Economics studies at Antananarivo University, Madagascar
Training as Radio Producer / Neighborhood Director at the Centre for Graduate Training in Radio Journalism and Management / Madagascar National Radio (1997-1998)
1987-1994 In charge of publications and projects in a Madagascar consultant firm
Since 1996 In charge of the Commission for Information and Education Systems, of the "neighborhood radio" group, within the IREDEC NGO
Since 1998 In charge of the Madagascar Rural Radio Network.
Member of the Board of Directors of the Community Radio Union of the French-speaking area (URCAF) and co-Organiser of the Workshop dealing with "A Survey of the Rural Radio Audience in Madagascar", commissioned by the CTA / GRET in 1998.
In his paper, the author will address the following subjects:
2. THE RESEARCH SITUATION IN THE AREA OF RURAL MEDIA
3. THE METHODS AND TECNOLOGIES USED
5. THE QUALITATIVE SURVEY AND THE VILLAGE PUBLIC BROADCAST
6. THE SURVEY ON RURAL HOUSEHOLDS AND RADIO
Research in the area of rural media is justified by the interest manifested by a considerable number of international and national organisations, which are active in promoting rural development. The increase in the number of rural radio networks has largely contributed to making them available to radio stations, which normally operate, on a low budget. The most important assets in this regard, however, are the fairly aggressive passion, which animates the radio broadcasters, and the considerable receptivity of rural groups in replying to the solicitations they might receive with regard to their adapting to radio communication.
Certain organisations, however, are not as yet totally convinced of the actual need for rural radio, and consequently, of the utility of carrying out a specific audience survey in this area. Certain commercial advantages obviously do exist, and not only with regard to the private sector. National expertise in this area also exists, but it must first rid itself of a purely technical and commercial outlook on the subject. Inasmuch as rural radios are neighbourhood radios, any research carried out must take into consideration the very complex nature of the audience concerned, as well as the social, economic and cultural parameters involved, with all of the restraints that might be linked to the scale of the work. Information concerning this sector is not always readily available. As a result, research on the subject remains fairly empirical, in spite of the perfection of the methodological tools that are employed.
The preparatory phase for the survey is a crucial one, in order to be able to establish all the methodological frames of reference that are adapted to the situation, and to the local realities. These include the correct types of questions to be asked, a good knowledge of the milieu, clear objectives, the choice of the sites where the survey will be conducted, the sampling, and the survey questionnaire. A considerable anticipatory effort is therefore needed at this stage, in order to make certain that the frames of reference are correctly focussed, due, in particular, to the fact that rural persons do not always react as residents of urban areas might.
Considerable attention will be given to training, as well as to the introduction and follow-up of the work of the interviewers at the survey sites. The survey itself should always be considered as a training ground for the survey team, who will often find it necessary to make methodological readjustments in their work.
Given the relative overabundance of the data collected, both representative as well as indicative, summarising and analysing the end results can be tedious. It must always be remembered that the survey will have to provide precise answers to the original questions, and that it is also a useful tool to help those responsible for the radio network in arriving at their decisions.
Drawing conclusions with regard to global listening habits is not sufficient. Answers must also be found concerning the reasons that audiences have these listening habits. A complementary qualitative survey must therefore be carried out, based upon the global tendencies that have been observed. This qualitative survey would be effectuated by following the same stages as those used by the quantitative survey. The principal difference would consist in the commitment to comprehend the habits and aspirations of the rural audience, and the manner in which they integrate their radio listening with the resolution of their day-to-day problems, including those regarding development. Holding group discussions helps to provide important data that is extremely valuable to the rural radio broadcasters.
Public radio programs centered on the village also allow radio networks to carry out an on-going and totally frank dialogue with their listeners, thereby creating a friendly and playful atmosphere. However, this is often fairly difficult to organise and carry out, since it requires a total technical mastery of the medium, and the full cooperation of the radio broadcasting team involved.
And finally, the surveys conducted on rural households can complete this research by providing a wider frame of reference, namely, socio-economic and geographic. These have their limitations, however; they are more restricted, in terms of radio, and they are reserved, as well, to the audience survey. In addition, they present the risk of being biased, since the opening questions and the goals of these surveys are more general.
There are methods that can be used to lower the cost of conducting these surveys, but they too are rather costly, particularly due to the fact that that such surveys must be periodically renewed, inasmuch as the rural milieu is in a state of perpetual evolution.
Carrying out an audience survey, in the classical sense of the term, and logically following the proposal made, basically involves examining the behaviour of radio listeners, in order to be able to expose them, in as effective a manner as possible, to the messages being broadcast. Triumphant liberalism, by its indirect use of globalisation, has been attempting to prove a false universal dictum which has often deceived a large number of radio broadcasters, namely, that rural radio networks are nothing more than a passing fancy, and that they will inevitably, one day, be swallowed up by the all-powerful commercial radio networks.
In rural milieus, and in African ones in particular, radio broadcasting cannot be used to sell the products manufactured by the large commercial enterprises, which are of little or no interest at all to rural persons. The latter truly "live" with their radio programmes, and they expect them to be their privileged partners at all times of the day, and wherever their day-to-day activities take place, whether this be in the village squares, in the schools and dispensaries, or in the fields, or the markets, or during their meetings, etc.
Creating a dialogue with the audience is a vital necessity for rural radio, and this dialogue can even go so far as including a direct association with the management of the radio station itself. In point of fact, the final objective of a rural radio audience survey is the setting into motion of this form of dialogue. It is therefore necessary to approach the questions relating to radio audience surveys with the tools and methods that are adapted to the rural community context.
In December, 1998, we1 had the opportunity, in collaboration with GRET2, and for the account of the CTA (Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development), to prepare and co-organise a training workshop that dealt with a survey of the rural radio audience in Madagascar.
This workshop, which was held in the Antsirabe region, and which involved sixteen participants from the six Madagascar provinces, based its initial deliberations upon the previous and similar work carried out by the CTA in Mali in November, 1997. The principal difference between the two workshops was, that whereas in Mali the participants carried out a quantitative survey, the Madagascar workshop was set up before the one created by the IREDEC in three different sites, where the participants carried out a qualitative and thoroughgoing survey in this field.
It should be pointed out that the CTA principally develops training and analytical activities on the subject of research in the area of rural media. In 1998, immediately prior to the Madagascan workshop, WREN MEDIA was given the responsibility of organising a similar workshop in South Africa. The most recent workshop dealing with this sector was held in from 6 to 27 October 2000 in Ouagadougou, and was attended by a number of leading personalities in the field of rural radio in French-speaking Africa.
In order to prepare the present paper, we have assembled a large number of documents dealing with the subject in question. Fortunately, there is no lack of such documentation for those of us who are rural radio broadcasters (I find it somewhat difficult to integrate the term " radio author" into my vocabulary, in spite of the fact that it is quite meaningful). We obviously do not dare to cite the names of eminent authors for fear of making embarrassing omissions, but we can definitely state that we have researched and read the principal works that deal with the dialogue between rural radio and its audience. In addition, we have also read the reports written by our African colleagues describing the interesting experiences they have had.
Inasmuch as it is not our purpose at this juncture to defend a thesis, but rather to deliver a paper which might offer material for reflection and debate, we have, in the end, decided to only refer to Madagascan examples in order to illustrate our views. One can only speak authoritatively of those realities that one is personally acquainted with. I hope that our discussions here will also touch upon other cases, which would either confirm our views, or call them into question. And above all, I would hope that this paper will help us to better identify the new subjects that might exist, and better define the new partnerships in the area of rural radio broadcasting.
As our first step, we shall present an overall view of the research situation in the area of rural media, beginning with the specific nature of the radio networks which broadcast programmes directed at the rural world. This specific nature or character involves the setting up of points of reference, and adapting the methodological tools to be used by the rural radio networks. We shall delve into this a bit later on. And finally, we shall deal with the carrying out of both quantitative and qualitative surveys, and then summarise the results.
Since a survey carried out on the radio audience is, in point of fact, no more than a means of reinforcing relations between the rural radio networks and their audience, we are obviously obliged to make mention of neighbourhood public programming, which we would like to include in our approach to this subject. Needless to say, it is obviously not our intention to plagiarise the method which our predecessor, François Querre, has developed, based upon the experiences of the early pioneers in the area of African rural radio broadcasting. These are, quite simply, a means of carrying out a dialogue, par excellence, which each and every rural radio broadcaster cannot allow himself not to use. And finally, we shall touch upon the question of the integration of radio programming in the surveys carried out on rural family households.
In order to more easily comprehend the importance of the survey on the rural radio audience, and why it is uniquely different, we must have a clear picture of the specific nature of these radio networks. Created as they were in the wake of the independence movements of the 1960's, they were generally government services that either formed part of the national radio networks, or of a government ministry, and they were equipped by and functioned on public funding, or as part of bilateral or multilateral cooperative organisms. However, they really surged to prominence during the last decade of the twentieth century, carried aloft by the winds that were blowing nearly everywhere in Africa, which resulted in the liberalisation of the broadcast media. Madagascar, of course, also benefited from this new freedom, even though its regional government rural radio networks were not created until 1990, and this is the case today as well.
It is also important, at this point, to mention the case of the English-speaking African countries, particularly that of South Africa, where the "farm radios" cannot be actually called rural radios. It should be kept in mind that the problem of agrarian reform is an extremely crucial one in those countries that do not have real farming communities, but rather farm workers who are employed on the plantations that are owned by a very small minority of landed proprietors. We should also make mention of the similar situation that can be found in Latin American countries, where political power struggles heavily influence the radio broadcasting sector. In a general manner, then:
1. Radio is the only means of communication that persons in rural areas can afford. In the Antsirabe region, where we carried out our survey, more than 40% of the population is illiterate. Newspapers only rarely arrive in the more isolated areas. Television is, in point of fact, inaccessible to these people, due to the lack of electricity, their low purchasing power, and the uninteresting programming that is offered.
2. Rural audiences, in fact, are obliged to put up with a virtual monopoly on the part of the one or, at the most, two radio stations, which can be heard in their region. This monopoly is made worse by the fact that the radio sets that are available are antiquated, which all but obliges the rural audience to listen to the government radio stations, the only ones that are technically able to broadcast on the medium and short wave radio bands. Furthermore, 44% of the radios in the Antsirabe region do not possess an FM band. In addition, the persons in charge of these radio networks are rarely motivated to abandon their routine habits, in order to better understand the nature of their audience.
3. Infrastructures and basic government services are sadly lacking: health care, transportation, education, post offices and telecommunications, culture, leisure time activities... What is particularly striking is that the rural population frequently requests of the radio stations that they not only transmit and amplify the things they desire in the above-mentioned areas, but that they also provide them with the services that are lacking.
4. The rural radio networks do not function on the basis of a commercial or business logic. Of the dozen radio stations that are established and that broadcast in certain rural communities in Vakinankaratra, located in the Antsirabe region, only a single one cedlares loud and strong that it operates as a commercial station, and makes its advertisers pay very high fees. Generally, commercial announcements and communiques constitute a considerable financial resource with regard to the modest budgets of rural radio stations, which normally function on a community or association basis, and are therefore obliged to appeal to their local partners and volunteers for assistance.
5. Potential local partners are obviously numerous, since they need the radio stations in order to broadcast information of a national character (administration and local communities), or as a means of communication, extension, activity promotion, etc. These are generally government service technicians, associations, NGOs or village groups, political or religious groups, as well as the rural populations themselves. It is quite rare for radio stations to be able to maintain their independence with regard to these different groups, which always seem to be lying in wait, ready to seize any possible occasion in order to bombard the radio station's editorial staff with their demands.
The journalistic and technical skills of the administrators and personnel of the rural radio networks are in no way what is at fault here. It can safely be said that the radio broadcasters have excellent technical support, and this is particularly true in the case of Madagascar, where it has become customary for the different cooperation organizations which have radio projects to provide the same type of training, with all but slight variations, in most cases, to the same personnel at the same radio networks. In point of fact, it is quite simply very difficult for rural radio broadcasters to maintain and preserve their editorial independence if they merely follow the laws of supply and demand, without their being able to create a close and interactive relationship with their listeners.
6. Rural people generally prefer the neighbourhood radio stations, which provide them with more interesting and useful information, in one of the languages or dialects, which they can understand. All the more so, because proximity facilitates dialogue within and between communities.
7. Rural radio networks have taken upon themselves a specific mission, as well as certain public service functions, which clearly distinguish them from the other urban radio networks. These functions include: public information, radio services, the broadcasting of technical, economic, social and cultural information, dialogues and debates, personal opinion programmes, culture, entertainment, collection and enhancement of the rural milieu's oral and musical heritage, social sensitisation and mobilisation, the investigation of the milieu, and social surveys with regard to feasibility, carrying out, following up and evaluating development projects and programmes.
In spite of the meagre funds they have at their disposal, the rural radio networks have nevertheless been obliged to take on these functions, without which they could no longer lay claim to their rightful "place in the sun" of the rural world. A radio broadcaster might even be a rural individual, as in the case of a farmer and do-it-yourself adept in Tsarmody, a village located fifty km north of Antsirabe, on National Highway 7, who times the opening of his broadcasting "station" based upon his farming activities, and who always keeps his handmade pocket radio transmitter close at hand, in the event a midwife has to be called in an emergency, by means of his radio transmitter, to the bedside of a woman about to deliver her baby. He might do all of this for a few rice "kapoakas", or even free of charge, just for the pleasure of accomplishing an important task.
8. The rural radio networks must permanently listen to what their audience tells them, and maintain a dialogue with them. In the rural milieu, the telephone is unknown, and the postal services are not held in great esteem for their speed, or their reliability. Listening clubs have been created in numerous areas, both in order to allow listeners to criticise the station's programmes, and to enable them to participate in determining its development strategy. In Madagascar, where a radio set is still considered today to be somewhat ostentatious, and therefore never to be carried around in public, the SEECALINE project has provided its community nutrition points (PCN) with hand-cranked radio sets, in order to allow its animators and the village folk to follow, debate and criticise the radio programmes created and produced by the project.
The principal problem with this type of system is the high costs it entails.
A general mobilisation can only be conducted periodically, with a view to rearranging the programme schedule, for example. As for permanent listening, there is a risk of it being falsified, due to the lack or responsibility of listeners who faithfully communicate.
There are very few people who believe in the rural radio networks. The commercial state of mind would appear to be so domineering, that even those responsible for the radio networks occasionally have doubts about its usefulness, and yet, the demand for rural radio does exist. It is up to us then to be able to identify it.
When the GRET came to us, and suggested that we help them prepare and organise the December, 1998 workshop at Antsirabe, we had already had some experience in conducting socio-economic surveys, but none at all in the area of audience surveys. What we did have, however, was our knowledge of the communities and partner communes, as our working relationships with local radio stations, and a team of young broadcasters, who were very enthusiastic, and fortunately versatile, as well.
The GRET was unwilling to inform us as to the methodology that had been used in Mali, or even to show us the video cassette that had been produced on that occasion. It was only willing to work out together with us what the methodological frames of reference would be. Fortunately, the anoeuvring space that was given to us allowed us, in spite of the inevitable hesitations, to accumulate a good deal of professional experience, both negative and positive, that was extremely useful, pursuant to the pedagogical objectives of the workshop.
a. Surveying the Audience
In order to survey an audience, one must first ask questions, and collect information with regard to calculable figures, and precise statistical measures in reply to preliminary questions, which are clearly put, and of a quantitative nature. An audience survey3 must be able to reveal what the adio listening habits of an audience exactly are.
* At first glance, the opening questions that were agreed upon with the GRET would appear to be universal ones.
It is important for us to know:
We must nevertheless keep in mind that in the end, we must establish and/or reinforce the dialogue between the rural radio and its audience. It is precisely this principle which will have the major influence on the setting up of the frames of reference, namely, researching the information concerning the milieu, formulating the frames of reference, the survey's objectives, the choice of where the survey will be carried out, the determination of the survey sample, setting up of the survey questionnaire, its preliminary test, and the codification of replies.
* The collecting of information concerning the milieu can never be accurately summed up in documentation centres, administrative offices and libraries. In the classical type of survey, the information that is gathered at the above-mentioned sources might at first appear to be sufficient, if "scientifically" established extrapolations are applied.
The IREDEC itself has, in its own documentation centre, dozens if not hundreds of reports, studies and charts that have been obtained from a variety of support organisations, associations, economic operators and administrative authorities, etc. Nevertheless, the best source of all is undoubtedly the milieu itself, which enables us to discover data that is often rare, incomplete, or fairly unreliable. In this manner, at Faratsiho, one of the sites that was chosen for the quantitative survey, the demographic data that was available was ten years old. As a result, the survey would be obliged to carry out monographic research itself the site.
The monograph to be produced would include:
In order to obtain this information, informal methods were often used, which, in the case of Madagascar, largely included the utilisation of the "fihavanana"4, whose rites are hardly considered to be respectable within the framework of classical surveys. We felt obliged, for example, to participate in a "famadihana"5 at Ambano, one of the survey sites, in order to be accepted by the leading citizens and the local population.
* The Terms of Reference
The terms of reference represent the foundation of the survey, inasmuch as they set its basis, as well as its framework, in function of the means that are available. They include:
* The Objectives of the Survey
In order to avoid any possible divergence during the course of the survey, the objectives must be clearly set by the leader, and adhered to by the team directed to conduct the survey. As regards the rural radio networks, the divergence risks are generally caused by their audiences' expectation that these surveys will bring solutions to their daily living and development problems. We shall return to this question later, when we discuss the setting up of the questionnaire. The objective of an audience survey is to identify the nature, listening habits and preferences of this particular audience, that is to say:
* The choice of survey sites depends upon four important parameters:
The Choice of the Survey's Beginning Date
This date can have an important influence upon the results of an audience survey in the rural milieu.
The Choice of Methods
The most sophisticated and costly methods do not necessarily provide the best results. Rural people are extremely sensitive with regard to the simplicity of the means that are employed when approaching them. Even in this manner however, audience surveys can be a heavy financial burden for local radio networks. The above-mentioned partners can therefore be urged to contribute to the survey costs. One might also envisage a form of co-financing by a number of different stations, which have the same broadcasting areas, and the same preoccupations.
Sampling
In any survey, the representativeness and size of the sampling used are determinant, if one wishes to obtain reliable results. In the case of a rural radio audience survey, it would be utopian to expect to achieve absolute statistic representativeness. One would, first of all, have to begin by eliminating within the population being surveyed those persons who are not interested in radio communication, because they do not own a radio set, and do not wish to purchase one.
The rhythm of rural life does not allow certain categories of people to be available for a survey. At the very most, a rural radio audience survey can only expect to obtain the most possibly reliable indicative and meaningful data without excessive prejudice to geographic and socio-demographic representativeness. In addition, in Madagascar, people generally do not listen to the radio when they are working, or when they are with a group of friends.
b. The Questionnaire
The questionnaire is the basic tool used by the survey, and it must, both in its formulation, and in the manner in which it is administered, reflect the rural radio broadcaster's principal concern, namely, to establish, maintain or reinforce his ongoing dialogue with his audience. The survey, in setting forth the opening questions, must give precedence to closed questions, which can provide the expected types of answers, and those that are quantitatively manageable.
Formulating a survey questionnaire can be an extremely delicate exercise, inasmuch as we are dealing here with a study concerning the rural audience.
One must maintain a maximum amount of objectivity, and be as little directive as possible. Normally, one can always succeed in having people say exactly what one wants them to, because rural people always like to give interviewers the answers they know the latter would like to have.
Consequently, we cannot expect our being able to better understand the rural audience by assuming that their customs are a carbon copy of those of urban dwellers. We must, therefore, first understand the general customs and living habits of rural people, and only then formulate questions in function of these customs. In this manner then, the farmers living in the Madagascan countryside, still set the rhythm of the carrying out of their different activities by following the traditionally established chronometric references. These activities can vary according to the seasons, particularly during the very times when their radio listening is at its highpoint, namely, in the morning, from dawn, until they leave home for their farming tasks, and in the evening.
When in doubt, particularly with regard to questions of a qualitative nature, such as their appreciation of the radio programmes, as well as their suggestions in this area, it would be advisable to ask direct questions, rather than risk receiving erroneous answers, if those was forthcoming.
Using a straightforward presentation, and one that would be easily employed by the interviewers, the questionnaire should be based upon opening questions that are grouped together by subject:
Test of the Questionnaire and Validation
A preliminary test including a minimum of ten to fifteen interviews would be necessary in order to:
Unfortunately, this test is nearly always carried out in a perfunctory manner, due to the lack of sufficient time. When an interviewer is self-assured, he generally tests in order to validate his questionnaire, and not in order to have a validation by means of the sample tested. He thus forgets that the purpose of the survey, in point of fact, is to establish and/or reinforce the radio station's ongoing dialogue with its audience. His hope is that the large majority of the answers he will get, as well as the final phases of the treatment and analysis of the results received, might correct the "minor" errors that he will have found during the test. In any event, he will undoubtedly have to pay very dearly for this mistake.
The System for the Codification of Replies for each question is needed for the treatment of the data obtained:
The non-qualitative open questions indicate an insufficient preliminary understanding of the possible replies, due to an insufficient pre-test of the questionnaire. This will therefore entail a considerable amount of a posteriori codification work, and often a reworking of the whole, during the editorial phase.
a. The Quantitative Survey
Once we have clearly understood that it is not merely a question of collecting data, but rather of conducting a dialogue with the audience, the essential nature of the survey has been understood, and it can then be successfully carried out. The training of the interviewing personnel, their introduction to the sites, and the follow-up and control will make certain of this.
Unfortunately, as was the case with the questionnaire test, the time that is generally spent for the training of interview personnel is far too brief, and particularly if they happen to be town dwellers, in order to allow them to master:
Training plays an important role in the simulation sessions, and it should continue in the field, by means of clarification and discussion following the first actual interviews.
A supervisor should be responsible for the management of the survey team. He should be very familiar with the situation in the field, or belong to an organisation that is. He should supervise the advancement of the survey by holding regular briefings and debriefings, in order to verify the administration of the questionnaires, and the coherence and conformity of the replies. A daily follow-up will make it possible to have a rapid reorientation, in the event that deviations and errors occur.
b. The Processing, Analysis and Summarising of the Survey Results
The processing phase is perhaps the most tedious phase of the survey, particularly if it has not been sufficiently-well prepared, at the codification level, and at that of the preparation of the software (this was the case in the Antsirabe survey). We should mention at this point that instead of working directly on Excel, we first entered some data on Access, which was then transferred to Excel, in order to carry out simple analysis (uni-parameter) and complex analysis (multi-parameters) of the results.
With regard to analysis, the principal difficulty concerns the relative overabundance of the available data, which must then be sorted according to its importance. One must then clarify:
The analysis must continually:
The mail received by the networks and the listening clubs generally provide very interesting and indicative information for the rural radio stations. The representative data from the quantitative survey allow them to understand the major tendencies of their audience, as well as their causal relationships. What is still missing, however, is an understanding of these tendencies and causalities.
a. The Qualitative Survey
The qualitative survey is complementary to the quantitative survey. If we analyse the non-calculated qualitative replies, we find that they generally reflect, to an even greater degree, the attitudes, behaviour and motivations of listeners.
The same process is followed as with the quantitative survey. Beginning with the opening questions, and continuing to the summary of the results obtained, we find that there are a number of characteristics of a methodological order.
Simple analysis (uni-parameter) |
The results concern the replies to a single question of the entire sampling |
Complex or crossed analysis (multi-parameters) |
The results concern the replies to a particular category of the sampling. |
Computerised processing would be possible following codification.
b. The Village Public Programme
Inasmuch as the pedagogical objective had been limited to the development of this technique, its advantages and its constraints, we believe that it has been fully achieved. What remains to be done now is to master this technique, and this begins by assimilating its principles.
The MADIO project, which has been financed by the French Government's Cooperation Organisation, ORSTOM and the European Commission, has created an agricultural statistics follow-up methodology, to help with a survey system that would annually operate through four rural observatories, including the Vakinankaratra region, where the December, 1998 workshop was held. Since 1995, IREDEC has participated in the preparation of questionnaires, the choice of sites, the supervision of the surveys and the analysis of the data for the Vakinankaratra observatory.
A new "radio" section was introduced in the questionnaires for 1998. The questions asked concerned:
The respective methodologies and results were compared and discussed during the course of the workshop.
The principal interest of these surveys is to provide a continuing global framework for the most advanced audience studies. The radio parameter is not determinant in the choice of sites, and the sampling selection. The place reserved for single themes in the questionnaire is very limited, namely, nine questions.
In the audience study, only those individuals who are interested in owning a radio set, or listening to one are taken into account. In the household survey, some of the sites such as Bemaha are enclosed, or they are subject to a "scanning" phenomenon, which prevents radio broadcasting waves from reaching there, as is the case at Vinaninony-North, which is located at a distance of less that 20 km from Faratsiho.
The persons responsible for rural radio networks must therefore be careful not to generalise too quickly in these two cases, if they wish to reach certain local audiences. These studies therefore allow us to have images, which are very well placed both in space and time, and which it would be wise to verify in the other sectors where radio programmes are broadcast.
The absence of any other means of communication, information, expression and dialogue that is accessible to rural populations makes it obligatory for rural radio to create a partner relationship, and to establish a permanent dialogue with its audience.
Rural radio must therefore enter into contact with its listeners by following approved but not inflexible methods, in order to allow them to speak, to express their appreciation of the programmes, and to indicate their expectations and needs.
The rural radio audience study does not have a commercial objective, but rather one of solidarity between the radio network and its audience.
Whether in its quantitative or qualitative aspects, the study is not an end in itself, but must be adapted to the contexts and complexities inherent to the milieu.
Complicity with listeners constitutes the true legitimacy of rural radio, which might even extend to associating listeners to the management of "their" radio.
