AudiencScapes

InterMedia recently partnered with the Popular Engagement Policy Lab (PEPL) to conduct research in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan in support of radio programming produced by  Raabta Consultants. Their radio shows aim to provide citizens with solutions to problems faced by them, their families and their communities, particularly problems that contribute to increased violence in society.

The research looked in particular at gaps between the problems people experience in real life and the problems they typically read about in papers or hear about on the radio. The research data also provide ethnographic insight into how people in FATA engage with media, and how that affects their thinking and behavior.  Among the findings of the research, PEPL reports on their own blog that one in three female respondents rated drugs as the greatest ongoing problem in their communities, but that none of the radio material or newspaper articles that analyzed had addressed the topic at all.

For more about the project and the research methods used, check out this link to the first issue of FATA Insight, Raabta Consultants’ monthly report that documents this research.