Secondary Research Question: Policy Alignment

8.3Secondary Research Question: Policy Alignment

8.3.1Austria

The examination of Austria policy alignment begins with the total sample of all respondents in figure 6.19 below, which provides the most complete picture of the findings.

Figure 6. Ranking of Importance by Total Sample of Austrian Respondents

In the total sample, the data portrays an overall strong alignment of policy to the views of respondents in Austria. The top of the chart is well-represented by a group of terms extracted from Austrian community broadcasting policy (marked by the country code “AT”), indicating positive alignment. However, the relatively low scores for the policy terms “Multilingual”, “Objective”, and “European Identity”, plus the presence of five terms not found in Austrian policy appearing higher in the rankings, suggests some weakness in the alignment of the policy document.

One notable exception to this finding is the aged 60+ cohort, which ranked the Austrian policy terms representing community broadcasting values higher and more consistently above the non-policy terms than the total population (see figure 6.20 below).

Figure 6. Ranking of Importance by “Age: 60+” Group of Austrian Respondents

Indeed, whereas the Austrian policy in the project overall appears to have a section of low scoring terms suggesting poor alignment, the findings for this group of 60+ year old respondents show the Austrian policy to be well-aligned with their views. Pilot interviews, tabulations of survey responses, and now alignment of policy suggest a strong influence of age in Austrian community broadcasting. Notably, the Austrian policy was developed with the contributions of community broadcasting practitioners who began their involvement as participants and later progressed to manage and represent their organizations. Some of these practitioners began with the original formation of the sector in the 1990s; and a select few even before then as pirate broadcasters (Peissl 2013). The age group cohort 40-59 (figure 6.21) also shows substantial alignment of policy (10 of the top 13 scoring terms are policy). Thus, it appears the dynamic of policy advocacy that played a role in the actual design of the Austrian community broadcasting policy may still be present in the older cohorts of participant respondents.

Figure 6. Ranking of Importance by “Age: 40-59” Group of Austrian Respondents

While the policy shows stronger alignment with the views of older respondents, it also exhibits some weaknesses in alignment with the values of younger respondents. One interesting example of weak alignment among younger demographic groups can be seen in the Age: 25-39 chart (figure 6.22).

Figure 6. Ranking of Importance by Age: 19-25 Group of Austrian Respondents

In this finding, the terms “Sustainable” and “Experimental”, which are not included in the Austrian policy document, were rated important by fully 100% of respondents in the 19-25 age group. In addition, the non-policy terms “Alternative” and “Multiethnic” also scored above 94% important. This finding of non-policy terms at the top of the ranking suggests weakness in the alignment, and further informs the discussions about the status of young people in Austrian community broadcasting.

Despite the group of Austrian policy terms that scored lower in the rankings than several non-policy terms, the findings overall suggest that the policy document “Funding Guidelines for Non-Commercial Broadcasters” appears to be well-aligned overall with the views of respondents in the survey. The fact that every Austrian policy term was judged as important by at least 68% of participants in the survey lends evidence to support that claim. The influence of age upon the policy alignment evaluation was also evident, indicating that while the policy document is especially well-aligned with the older respondents, there are some weaknesses in alignment to the views of younger age groups.

8.3.2Czech Republic

For examining the alignment of policy to the views of participants in the Czech Republic case, the project research methodology is the same as that deployed in Austria. The list of widely-recognized terms representing community broadcasting values is overlaid with the list of terms extracted from the Czech policy document “Proposed Community Broadcasting Policy and Plan for the Czech Republic” (marked with the code “CZ”), which is attached in the appendix of this dissertation (see Appendix 9.1.1). A chart showing most of the Czech policy terms in the top of the rankings would indicate a positive alignment with participants’ views. Conversely, terms from Czech policy ranked below other terms could be judged as poorly aligned.

Figure 6. Ranking of Importance by Total Sample of Czech Respondents

The examination of Czech Republic policy alignment begins with the total sample of all respondents, which provides the overall evaluation of alignment. The findings shown in the accompanying chart above (figure 6.23) reveal a positive ranking of nine terms in the top 11 places on the list. This initially would suggest strong alignment of the Czech policy with the respondents’ views. That suggestion however, is countered by a group of four terms ranked among the bottom seven of the list, all with less than 63% of the sample seeing them as important.

Further examination of the subgroups revealed one group of respondents for whom the policy document was strongly aligned with their stated values: university graduates. These highly-educated respondents, who comprise a significant percentage of the Czech sample, ranked 11 policy terms in the top 13 positions, and scored only one policy term in the lower third of the ranking (see figure 6.24).

Figure 6. Ranking of Importance by “Education: University” Group of Czech Respondents

While the proposed Czech community broadcasting policy shows strong alignment with university graduates’ views in the survey, and the total sample showed nine Czech policy terms in the top 13 places of the ranking, the overall picture is less positive. A number of terms from the policy document, while still judged as important by a majority of respondents, ranked near the bottom of the total sample list. Thus, the overall findings suggest that the Czech policy document “Proposed Community Broadcasting Policy and Plan for the Czech Republic” exhibits a mixed picture of alignment with the views of respondents to the Czech survey.

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