By Prince Henderson, ECM Communications Officer
Catholic Media Managers in Malawi are currently meeting at Bishop Chitsulo’s Conference Centre in Chipoka, Salima for a ten day audience research workshop organized by the Research and Social Communications Commission which is under the Social Development Directorate of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM).
Opening the workshop on Monday, His Lordship George Tambala of Zomba Diocese and Bishop Chairman for the Research and Social Communications Commissions challenged Catholic media houses to ensure that they keep the identity of the Church.
“This audience research workshop has been organized for us to build our capacity as managers of the Catholic Media Houses. It aims at enhancing an understanding among us the station managers that audience research is very important for enabling the station to flourish by satisfying our audiences and stakeholders,” said Bishop Tambala.
He said the workshop which comes to an end next week Friday (19th August) will help Catholic Media Houses to see linkages between satisfying audience and stakeholders and attaining financial sustainability.
According to Bishop Tambala, the workshop will also give a practical experience of how to plan and do audience research in areas of reach for each Catholic media house.
“Let it build our capacity that we can measure, understand and develop our audiences. The aspect of feedback is very important in communication. It is by knowing one’s readers’, listeners’, viewers’ feedback that us as Catholic Media Houses can fine tune our programming to suit the likes of the audience while at the same time suit the magisterium of the Church,” he said.
Facilitator of the workshop Dr. Nancy Booker said the course is designed to equip media managers for community radio stations in Malawi and for the Catholic Church in particular with research knowledge, skills and competencies to enable them effectively carry out audience research.
“It will enhance the participants’ skills in planning, organising, executing and analyzing audience research data, and using the data to help them make content, staffing, pricing of advertising and sponsorship and other key media decisions,” said Booker, who is a senior lecturer and Chair for Journalism and Communication Department at Multimedia University of Kenya.
Dr. Booker said participants will also get acquainted with ethical issues that are likely to arise in their work as they conduct audience research to inform their programming and content decisions and that new technologies and their use for audience research will also be explored.
Apart from Dr. Booker, another facilitator is Dr. Graham Mytton from United Kingdom and began his research career in Tanzania and then Zambia. He has for several years worked as a broadcaster in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service, including Focus on Africa. From 1982 to 1998 he was Head of Audience Research at the BBC World Service.
A participant at the workshop, Father Gabriel Jana of Radio Alinafe of Lilongwe Archdiocese described the workshop as crucial, eye opener and beneficial to Catholic Media Houses.
“This training will help me be equipped with knowledge in conducting research, on how to measure our readership base and its needs. As an institution we will have the capacity to know our audience and deliver publications whose content meets the needs of such audience,”said Godfrey Maotcha, another participant from Montfort Media.
The workshop is being attended by at least 30 managers including Reverend Fathers who are Directors of Catholic Media Houses that includes Radio Alinafe, Radio Maria Malawi, Radio Tigabane, Tuntufye FM Radio, Luntha Television, Montfort Media and Likuni Press.
The Research and Social Communications Commission of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi is implementing the Audience Research project for Catholic Media Houses with financial support from Stem Van Africa in collaboration with Catholic Media Council (CAMECO).