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Strengthening Media Systems Activity (SMS). Demand-Side Study: “Comprehensive Study of the Public’s Media Needs and Behaviors in Serbia”
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IREX;CESID;USAID (2019), 72 pp.

"This study was specfically intended to: 1. provide comprehensive insight into the public’s media consumption patterns, and its underlying causes: a) values; b) needs and interests, particularly regarding media content; c) motivation and aspirations, with specific emphasis on buying media content; ... more

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Audience Research in Media Development: Overview, Case Studies, and Lessons Learned
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Dennis Reineck, Laura Schneider, Christoph Spurk

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2017), 49 pp.

"This publication takes a look at current developments in the field of audience research in media development and presents three case studies testing innovative methods that can be of use for research, monitoring, and evaluation. They are meant as an orientation and inspirational source for future p ... more

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Bring Back the Audience: A Discussion of the Lack of Audience Research in the Field of Media Development

Martin Scott, Christoph Dietz

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 6, issue 2 (2016), 7 pp.

"This paper strives to highlight the significant lack of audience research in the field of media development and the consequences of this gap – both for project design and policy making – but also for broader efforts to integrate media into governance debates. Whilst this lack of evidence has be ... more

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Measuring the Audience: Why it Matters to Independent News Media and How it Can Contribute to Media Development

Michelle J. Foster

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2014), 21 pp.

"Independent news media, which often operate on the fringes of media markets, risk being left out completely if they are not participating whole-heartedly, and with solid knowledge and support, in these emerging arenas. They must embrace audience research as the foundation of both their business dev ... more

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Regional Segment Profiles

London: BBC Media Action (2013), 7 pp.

"In order to understand people’s needs and identify opportunities to communicate with them effectively, Climate Asia has analysed survey data from across the seven project countries – Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, and China – and placed people into five discrete segme ... more

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Designs, Devices and Development: Audience Research as Creative Resource in the Making of an Afghan Radio Drama

Andrew Skuse, Marie Gillespie

Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, volume 8, issue 1 (2011), pp. 132-153

"This essay analyses the role of audience research as a change agent in media development interventions in Afghanistan. It analyses how audience research in transnational contexts involves a complex set of intercultural negotiations and translations that contribute to the enduring relevance and sust ... ainability of the highly popular Afghan radio soap opera New Home, New Life. This is a ‘development drama’ that has been broadcast across Afghanistan since 1993. It is based on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers and produced by BBC Afghan Education Projects (BBC AEP). Audience research has been vital to forging a dynamic relationship between the creative teams who make the drama, the donors who pay for it, and the audiences who consume it. The article addresses three broad themes. First, we outline how data gathered in formative audience research, prior to the creation of the drama, provides the creative team with the dramatic raw material for the radio serial. The extensive qualitative data gathered by Afghan researchers in local milieux is translated so as to enable culturally diverse teams of writers and producers to ground the serial narratives in the lived experiences of its audiences, and to introduce multiple local perspectives on development issues. Second, we show how evaluative audience research, data gathered in the postproduction phase, plays a key role in providing critical audience interpretations of New Home, New Life’s dramatic themes. In so doing, it creates feedback loops that allow audiences to become active participants in the ongoing creation of the drama. The research designs and devices, developed over the last two decades to document the changing life-worlds of Afghan citizens-cum-audiences, are part of an ongoing set of transcultural encounters that contribute to strengthening the social realist appeal of the drama and to calibrating how far any given storyline can be pushed in terms of cultural propriety. Third, we examine how during periods of military conflict, when routine audience research becomes dangerous or impossible and audience feedback loops are disrupted, the writers and producers have to rely on their own personal and political experiences, often with unpredictable ideological consequences. We draw attention to the limitations and challenges of making dramas for development in highly charged politicised and postcolonial contexts. While, development dramas may be a cheap and effective way of dealing with certain informational needs, such as landmine awareness, they cannot redress social and structural inequalities or, as Western donors wish, eradicate opium cultivation." (Abstract) more

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Making Connections: Using Data on Ghanaians’ Media Use and Communication Habits as a Practical Tool in Development Work

Hannah Bowen

Washington, DC: Intermedia (2010), 108 pp.

"The data highlight statistically significant variations in information access, use and preferences among key demographic segments - notably, between rural and urban respondents, men and women, people with varying levels of education and those living in different regions of the country - all of whic ... more

Strengthening Media Systems Activity (SMS). Demand-Side Study: “Comprehensive Study of the Public’s Media Needs and Behaviors in Serbia” Top Insights