[FoME] A quick guide to audience research

[Christoph Dietz]

Dennis List
A quick guide to audience research
Wellington, New Zealand: Original Books, 2006, 48 p.
http://www.audiencedialogue.org/dox/qgar.pdf 

"Audience research is for any organization with an audience - wether that audience is called listeners, readers, viewers, visitors, customers or users. Reading this 'Quick Guide' won't make you into a professional researcher, but it should give you a good understanding of the simpler audience research methods: which methods you could use, wether you should commission a research company to do the research, or do it yourself. If you decide to do it yourself, this 'Guide' will show you how you might begin." (p.4)

This new Quick Guide is focused on the needs of media, particularly in developing countries. It covers these topics:

Contents
1. Introduction and scope of this guide 
2. Beginning with secondary research
- Situation analysis 
- Impact assessment 

3. The survey process 
- Sampling 
- Writing a questionnaire 
- Gathering data 
- Processing the data 
- Analysis 

4. Interviewer surveys 
- Face-to-face surveys 
- Telephone surveys 
- Observation 

5. Questionnaire surveys 
- Mail surveys 
- In-publication questionnaires 
- Visitor surveys 
- Audience workshops 
- Internet surveys 

6. Qualitative research 
- In-depth interviews 
- Consensus groups 
- Response cultivation 

7. How to choose a method 
- Whether to do a survey 
- Choosing a survey method 
- Choosing a qualitative method 

8. Conclusion: Use your findings! 

Appendixes 1. Simple 1-page questionnaire 
2. Glossary of audience research terms 

This new Quick Guide includes two sections that are not covered in the former and bigger publication 'Know Your Audience': the section (2.2) on impact assessment, and chapter 7, which sets out criteria for choosing a research method. The Quick Guide is also slanted a little more toward the needs of print media than is 'Know Your Audience'.