Powers, Gerry, 20 September 2010
From Driscollwiki
Powers, Gerry, 20 September 2010
Intermedia
Recent move from BBC World Service Trust to InterMedia:
- Not for profit, 501c3
- In Washington
- BBG, broadcasting board of governors
- Voice of America, etc.
- Document listenership, viewership
- Gates funded research initiative in developing areas
- Experience in working in tough fields
- New effort: training people on the ground
- Local teams can carry forth research effort
AudienceScapes
- Lots of data about developing countries populations not being shared with the development community more broadly
- "Clearinghouse" for data gathered around media, telecomm in dev
- Some surveys, some qualitative work
- Making data available on http://www.audiencescapes.org
- Online data query tool for independent analysis
"Sports Events Research Planner"
- Attempt to understand potential of media coverage of sports events to advance development goals
- Usually interpersonal, small groups
- Now thinking broadly about media govt
Thinking through the "value of information"
- What 4 pcs of info do you need to get on with your day?
Information "underload"
- Kampong Cham
- Interviewees knew a lot about HIV transmission
- But uncertain translation into behavior
- Tukuyu
- Interviewees knew very little about HIV transmission
- Media infrastructure existed
- Demonstrated that access to media/info is not the same as access to quality media/info
Global audience migration
- BBG surveys 2003-2009
- Huge increase in mobile
- But radio remains dominant
- They are not necessarily different channels
- Recall: many people listen to radio via mobile handset
MDGs - Waage et al. Lance 2010
Millenium Development Goals
- Review of the MDGs
- Only one goal incorporates information directly
- Indicator 6.3
No equality of access to info
- Kenya, 40% use mobile phones to send/receive money
- Bypassing formal financial institutions
- Using formal financial services?
- Big discrepancy between Rural/Uneducated Women/Men and Urban Educated Men.
- Informal financial services...
- Much tighter grouping
- Women leading
- Radio continues to dominate among people with access to only one media platform
Mobile, education growth
- Considerable mobile adoption
- While education appears to be slowing, declining
Challenges in the sector
- Technological changes complicate an already tricky situation
- Multiple stakeholders
- Policy
- Politics
- Health (d4d)
- Confusion: what is the research question?
- Interested in media, or...
- Interested in impact of media on citizens?
Context
- Access to information, Twawez (Rajani et al)
- Communication infrastructure, information ecologies (Ball-Rokeach et al)
- Role of State Media, (Mody et al 2010)
- Understanding Media Landscape, AMDI, Audience SCapes
- Recognizing the role of WoM and interpersonal communication (IPC) (Chatterjee et al, 2009)
- Offers "credence" to bringing these things together
Centrality of content
- Content is a bridge between Media efforts and Development efforts
- Access to media does not necessarily indicate access to quality info
Access to source/platform of information
Important to work out details:
- Ownership, access
- Personal v public
- Restriction: time, electricity, signal
- Medium, platform
Evaluation
Culturally-specific details regarding evaluation of content quality
- e.g. in some case, women wouldn't trust a woman on the radio without an introduction from her husband
Content analyses
- Identifying which media are most appropriate to various projects
- Different characteristics of different outlets (even within media, channels)
Self-reported response
Going beyond self-report
- Data can be gathered, integrated into info access point of content
Last thoughts
- Access to Information as catalyst for MDG
- Need multi-item index to capture complexity of "access to info"
- How to measure word of mouth
- Focusing on quality, relevance of content
- Accommodate "ICM Platform Convergence"
- Recognize diversity of users, target uses
- Integrate data gathering and service delivery
Q&A
On bandwidth "divide"
- Is diff bandwidth between mobile phones and wimax/fiber another kind of "divide"?
- Reflecting socio-economic differences
How to make this locally relevant?
- Photograph-based methodology
- Identifying areas of need
- Help understand what's at the heart of what ppl "really care about"?
Convergence
- TV drama in Bangladesh advertised English-language lessons for download
- Accessed via mobile
- Cost very low (compared to cup of tea)
- Required collaboration among TV producers, mobile providers, etc.
Framing
- "Paranoia" regarding media, media development
- People are more comfortable (at WB) with governance, health
- Connecting directly to the MDGs
Is this a critique of claims made by BBC world service (re: AIDS info)?
Role of public diplomatics, legislators?
- "Three scenarios":
- ONE: Burma, N. Korea
- People have very few sources of info beyond voice of america, bbc world svc
- TWO: Media rich imbalance
- If something happens in the U.S., it is known elsewhere quickly
- What does BBC World Service / Voice of America add?
- THREE: Other places may have "more well-functioning" media systems (than US/UK)?
- Why are we there?
- Is this a time to take stock, perform a review?
- "Why are we spending so much on this?"
Fourth scenario?
- Could BBC World Service, Voice of America be (more?) research driven?
- "Currency" at State Dept. is "reach"
- How many ppl are listening?
- But get back to first principles: why are we doing this?
- Is "reach" the appropriate measurement?
"Prosumer" question
- Impact of production experience on media consumption?
- Is there an impact on "ownership"?
- Tough to implement because solutions are very locally-bound, not scalable
Word of mouth integration
- What constitutes "news"?
- What content is picked up, recirculated, shared?
- Celebrities?
Why not focus on print?
- Literacy levels are low outside of urban centers (in Africa)
- Thus print is often neglected
Info habits diff, undermine our assumptions?
- Facebook, etc often "trivial"-seeming
- Might this be diff elsewhere
- How do norms transmit? How are norms evident? How to capture?
- Points of content, conflict
- Diasporic contacts
Surveillance?
- Horizontal communication on network is subject to surveillance
- Facebook lack of transparency regarding privacy settings
Why the move to InterMedia?
- "Decentralization"
