Presentation of Swiss Research Partnership Projects
Swiss Universities for Applied Sciences and Swisscontact
A development promotion program backed by SDC
Media Quality Assessment – Short Report
Media Quality Assessment Project, Phase II
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Project Name |
Media Quality Assessment Project, Phase II, Subproject: Assessment of quality of journalistic reporting in Radio and TV |
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Summary of Project |
The project will develop an instrument (Media quality tool) to assess the quality of journalistic reporting. The second phase focuses on Radio and TV. |
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Goal |
This media quality tool will help to precisely analyze the quality of reporting in mass media. It can thus be used as an assessment tool for various purposes, for example to identify shortcomings in media quality in a country, to assess progress in media quality during the course of programs or to assess the quality of training in media projects. |
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Planned Activities |
A catalogue of quality criteria has already been elaborated in the first phase of this project, mainly for newspapers. In this second phase the research is extended to radio and TV. Local research staff already trained in the method of content analysis with newspapers will be trained now for radio and TV. The staff will analyze samples of local media (TV, radio) according to the agreed quality criteria of journalistic reporting. In this second phase the task of assessing data will be done mostly by local staff with support of the Institute in Switzerland. |
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Partner Organisation |
The Caucasus Media Institute (CMI) is a mainly SDC funded institute offering various training courses and roundtables for journalists, conducting social research as well as strengthening public dialogue about relevant issues in the Armenian society. |
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Expected Results |
At the end of the second phase there will be a picture of the status of journalistic reporting quality in newspapers, radio and TV. The experiences will enable the Caucasus Media Institute to use this instrument in their future work, for example in the monitoring of 2007 and 2008 elections. The experiences also serve to apply this instrument in other countries and contexts. |
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Validation of Project within Swiss Technical University and Partner |
The development of this quality instrument is an important part of the new research field „Media in International Cooperation“. It serves to extend the program to other media products and countries. |
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Project Duration |
Two years (phase 1 and phase 2) |
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Contact |
Institute of Applied Media Studies (IAM) |
Assessment of Quality of Journalistic Reporting, Phase 1
Project Country
Armenia; Kyrgyzstan
Summary of Project / Activities Implemented
In two countries – Armenia and Kyrgysztan – a catalogue of quality criteria was elaborated by the involved partners and the media community (Journalists, editors-in-chief, owners). Local research staff has been trained in the method of content analysis and then analyzed two samples of local media (TV, print) in Armenia and one sample of print media in Kyrgyzstan. The data were analyzed and then fed back to the media communities and the partners.
Goal
The project goal was to firstly assess the quality of journalistic reporting in print media and TV, and get an insight on the status quo of this quality. The second goal was to gain experiences to develop an instrument (Media quality tool) for better monitoring of media quality.
Results Expected vs. Results Achieved by Swiss Technical University and by Partner
The results could almost fully be achieved. A large amount of data on various quality indicators could be gathered and was given back to the media communities for discussion. Secondly a lot of lessons were learned for the elaboration of a media quality monitoring instrument. Thus, in the second round of coding various elements of the content analysis could be omitted and others added.
Validation of Results by Swiss Technical University and by Partner
The results of this research will help the new research field ‘Media in International Cooperation’ to extend the scope of its research to other countries and contexts. The instrument will already be applied in June 2006 in Zambia. The experiences will also help to offer services to other partners. It also serves to extend the program to other media and countries. The results will be presented at an international conference ‘World Congress on communication for development’ in October 2006.
One of the partners – the Caucasus Media Institute – has already taken ownership of the instrument, by keeping the coder team and planning to apply the instrument in the media monitoring of the coming presidential and parliamentary elections. The CMI sees a great potential in offering services to their media community and international donors.
Sustainability / Outlook
The second phase, starting in June 2006, will fine-tune the instrument by applying it to a sample of radio and TV news.
Project Duration
Two years
Contact
Institute of Applied Media Studies (IAM)
Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur (ZHW)
Christoph Spurk, coordinator research
„Media in International Cooperation“
P.O. Box 805, CH-8401 Winterthur,
E-mail: spu@zhwin.ch
www.iam.zhwin.ch