AudienceBlog

In August and September 2008, a local research partner helped InterMedia gain a window on this oppressive environment by conducting a series of in-depth interviews with Turkmen in the capital city of Ashgabad.

I arrived in Kampala with some trepidation. I have conducted other research projects here but always in partnership with an experienced and capable team of locals with whom InterMedia has worked for many years. This time, I had to recruit and train my own team as well as guide them through the fieldwork-with only two weeks on the ground and a short lead time on the project.

The non-profit organization for which I was working had a dual goal: learn how best to convey public interest content to audiences via radio, and build the non-profit's local research capacity. We decided to conduct two sets of focus groups and a listeners' panel study, and we needed to recruit a moderator and a project manager for them. The locals I hired did not have any prior research experience but seemed to have a lot of potential and interest in the work. Indeed, they proved to be quick learners and were soon delving into the project details and planning. Still, due to the short preparation time, training became a teach-as-you-go process.

One of the leading blogging service providers in China, BlogCN.org, has recently enabled blogging activities through mobile phones ("mo-blogging") using a new software that allows users to send photos and text directly from their phones.

Photo courtesy of NMC

The nature of what researchers want to ask respondents is another daunting task. Security-related or politically sensitive questions and personal questions are difficult often to handle. In case one needs to collect a lot of detail in the responses, it is best to record the interviews or take photos, whenever possible.

Unlike much of Russia, the North Caucasus in the south of the country has a mild climate. I arrived in hot May weather in the provincial capital of Krasnodar to observe focus groups on how locals use the internet, particularly as a newsgathering tool. Located only a couple hours drive from the beaches of the Black Sea, Krasnodar is in the Kuban region, which was a gift from Ekaterina the Great to the Black Sea Cossacks in the late 18th century, and the city is still proud of its Cossack heritage. And, like most Russian provincial cities, Krasnodar is a far cry from the recent images most foreigners see of Moscow, which has become the most expensive city in the world. The huge Moscow market for web services has sparked fierce competition among providers, with the positive effects of vastly improved internet infrastructure and lower prices--including for unlimited high-speed internet access. Krasnodar, by comparison, has very low levels of household broadband access, and rates based on the amount of usage force people to be sparing in what they do online.

It's an early afternoon in Kosovo, and we are interviewing a middle-aged Albanian woman. Composed and relaxed, she listens to our questions attentively but cannot resist stealing an occasional glance to the TV screen.