Media Foundation

Survey Assessments of Media Capacity, Media Credibility and Media Literacy

Sep 14, 2012 By MFN Category: Uncategorized
Survey Assessments of Media Capacity, Media Credibility and Media Literacy

Media Foundation has just completed a major study on Nepali media, Media and the Nepali Public: Survey Assessments of Media Capacity, Media Credibility and Media Literacy. The following is the executive summary of the study, with findings and recommendations:

 

MEDIA & THE NEPALI PUBLIC: Survey Assessments of Media Capacity, Media Credibility and Media Literacy (Media Foundation- Nepal, Kathmandu)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

Introduction

This report attempts to provide a summary of Nepali journalists’ views on the professional challenges they face, their capacity development needs, their perceptions of media credibility, and their suggestions to improve the overall quality of journalism in the country. It also seeks to offer a snapshot of public views on media and their credibility, level of reliability of media as the source of information on contemporary issues, as well as the level of media literacy of the citizens.

The following pages summarize the research design, purpose and findings. The research was carried out by Media Foundation-Nepal (MF-N) in partnership with UNDP, the government of Japan and UNESCO. The Journalists’ Survey and the Public Opinion Poll on media were conducted during June-July, 2012. In addition, a series of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held among the stakeholders.

Purpose

The MF-N was commissioned by SPCBN/UNDP-Nepal to undertake the study. The purpose of the desk-review, journalists’ assessment and public opinion poll along with SMS and online polling was to create a basis for producing a training manual for journalists in Nepal. The manual will be used to train around 400 print and broadcast journalists and around 150 online journalists across the country.

The research was conducted with the following specific objectives:

– to identify Nepali journalists’ attributes, their professional challenges, perceptions of media credibility and capacity development needs;

– to identify Nepali journalists’ attributes, their professional challenges, perceptions of media credibility and capacity development needs;

– to solicit journalists’ suggestions on improving the overall quality of the profession;

– to explore public views towards media and journalists as credible sources of information, and level of reliability of media as sources of information on contemporary issues; and

– to find out the level of the public’s media literacy.

The focus of the research was primarily on identifying journalists’ capacity development needs and priorities as well as public perceptions of media.

Research Design

A multi-method approach was used for data collection. The first four of the following approaches were specified in the terms of reference (TOR) by the Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal (SPCBN)/UNDP-Nepal. With the view to fill in the gaps in surveys and to allow qualitative inputs in the research, MF-N took the initiative to undertake a series of focus group discussions (FGDs) in order to help complement the largely quantitative data.

The research design comprised the following components:

Literature and desk review: A team of researchers representing the media industry, the academia and the professional organizations reviewed relevant literature on capacity development. This also included review of Nepal’s media landscape along historical, legal, professional, and academic lines. Since existing literature revealed scanty data on in-house training efforts, one of the researchers interviewed editors and reporters from some of the leading media houses to collect first-hand information.

A survey of journalists: The general survey covered professional attributes and attitudes of journalists. The survey questions were developed in consultation with project partners, and a wider spectrum of stakeholders. A multi-stage selection procedure and quota sampling, stratified by outlets, ethnicities, sex and education, was used. Ten clusters, from across the mountain, hill and terai regions, covered 31 districts, about 40% of total 75 districts. A total of 838 respondents participated in the survey conducted online with print options.

A public opinion survey: A comprehensive survey was conducted to collect public views on media and their credibility. Like in the journalists’ survey, instruments were developed through a consultative process and the survey was done in the same clusters. A multi-stage stratified sampling technique was used. A total of 2,252 responses were received.

An SMS opinion poll: To complement the above two general surveys, an SMS poll was conducted with two linkage questions developed with input from partners seeking the views of the public on their trust of media and journalists. A random sample of mobile phone users were targeted, among which 739 responded.

Focus group discussions (FGDs): These sessions, focusing on capacity development needs, were held with stakeholders from academia, industry and professional associations. In addition, findings from the FGDs incorporated the outcome from loose network discussions conducted by the UNDP.

Major Findings

Literature and desk review

Capacity building efforts often focused on training, with less emphasis on other aspects such as instruction, curricula, infrastructure, and collaboration.

Academic curricula appeared to be eclectic and diversifying, however, there is little information about the scope and impact of these programs.

Although media houses appear to occassionally train their reporters and staff members, there is paucity of data on in-house capacity development efforts.

Surveys

While the survey results can be generalized to the target population, the findings below are limited by self-reporting, non-response, and variations in individual respondents’ backgrounds.

Journalists’ survey

Demographics

– Women comprised (17.64 %) respondents. They were most represented in urban Kathmandu (26.72%) and the least represented in rural Baglung (7.69%).
– Women’s representation was the highest for television (roughly 22.37%) and the lowest for online (4.35%).
– Among the respondents, 35.71 % were between the age of 25 and 30 years.
– More than two thirds (69%) of journalists were from the Brahmin/Chhetri background, followed by those from – Newars (7.49%), Madhesi/terai communities (7.23%), hill janajatis (6.98%) and terai janajatis (2.92%).
– A majority of Nepali journalists had higher education, half of them (49.69%) had a Bachelor’s degree and a little over a quarter (26.47%) had Master’s degree.
– Majority of Nepali journalists (42.47%) work for the daily newspapers, followed by radio (29.27%). Journalists working for the private media comprised a majority (69.30%), followed by community media (20%) and government media (9%). Most (78.39%) worked full time.
– Journalists working for radio were concentrated in the semi-urban cluster (51.45%), followed equally (24.27%) in urban and rural clusters.
– More than half of the journalists (59 %) had 2 to 10 years of work experience.

Perceptions of media professionalism

– More than one-third of Nepali journalists emphasized that their main role is to create awareness on developmental issues (34%), whereas almost a quarter stressed the need to reflect the country’s plurality and diversity in their work (23.30%).
– Nepali journalists considered seeking undue economic benefit (27.63%) or disclosing identity of victims (22.37%) as lead examples of code violations. More than half (52.63%) of journalists believed lack of awareness about ethics is the main reason for code violation.
– The major challenges included partisan image of media professionals (67.53%), lack of security from state (80.72%), partisan media houses (46.05%), and individual media worker’s lack of technological resources and training (42.67%).
– The survey indicated that more than half of Nepali journalists (56.18%) believed, as news professionals, they should be loyal to ‘the public in general’.

Perceptions of media credibility

– A majority (57.62%) of respondents said Nepali media and their content was generally trustworthy.
– Almost half the respondents (47.12%) said Nepali media were not impartial.
– Journalists (42.03%) often cited ‘mediocre language presentation and style’ as adversely affecting the credibility of Nepali media.
– Information in newspapers was trusted by more journalists (71.36%), than in television (65.67%) and radio (58.11%) and the Internet (48.14%).
– The coverage of peace and democracy was found as slightly more reliable by the majority of journalists (56.74%) than that of constitution-making (54.91%) of respondents, governance (52.88%), and national politics (50.52%).

Media capacities

– Respondents (46.68%) were somewhat dissatisfied with the available training, curriculum, instruction and practical opportunities such as in-house training and internships in the country today.
– Need for capacity opportunities were highly emphasized by respondents: incentives (98.61%), mentorship (98.6%), in-house training (98.46 %), reporting field trips (98.32%), seminars (97.23%), and fellowships (96.06%).
– Story idea development (42%), followed by information gathering (22%) and locating sources (20%) were among the most sought-after training needs of journalists.
– Advanced-level journalistic techniques (33.75%), and proficiency-level techniques (25%), followed by basic-level techniques (18.75%) were most often cited needs in methods training.
– In terms of resourcefulness, time-management (29.49%), ICT skills (24.36%), followed by critical thinking skills (17.95%), special language skills (10.26%) and multi-media (8.97%) were among the most commonly cited needs.
– Many journalists preferred practical, hands-on (71.95%) and lecture method (14.63%) to other modes of instruction.
– Repondents felt that new media had helped them by enhancing access to subject matter (48.48%), and by helping contact the sources and to interact with them (17.17%).
– Most journalists, across cluster and sex, stated their preference for advanced level training.
– Repondents generally declined to repond to training needs related questions. Of the 93  who responded (11.09% of the total), males (69.23%) and females (30.76%) both sought training mainly in news story idea development, followed by information gathering.
– More than two thirds (more than 71.42%) of print journalists preferred training in various stages of reporting compared to broadcast journalists, who showed interest mainly in story idea development, information gathering, and findings sources.

Media literacy

– About four in five (79.73%) said they could handle new media tools for professional work.
– Using new media tools (21.05%), online searching (19.74%), video-conferencing (15.74%), creating web pages (13.16%) and creating personal blogs (10.53%) were among the most cited new media learning interests.

Public opinion survey

Attributes of the public

– Females comprised more than one-fourth (29.63%) of respondents.
– Respondents were mainly young people (44.8%) in the age group 19 to 30 years.
– Almost half (47.63%) comprised the public from Brahmin/Chhetri background, followed by people from the terai/Madhesi communities (11.53%), and janajatis (19.42), and Newars (9.64%).
– Most of the public came from Kathmandu Valley (16.92%) and terai districts of Bara, Parsa, Rautahat (16.78%), followed by Morang and Sunsari (14.45%) and Banke (13.40%).
– Most were married (58.78%).
– Most among the public worked in the education sector (26.46%), followed by business/industry (20.87%) and agriculture (19.72%).

Perceptions of media professionalism

– More than one-third of the public (34.76%) was not sure about the most needed topic to be covered by the media. – – About one in five respondents (18.57%) singled out politics and current affairs as the most needed topic for media coverage.
– Unlike the journalists who saw the media’s role more in generating awareness on development issues, the public (16.26%) emphasized journalists’ role more in generating awareness on health, education, economy and the environment.
– A majority of the public (43.31%) concurred with the journalists in stressing that journalists should be loyal to the common people.
– More than two-third (67.99%) of the public rejected the view that there was no dearth of skilled journalists in Nepal.
– On the view that journalism content is getting better now compared to the past, those agreeing with the statement as somewhat true (34.12%), true (37.82%) and very true (8.12%) added up to a majority.
– Although the public had high perception of journalists’ work as a watchdog (80.86%), or as a catalyst for social harmony (81.5%), more than half rejected Nepali media was neutral (53.39%).

Perceptions of media credibility

– Most of the public relied on the radio for information and news (26.98%), followed by friends and family members (22.89%), and TV (18.26%).
– The members of the public were divided in their channel preferences, with most (37.00%) opting for TV, local FM stations (14.52%), the national radio (13.11%), and national dailies (11.94%).
– On a daily basis, most respondents watched television (63.73%), listened to lcoal FM radio (61.99%), read national daily (59.65), read local newspapers (52.98), listened to national radio station (46.74%), visited Website (39.70%).
– Almost one-third (31.34%) of the surveyed public believed Nepali media presented news on public interest, followed by those (19.40%) who thought it encouraged citizen participation.
– The public generally did not believe that media houses encourage citizen engagement or participation.
– The public trust TV journalists (23.78%), followed by journalists of the daily newspapers and the radio equally (16.89%). About one third (30.44%) of the respondents, however, could not say anything about the credibility rating.
– The public (44.26%) was not sure regarding their trust in journalists by the topics they cover.
– The public trusts journalists working with government media (39.35%) more than those working with the private media (28.92%), or community media (26.59%).
– The public placed the media coverage on governance (36.85%), national politics (37.37%), and constitution-making (36.25%) in the very reliable category, whereas the coverage on peace and democracy was perceived to be not much reliable by almost half of the respondents (45.75%).
– The public (19.16%) rated the Nepali media top among the institutions it trusted the most. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) (13.08%), government service (13.08%), and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Nepal Army equally (8.41%) followed the media in the list.

Levels of media literacy

– In terms of their access to media, most members of the public ranked the radio first (32.82%), followed by TV (21.67%), newspapers (13.62%) and the Internet (8.98%).
– Two in every five people surveyed (41.68%) said they could read newspapers
– Nearly one half (46.91%) of the respondents said they were able to use mobile phones
– Two in five persons (43.48%) said they were able to handle cameras for taking photos.
– On the general Internet use, nearly one third (31.74%) said they had no skill in this area, but almost a similar number (30.59%) said they could use it.
– Self-reported media use behavior of public indicates that the Nepali public is not far from being discerning or media literate. More than two-third (63.98%) reported they only scanned their media and rarely analyzed the context of information given to them.
– A majority of the public surveyed had not produced a variety of written or audio-visual material (45.23%), had not written to newspapers (49.57%) or called a TV or radio station (51.45%), etc.

SMS poll

Public trust

The public has a favorable view of media organizations and the news/analyses written or produced by journalists. A majority of them (59.29%) believe that their trust in journalists has increased over the past 3-4 years, whereas a slightly lower percentage (57.93%) of respondents believe their trust in the media outlets has increased during that same time.

Focus group discussions

Professionalism

Respondents cited low salaries, irregular payments, ownership control, non-transparency regarding the investment in the media sector, and insecurity as recurrent obstacles to professionalism in media.

They noted dedication to profession and building the level of motivation as well as projecting a good public image as the main challenge to journalists.

Participants observed newsroom is not female-friendly, and exclusion based on socio-cultural factors is another area of concern for professional growth.

Media credibility

There were mixed views on whether people’s trust on Nepali media had increased or decreased in recent years.

People tended to trust those media that catered to their interests or curiosities.

Lack of seriousness in verification of facts was cited as one of the major challenges in credibility standards of media.

Distortion of facts was a regular blame on media.

Electronic media credibility was even lower because of frequent factual inaccuracies and violations of Code of Ethics online.

Media capacities

Particiapants viewed media capacity as an art of identifying issues and presenting them. They emphasized media education, practices and training opportunities to enhance capacities.

They felt media houses, training institutes and universities have been promoting journalism through practice, trainings and studies, respectively, and wider ranges of opportunities were opening up in formal education and training sector.

They saw new media as an informal source of education for capacity building.

They believed international fellowships provided good opportunities for journalists to widen their worldview and develop workmanship.

Media literacy

Participants viewed media literacy as an ability to use and understand media tools and contents. They also considered it the means to understanding the various media laws, codes and instruments affecting the media sector.

Participants felt the state of media literacy in Nepal was poor. They emphasized that the public needed to be discerning in their media use habits.

They observed that most of the journalists working as news desk editors are not trained, and this in a sense also reflects media illiteracy.

As new technologies advance, there is a growing presssure on the public to learn how to use all forms of media, suited to specific time and context.

Participants said the Internet and cellular mobile phones have not been used to their fullest potential mainly due to technological difficulty or ignorance. A vast majority of people do not have access to these resources.

Back to blog page

Comment