Doctoral thesis
The Project: Problem, Aims, Questions, Methods
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- 1.5Contents of the Thesis
1.4The Project: Problem, Aims, Questions, MethodsWhile the values, philosophies and attributes of community broadcasting can be found in a rich mix of scholarly theories, advocacy interventions, organizational charters, and regulatory guidelines, research about the importance of these values to participants is quite limited. Volunteer participants are a key component of the community broadcasting phenomenon, and could also be a critical source for understanding community broadcasting and the ideologies that comprise it. Thus, this project aims to learn more about the views of these participants who populate the publics and produce the content of community broadcasting - by deploying online surveys in Austria (n=340) and the Czech Republic (n=85). The first research question asks:
To address this first research question, the surveys ask participants to judge the importance of a group of widely-recognized terms representing the values, attributes and philosophies of community broadcasting. The rankings of importance as reported by respondents to the surveys should present a picture of what values are important, and additional survey questions also provide demographic and organizational profiles of the participants and their organizations. Together variables offer opportunities for cross-tabulation computations to reveal more detailed findings about the participants and their values. The secondary aim of this project - to examine the alignment of policy to the views of participants - addresses a major issue for the community broadcasting sector. The leading scholar, advocate and practitioner Steve Buckley (2008) writes that effective media policy can be instrumental in establishing and maintaining effective community broadcasting. This project offers the opportunity to separately examine Austria and the Czech Republic, two nations with shared geopolitical and historical experiences, yet different paths to their current media environments that have led to completely different broadcasting paradigms, participation, and policies. In both these environments, participants could provide valuable insight into the efficacy of community broadcasting policy. The secondary research questions to facilitate that research aim are:
To address these policy-related research questions, terms from a policy document related to each country are overlaid onto the ranking of importance of values from the survey results to present a picture of the relative alignment of policy to participants’ views. In the Austrian case, the terms are extracted from the “Funding Guidelines for Non-Commercial Broadcasting”, and in the Czech Republic, the terms are extracted from the “Proposed Community Broadcasting Policy and Plan”. The overall design and methods of this research project present numerous challenges and possible limitations. While the views of volunteer participants have been studied in several research projects, previous research comparing policy terms to participants’ views in the study of community broadcasting could not be found. In addition, issues such as data collection methodology, language translations, and relatively small populations of participants (especially in the Czech Republic) also pose challenges for the successful execution of the project. Despite those challenges, the research pursues its aim to gain a better understanding of community broadcasting, which then can be applied to its study, practice, advocacy, and regulatory development. 1.5Contents of the ThesisThe opening chapter “Introduction” presented an overview of community broadcasting, and introduced the research project. Following this introductory chapter, the thesis describes and discusses the research project in this manner: Chapter 2: History of Community Broadcasting The section on history prepares the reader for understanding the background of community broadcasting and its current state around the world. Beginning with the origins of community radio in the Americas, the chapter traces its development on FM across the globe through to the present. The text then reviews the history of community television from the establishment of cable-access TV in the USA to the open channels and independent televisions of Europe today. Chapter 3: Community Broadcasting in Austria and the Czech Republic This chapter examines the history of community broadcasting in Austria and the Czech Republic. In Austria, the contentious struggle for adoption of community broadcasting is described in detail, followed by a review of the current favorable situation. The section on the Czech Republic begins with reviews of the public service and commercial sectors, then describes some steps taken in the restricted development of a community broadcasting sector, finishing with an examination of the proposed new community broadcasting policy and plan. Chapter 4: Literature Review The literature review addresses the theoretical underpinnings that help explain the community broadcasting phenomenon. It begins with an in-depth treatment of the concept of community, exploring its descriptions and definitions. That is followed by a section examining the concept of civil society from various theoretical approaches. The chapter then discusses Jürgen Habermas' public sphere as an important foundation of media and specifically community media. Finally, the section reviews literature and research specific to community broadcasting, identifying approaches and findings that contribute to the aim of this research project. Chapter 5: Methods The chapter begins with an overview of the aims, problem, and research questions in the project. Then a discussion of selected methodology is presented, along with design parameters, systems, people, and languages utilized in the project. Then the population and sample are described in detail, incorporating information about the response and methods deployed to generate it. Then the methods for acquiring and processing the data are described, including the survey instrument and the software for statistical computations. The survey instrument is also described, followed finally by a detailed description of the data analysis method. Finally, the data analysis method is presented describing the processes, technologies, and data to be examined using statistical computations. Chapter 6: Findings and Discussion The section begins with a profile of the various demographic and organizational cohorts in the sample. The primary and secondary research questions are then addressed, using charts to illustrate the findings. For the primary research question, respondents to the survey in each country judge the importance of selected widely-recognized community broadcasting terms. To address the secondary research questions concerning policy alignment, terms contained in the selected policy documents are overlaid to the same list of recognized terms. In both phases, demographic and organizational variables provide additional cross-tabulation findings. Chapter 7: Conclusions This chapter reports the conclusions drawn from the findings, and discusses the implications of the project. It makes statements about findings related to publics and participants in each country sample, then about the importance of values and the alignment of policy. In addition, this chapter suggests outcomes related to the practice, advocacy, and regulatory development of community broadcasting. Download 0.89 Mb. Share with your friends:
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