Think, Let’s Change project Is broadcast at times when people are very likely or likely to tune in rather than airing content when most young people would not be able to view it, e.g. during weekdays when students are at school or at weekends when students are in tuition

In the long term, ways to act on youth’s concerns will be needed. These will require policy changes, the establishment of youth-orientated services, further teachers’ training on child/youth- centred teaching methods and the careful task of challenging social norms, which hold young people as subordinate. Such immense changes will require that the government, international agencies and organisations as well as civil society groups and members of the public pull together in efforts that support an inclusive and diverse society where youth’s ability to contribute to their own and others’ lives is recognised and encouraged.

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