Communication Centres

MULTIMEDIA TRAINING KIT

INTRODUCTION TO AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY RADIO HANDOUT
Developed by: AMARC

MULTIMEDIA TRAINING KIT. 1

INTRODUCTION TO AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY RADIO HANDOUT. 1

About this document 1

Participation of the community in programming. 1

Who participates?. 2

Levels of participation in community radio. 2

Steps towards ensuring community participation. 3

Knowing your audience. 3

Data about the population. 4

Data about audiences. 4

About this document
These materials are part of the Multimedia Training Kit (MMTK). The MMTK provides an integrated set of multimedia training materials and resources to support community media, community multimedia centres, telecentres, and other initiatives using information and communications technologies (ICTs) to empower communities and support development work.

Copyright information
This unit is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. To find out how you may use these materials please read the copyright statement included with this unit or see

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/legalcode

Participation of the community in programming
This unit addresses the topic of audience participation in community radio. Community radio is based on the principle of community participation: involving local community members in decision making and the day-to-day running of the station, and ensuring that the station addresses community needs. The community radio sector is one of the fastest growing media sectors in the world with specific characteristics that distinguish it from the public or commercial radio sectors; community participation is the most important of these characteristics.

Citizens are no longer content to let other people speak for them. All over the world, citizens’ concerns (about the environment, about the right of indigenous people, about the right to cultural diversity, about the right to HIV/AIDS medication, etc.) have given rise to civil society movements exercising the right to be heard.

Community radio should be owned by the community and its programming should be accountable to the community. Citizens should benefit from the community radio sector’s access to resources and its ability to make those resources available to citizens. This means that community radio stations have the responsibility to ensure that the community members participate actively in the station’s management, programming and that they are informed about activities taking place in their community radio station.

The community itself is community radio’s most important resource. Through their participation community members come to develop a sense of ownership of the station, which in turn helps to ensure the sustainability of the station. Community participation also helps to ensure that the station is responsive to the needs of the community it serves through programming which

0 Is relevant and of interest to the community

0 Responds to the particular information and development needs of the community

Who participates?
Members of the community can participate

0 In their individual capacity

0 Through local organization representatives

0 Through listeners club and other structures

Levels of participation in community radio
Community participation should include involvement in the station at a variety of levels, ranging from decision making to providing feedback:

0 Participation in decision making structures such as the board of directors, programming committee, other specific committees (fundraising activities, etc.).

0 Participation in operations (programming): community participation in the day-to-day operations of the radio station allows for the integration of the community in the community radio and facilitates the development of a “radio sound” the community can relate to.

With assistance and training support from staff community members can participate in operations as producers, presenters, and technicians. Most community radio stations rely heavily on the contributions of volunteers; some are run entirely by volunteers, others have a core of paid staff who work with a larger group of volunteers.

Community members should also be invited to participate in programs as guests.

0 Influencing programming: Community members also participate in community radio in the “traditional” way: as listeners. They do this through their opinions, comments and recommendations on programming; they can also show their level of satisfaction by supporting (or failing to support) the station’s activities.

The table below sets out the main levels of community participation in programming decision making:

Programming decision
Level
Type of participation

Making
Implementing
Influencing

X

X

One
Community members decide programming in decision making structures.

X

X

Two
Community members are producers of programs or technicians.

X

X

Three
Community members are guest of programs or their opinions are recorded from the field.

X

X

Four
Community organizations publicize and explain their activities through the radio.

X

X
Five
Community members express their opinions through call-in and talk-back programs.

X

X
Six
Community members organized in “Listeners Clubs” make recommendations to the station on programming

X

X
Seven
Community members react to programming through letters and other feedback

X

X
Eight
Community members take part in audience research by responding to surveys, interviews, and keeping diaries.

Steps towards ensuring community participation
Here are some basic steps towards ensuring community participation:

0 Ensure that members of the community are aware of the role they can play at the station.

0 Ensure that programming emphasis is on issues that are close to the community.

0 Continuously engage the community to ensure that it community participates in the programming.

0 Conduct audience surveys.

0 Record all information and suggestions that are put forward by the community to the station.

Knowing your audience
In order to respond to the needs of your community you need to know what these needs are. You need to know who is listening, when they listen, what they listen to, and what they want and need to hear.

Identifying and defining your audience is an important tool for developing your style of programming and your radio sound. Audience research also facilitates the achievement of your station’s social change goals. It also helps to develop a profile of the audience for advertisers. The biggest mistake we often make is to assume that we know exactly who our listeners are and what it is that they want to hear.

There are two broad categories of data you will need in order to know your audience:

0 Data about the population in general

0 Data about your audience

Listener patterns change constantly, so audience surveys and other forms of data gathering should be done at regular intervals.

Data about the population
This includes information such as

0 Characteristics of the geographic area and the economic environment – this helps determine the type of radio environment and the needs of the community.

0 Profile of social organization and the challenges the community is facing.

0 Characteristics of the population such as age, sex, education and income.

Your local municipality can give you an idea of the demographic profile of the people living in the area covered by your radio. This information can also be obtained from the national census or the national statistics department. Education departments usually publish information on educational levels, health, employment, income. NGOs and other organizations often collect statistical data from various sources about specific population sectors (women, children, youth, the elderly, etc.).

Data about audiences
Along with a general profile of the population you need information about your audience in particular:

0 The size of your audience: how many listeners you have

0 Their demographic profile (age, sex, occupation, income and so on)

0 Their listening habits and preferences (times at which they listen to programs, content/program preferences etc.).

To get this information you will need to undertake or commission audience research yourself, buy research reports from market research companies, or combine the two approaches.

“Radio and TV stations are unique in having a special need for audience research: this is the only industry that cannot accurately count its audience. A factory will always count the number of products it sells. A newspaper will (or could) always know its paid circulation. An organization that provides services rather than products (e.g. a hospital) is able to accurately count the number of people who walk through its doors. But radio and television programs are given away free to their audiences, and there is no way of measuring how many people tune into a program - without audience research.” (Dennis List).

http://www.audiencedialogue.org/kya1a.html

You can obtain audience data by buying a syndicated survey (research done by a market research company on all station in a particular area) or buying some questions to be added to a general survey in your region.
You can get a research company to do a survey specially for your station. That will certainly give you more information than a syndicated survey, but it is more expensive. The cost could be justified if the syndicated surveys available do not include information about community radio. This is not useful for selling advertising but it could effectively help you to target your programs content and schedule to specific target audiences.
You can also undertake your own survey. This could be an inexpensive option if you already have staff who can do the research, as most of the expenses go into interviewers’ time. On the other hand, you need a computer and suitable software and expert advice. Your own audience research is of little value for commercial purposes because advertisers may feel it is biased, but it is excellent for getting detailed information to help you improve your programs.

Examples of audience survey methodologies
Effective audience research is likely to combine a number of the following methods:

Seven day diary
The seven day diary is a self-recording diary method used commonly around the world to estimate radio audience. Respondents are asked to record their listening every day for a week, setting out what radio stations they listened to, at what time, and where (“at work”, “at home”, “in the car” etc.).

It is possible to use this method with illiterate respondents if there is a literate family member or neighbour who can write down the responses.

Advantages of the seven day diary

Because respondents complete the diary when they are listening to the radio or as soon as possible thereafter, they are not relying on (often faulty) recall of past behaviour.
Because respondents provide information for a seven-day period, weekly cumulative audiences and weekly reach and frequency can be calculated.
Separate and comparable information is available for each day of the week.
Disadvantages of the seven day diary
The research relies on the cooperation of respondents to write down their listening correctly and promptly. In practice people may forget to record their listening, or make their entries late (although this is generally not a major problem).
“Atypical” events can affect audience levels. For example, more people might listen to news programs during an election, or after a natural disaster. To reduce the impact of atypical events on estimation of audience levels it is advisable not to survey all respondents during the same week.

Telephone interviews
Telephone research is an acceptable method for obtaining radio audience information, but it has certain limitations.

Advantages of telephone interviews

0 It is cheaper than personal interviewing.
0 Telephone surveys can be completed in a relatively short time.
Disadvantages of telephone interviewing
0 Respondents must have access to telephones.
0 It relies on memory, which may be faulty. You should not expect respondents to remember accurately for more than one day.
0 Interviewers may be biased and influence respondents’ answers.

Postal surveys

This research method entails mailing questionnaires to a sample of potential respondents.

Advantages of postal surveys

It is relatively inexpensive, assuming a sufficient response rate is obtained (i.e., enough people return the questionnaire).
Interviewer biases cannot influence respondents’ answers.
The geographic distribution of the sample does not affect the cost. Mail surveys can reach a geographically dispersed sample at the same cost that would apply to a smaller area.

Disadvantages of postal surveys

The most important shortcoming of mail surveys is a low response rate – many people do not return their questionnaires.
It is limited to respondents with a reasonable degree of literacy.
Because the questionnaire is the only means of communication misunderstanding can easily occur. The physical appearance of the questionnaire, its format, layout and the wording of the questions are extremely important.
One is reliant on the efficiency of the postal service. Service may be poor, and some areas have no or only a rudimentary postal service.

Listeners calls, listeners clubs and community organisations
You can get useful information from feedback you receive from your audience.

0 Many community radio stations rely on surveying the participation and needs of their audiences through the telephone calls they receive.
0 There are also the listeners clubs, formed by people with common interests and proximity in order to react to radio programming and support the community radio.
0 Community organisations are the main partners of community radio. As they are rooted in the community they can assist in defining programs to facilitate social change.
The advantages of relying on listeners calls, listeners clubs and community organisations
0 Relying on listeners calls and listeners clubs allows your community radio to better define your present audience. In so doing it can help you to better serve and expand your audience.
0 Maintaining structured contact with key actors and organizations of your community will help to reinforce civil society and implement the social change objectives of your mission.
0 Listeners clubs and community organizations represent the radio to the community and represent the community to the radio. They facilitate the organisation of activities in the community.
The disadvantages of relying on listeners calls, listeners clubs and community organisations
0 They do not necessarily represent the average opinion of the audience. If this method is used in rural areas listeners without access to telephones will be left out.
0 This method on its own is not enough to determine audience participation or specific programmes needs.