Determine public interest and demand for community and private radio broadcasting, 2015

4 Dec 2015

The goal of the sociological research was to determine the interest and demand of society towards community and private radio broadcasting, based on that the radio broadcasting licenses were provided during the next two years. Besides determining the radio broadcasting priorities, the aim of the research was to determine, by which platforms and what technical means the population of the country is watching television.

Objectives of the research were:

• Public attitudes and demands on community radio broadcasting and definition of part of society that community radio broadcasting should serve;
• Public attitudes and demand on private specialized radio broadcasting topics;
• Public attitude and demand on private general radio broadcasting
• Which program topics are given advantage while listening to the radio
• Which topics are in deficit in Georgian radio stations;
• Which radio broadcasting needs to be included in Georgian radio space: community, specialized, or general radio broadcasting. In the case of specialized, there will be a need to specify which specific radio broadcasting needs to be included ;
• Which platforms and technical means are used by the population of the country to watch television - air, cable, satellite, internet. (In the case of a television cable, it is specified that the user is watching TV through the authorized person on the transit and the satellite name is specified in the case of satellite);

The research will use both qualitative and quantitative sociological research methods.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research was conducted via focus-groups. The target groups of the qualitative research were radio listeners/ tv watchers and media experts. The qualitative research had an assisting function of quantitative research, in particular, its purpose was to identify the indicators on which the quantitative research tool - questionnaire was prepared.

4 focus groups were conducted in total. 2 focus groups were conducted in Tbilisi  (With media experts and radio listeners), 1 focus group in Gori ( with radio listeners), Marneuli – 1 focus group (with radio listeners of ethnic minorities). 7-9 individuals participated in each focus-group. A guideline was developed for the group discussions.

Quantitative research

General population of quantitative research is the population of Georgia of election age (18 years and older). The sample size was 2 700 (two thousand seven hundred) respondents.

 The survey was carried out using the interview, in particular, face-to-face interview method.

The research tool was a standardized questionnaire that included closed, open and semi-closed questions.

In order to develop a questionnaire and identify valid indicators in particular focus groups will be conducted. 4 group discussions were conducted in total. Media experts, radio listeners/ television watchers participated in group discussion (See above, where the qualitative research stage is described).

The final version of the tool was developed after the piloting of the draft. About 15 trial interviews were conducted to determine the adequacy and expediency of questions. Based on the results, the questionnaires were modified.

70 interviewers were involved in field works who were led by 9 supervisors ( one supervisor in each broadcasting zone). Interviewers and supervisors were trained in special training with the specificity of the questionnaire and sampling.

 Sampling: Sampling of respondents was based on the latest database of statistical data from the 2014 population census of Georgia.