Broadcast media, ICT-generated public opinion and political accountability in Africa
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Politics and International Studies
Abstract
The project's central research question is: To what extent is the citizen's participation in the media through the use of new ICT impacting mechanisms of political accountability, political control, inclusion of marginalized people and the quality of democratic electoral politics?
Through a detailed comparative case study in Kenya and Zambia, the project's aim is to critically appraise the potential for new ICT to enhance political accountability and democratic politics for poor people. It puts the hybrid character of the use of information technologies at the centre of the research questions, taking into account interactions between different modes, venues and actors of information gathering and dissemination, which are particularly prominent in Africa and among the poorest people. It focuses on the expressions of 'public opinion' in broadcast media via new ICT such as mobile phones.
The explosion in listener interactions with traditional broadcast media and media-driven 'public opinion' polling is remarkable yet under-studied. Research on ICT and democracy in developing countries has focused on the transformative potential of new digital platforms such as e-governance and social media for political mobilisation, participation and accountability. Far less attention is paid to hybrid and convergent technological developments, notably how new communication technologies are creating opportunities for citizens to make use of and inhabit other media such as radio, print and television. These hybrid uses are often more relevant for the poor, women, and the marginalised.
Similarly, while equitable access and pro-poor ICT provision remain serious challenges, emerging challenges concern less the 'digital divide' than 'digital divisiveness': the promise of improved participatory politics and political accountability being undermined by the distortive capacity and manipulability of digital communications, politically oriented representations of 'what the people want' being presented as 'genuine' representations of 'public opinion'. There is need for a better evaluation of the potential of new ICT not only to improve the quality of democracy but to exacerbate the very inequalities, prejudices and tensions that already exist. Such knowledge is necessary for development actors to formulate appropriate theories and policies of governance change, based on the knowledge of exactly who is being empowered and who marginalised via the use of ICT.
The project's analytical framework bridges policy, practice and evidence-based research, investigating four elements of the effects of new ICT on 'public opinion' making by African media: expressions of public opinion; their effects on citizenship practice and political belonging; the collection and representation of public opinion; and the reception of public opinion by politicianspolicy makers.
Our empirical entry point for investigation is interactive programmes broadcasted on radio and TV and their use of text-ins, phone-ins and media-initiated SMS 'public opinion' polling. These are examined comparatively in the context of electoral politics and post-election legacies in Kenya and Zambia, with an eye on understanding developments across the continent. In Kenya and Zambia, social inequalities, based on gender, resources, ethnicity, rural/urban origin, education, have historically constrained access to citizenship and participation in politics, whether due to authoritarianism, discrimination, economic constraints or self-censorship. Elections, in particular, are key accountability episodes, when citizens are encouraged to make demands to candidates, who make promises and display their engagement to fulfil them: the dialogue between leaders and citizens seems enhanced. In that sense, elections are privileged moments when to interrogate how new channels and uses of citizen voice are being created, and with what legacy effects on political practice and accountability.
Through a detailed comparative case study in Kenya and Zambia, the project's aim is to critically appraise the potential for new ICT to enhance political accountability and democratic politics for poor people. It puts the hybrid character of the use of information technologies at the centre of the research questions, taking into account interactions between different modes, venues and actors of information gathering and dissemination, which are particularly prominent in Africa and among the poorest people. It focuses on the expressions of 'public opinion' in broadcast media via new ICT such as mobile phones.
The explosion in listener interactions with traditional broadcast media and media-driven 'public opinion' polling is remarkable yet under-studied. Research on ICT and democracy in developing countries has focused on the transformative potential of new digital platforms such as e-governance and social media for political mobilisation, participation and accountability. Far less attention is paid to hybrid and convergent technological developments, notably how new communication technologies are creating opportunities for citizens to make use of and inhabit other media such as radio, print and television. These hybrid uses are often more relevant for the poor, women, and the marginalised.
Similarly, while equitable access and pro-poor ICT provision remain serious challenges, emerging challenges concern less the 'digital divide' than 'digital divisiveness': the promise of improved participatory politics and political accountability being undermined by the distortive capacity and manipulability of digital communications, politically oriented representations of 'what the people want' being presented as 'genuine' representations of 'public opinion'. There is need for a better evaluation of the potential of new ICT not only to improve the quality of democracy but to exacerbate the very inequalities, prejudices and tensions that already exist. Such knowledge is necessary for development actors to formulate appropriate theories and policies of governance change, based on the knowledge of exactly who is being empowered and who marginalised via the use of ICT.
The project's analytical framework bridges policy, practice and evidence-based research, investigating four elements of the effects of new ICT on 'public opinion' making by African media: expressions of public opinion; their effects on citizenship practice and political belonging; the collection and representation of public opinion; and the reception of public opinion by politicianspolicy makers.
Our empirical entry point for investigation is interactive programmes broadcasted on radio and TV and their use of text-ins, phone-ins and media-initiated SMS 'public opinion' polling. These are examined comparatively in the context of electoral politics and post-election legacies in Kenya and Zambia, with an eye on understanding developments across the continent. In Kenya and Zambia, social inequalities, based on gender, resources, ethnicity, rural/urban origin, education, have historically constrained access to citizenship and participation in politics, whether due to authoritarianism, discrimination, economic constraints or self-censorship. Elections, in particular, are key accountability episodes, when citizens are encouraged to make demands to candidates, who make promises and display their engagement to fulfil them: the dialogue between leaders and citizens seems enhanced. In that sense, elections are privileged moments when to interrogate how new channels and uses of citizen voice are being created, and with what legacy effects on political practice and accountability.
Planned Impact
The research project targets four policy and practice beneficiary groups:
1. African (initially Kenyan and Zambian) media professionals and publics.
2. International and local NGOs working in media development, grassroots governance participation and government accountability/transparency; and public opinion research organisations/programmes
3. African (initially Kenyan and Zambian) policy makers and politicians
4. Donors with pro-poor programmes focused on ICT for development, democratisation, participatory governance or accountability and transparency.
We envisage that through impact pathway activities they will benefit from insights into how more robust, representative and regular public opinion championed by broadcast media can improve governance discussions and political accountability and protect against destructive political manipulation.
We will pursue this overarching benefit for these groups through three pathways:
1. Communications and engagement: knowledge transfer through direct engagement of end-users in the research design and through dissemination of findings. We will enable end users to access project insights on demand through a project social network platform (based on Elgg: http://elgg.org/), we will invite stakeholders to sessions during all three major project workshops and host major knowledge-practice workshops at project end, focused on identifying specific improvements in government regulatory policy for the media, media self-regulatory practice, in-house training and principled commiments, and donor and NGO programmatic interventions. We will work with broadcast media to support awareness raising amongst wider publics on the opportunities and threats of making their individual and collective voice heard. Using existing networks, we will engage regularly with donor and government intermediaries to build credibility and establish channels for knowledge sharing and influence. We will enrich public interest debates on ICT and African governance through evidence-based insights on innovations.
2. Collaborations: beyond translation of research findings into end user insights, these will pursue specific policy/practice change and development of practical tools. Working with Internews, an established NGO well experienced in media training including in Africa, from the outset, the research project will reach a wide range of media actors through development of a 'Media public opinion toolkit' for journalists, on aspects such as representative public opinion 101, journalist training on 'reading' public opinion, do no harm, schooling their listenerships and giving voice to the voiceless. Internews' will also organise the first inaugural 'African Media for Citizens' Voice Prize' competition for gathering, sharing and rewarding innovative best practice by broadcast media using ICT interactivity to advance political accountability and social change.
3. An application pilot that aims to improve media-generated public opinion at scale: CGHR will work on a pilot concept building sub-project with YouGov-Cambridge and FrontlineSMS that draws upon research insights, field-based research presence and media contacts to design, develop and pilot test an improved opinion polling methodology that fills the gap between poor quality media-generated opinion polling and detached and resource-intensive (but rigorous) survey-based research. The benefits of substantially involving broadcast media in pursuing governance accountability through public opinion and the scale and coverage of mobileSMS could be combined, while combining polling techniques and local contextual insights to better tackling marginlisation dynamics and issues of representativeness too often overlooked by media's use of ICT-generated 'public opinion' polling. The tool and methodology developed would be made freely available to organisations seeking to assist raising poor citizens' voice on fundamental governance and development issues.
1. African (initially Kenyan and Zambian) media professionals and publics.
2. International and local NGOs working in media development, grassroots governance participation and government accountability/transparency; and public opinion research organisations/programmes
3. African (initially Kenyan and Zambian) policy makers and politicians
4. Donors with pro-poor programmes focused on ICT for development, democratisation, participatory governance or accountability and transparency.
We envisage that through impact pathway activities they will benefit from insights into how more robust, representative and regular public opinion championed by broadcast media can improve governance discussions and political accountability and protect against destructive political manipulation.
We will pursue this overarching benefit for these groups through three pathways:
1. Communications and engagement: knowledge transfer through direct engagement of end-users in the research design and through dissemination of findings. We will enable end users to access project insights on demand through a project social network platform (based on Elgg: http://elgg.org/), we will invite stakeholders to sessions during all three major project workshops and host major knowledge-practice workshops at project end, focused on identifying specific improvements in government regulatory policy for the media, media self-regulatory practice, in-house training and principled commiments, and donor and NGO programmatic interventions. We will work with broadcast media to support awareness raising amongst wider publics on the opportunities and threats of making their individual and collective voice heard. Using existing networks, we will engage regularly with donor and government intermediaries to build credibility and establish channels for knowledge sharing and influence. We will enrich public interest debates on ICT and African governance through evidence-based insights on innovations.
2. Collaborations: beyond translation of research findings into end user insights, these will pursue specific policy/practice change and development of practical tools. Working with Internews, an established NGO well experienced in media training including in Africa, from the outset, the research project will reach a wide range of media actors through development of a 'Media public opinion toolkit' for journalists, on aspects such as representative public opinion 101, journalist training on 'reading' public opinion, do no harm, schooling their listenerships and giving voice to the voiceless. Internews' will also organise the first inaugural 'African Media for Citizens' Voice Prize' competition for gathering, sharing and rewarding innovative best practice by broadcast media using ICT interactivity to advance political accountability and social change.
3. An application pilot that aims to improve media-generated public opinion at scale: CGHR will work on a pilot concept building sub-project with YouGov-Cambridge and FrontlineSMS that draws upon research insights, field-based research presence and media contacts to design, develop and pilot test an improved opinion polling methodology that fills the gap between poor quality media-generated opinion polling and detached and resource-intensive (but rigorous) survey-based research. The benefits of substantially involving broadcast media in pursuing governance accountability through public opinion and the scale and coverage of mobileSMS could be combined, while combining polling techniques and local contextual insights to better tackling marginlisation dynamics and issues of representativeness too often overlooked by media's use of ICT-generated 'public opinion' polling. The tool and methodology developed would be made freely available to organisations seeking to assist raising poor citizens' voice on fundamental governance and development issues.
Publications
Fraser A
(2023)
The Limits of Governmentality: Call-in Radio and the Subversion of Neoliberal Evangelism in Zambia
in Journal of African Cultural Studies
Fraser A
(2016)
The Political Economy of Sponsored Call-in Radio in Zambia
Mitullah W
(2015)
Background Paper: Politics and Interactive Media in Kenya
Mitullah W
(2016)
Who Participates? Audience and Participants in Interactive Shows
Okoth F M
(2015)
PiMA Survey Design and Methodology
Riha J
(2021)
Media and Digital Technologies for Mixed Methods Research in Public Health Emergencies Such as COVID-19: Lessons Learned From Using Interactive Radio-SMS for Social Research in Somalia.
in Journal of mixed methods research
Simutanyi N
(2015)
Background Paper: Politics and Interactive Media in Zambia
Srinivasan S
(2018)
The Power of the "Audience-Public": Interactive Radio in Africa
in The International Journal of Press/Politics
Srinivasan, S
(2016)
Voice and Matter: Communication, Development and the Cultural Return
| Description | Africa's digital revolution continues apace, yet broadcast media are vital for reaching poor and remote populations, and the more marginalised, now and in the foreseeable future. Flourishing interactive broadcast shows are not ideal spaces of democratic politics, yet PiMA has discovered how and why they matter. 1. Why broadcast matters: High levels of audience listenership to interactive shows, and diverse offerings across locations and languages, underscore the importance of taking them seriously. Our household survey research finds that listenership is broad, but participation is skewed towards men who are more educated, somewhat wealthier and slightly younger. Our behavioural data supports this; the ratio of male to female participation is invariably 80:20. Yet a good proportion of women have participated, just less frequently. Interactive shows are perhaps 'biased' discussions, but high listenership levels remind us that they are valued spaces where public opinion is influenced, new voices are heard and socio-demographic groups can get 'socialised' into having a public voice. Our close-range studies of frequent or 'serial' callers, who dominate the airwaves but oftentimes regard themselves as 'citizens' representatives', underscores the old tension between pursuing popular 'inclusion' versus effective 'representation' in democratic politics. 2. The mediation effect and journalists as enablers: Media actors are central in enabling and constraining the quality and dynamism of interactive discussions, despite the limited social context within which they work. Our station case studies broke down the false binary that often frames African media, as either an ideal watchdog or public sphere, or lamentably caught in the intrigues of their wider political economy. The media is rooted in context, but it also shapes it everyday. Interactive shows reinforce the privileging of particular voices but also create opportunities for new ones. Once access and socio-demographic skews are accounted for, our modelling of survey data, supported by case study and behavioural data, provides strong evidence that factors shaping shows as a social space (e.g. audience perceptions and trust of the show and its host, knowledge of people who participate) have an important role to play. 3. Interactive broadcasts are dynamic, unconventional spaces for political accountability: Interested audiences, live/engaged public debate, and instrumentalisation and interest by (some) politicians and authorities, apparent through interview and station research, reveal that interactive shows are not trivial, but function as processes of political accountability. Interactive broadcasts are spaces of opportunity, evident in the ways that the shows were seized upon by different actors for different reasons. Shows' popularity and dynamism are also tied to politics, with particular formats - unscripted, immediate and local, or focused on mobilisation and legitimation - driving engagement. Programmatic interventions that recognise what drives the dynamism of interactive shows seize better the broadcast's possibilities. These insights underscored our sharp analysis of why donor-sponsored shows, wedded to mechanistic ideas of political accountability, often fail. 4. New tools and approaches for seizing the power of public opinion: Through their live, dynamic nature, interactive shows become spaces of legitimation and accountability, where public opinion is formed and has political effects at a particular moment. While fragmented and ephemeral, it provides an important opportunity to define and measure public opinion in spaces where it matters. Our research developed new conceptualisations of public opinion in this space, and explored applied methods with which we might measure this approach to public opinion. Research led to the spin-out of a charity, Africa's Voices Foundation, to provide practical tools for gathering and analysing public opinion through interactive shows. |
| Exploitation Route | We anticipated impact was best achieved through a multi-pronged approach, incorporated into the research process and supported by dedicated resources. This approach facilitated some exciting directions for impact. Academic users: From survey research, we developed and made available online an open access dataset on the characteristics and challenges of audience participation in Kenya and Zambia. We also continue to incorporate research into current scholarly debate in Africa and Europe, presenting at seminars and conferences in Kenya, the UK and Denmark. Publication of a working paper series assists in sharing findings in a timely manner. Non-academic users: The launch of a spin-out social research charity, from an applied research pilot, is a focal point for the translation and uptake of research in policy and practice. Africa Voices Foundation Ltd. provides momentum and structure for further research and practical application. Africa's Voices is now influencing approaches to citizen engagement and research of development and governance organisations like UNICEF in Somalia, Oxfam in Kenya and others. Regarding more immediate impacts, collaboration with Internews, an NGO experienced in media training, translated research into resources for practitioners. Internews developed five toolkits for media practitioners in Africa to help improve audience reach and engagement. An 18-page e-book was also created, aimed at station managers, hosts and donors, explaining key findings through illustration and short captions. Sharing resources with stations and online will help ensure their accessibility to users. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | http://www.cghr.polis.cam.ac.uk/research-themes/pdtm/pima |
| Description | The major impact of the ESRC-DFID funded PiMA project on policy and practice has been through the successful establishment of the spin-out organisation, and registered UK charity, Africa's Voices Foundation (AVF), in 2015. Sir David Green, former Secretary-General of the British Council and Director of VSO, joined Lord Cairns (former Chair of Overseas Development Institute, CDC/ACTIS and VSO) and others on the Board of Trustees. Co-founded by the project PI, Dr Srinivasan, and with PiMA research associate Dr Claudia Abreu Lopes as its first Head of Research and Innovation, AVF now has a team of 17, mostly based out of its office in Nairobi, Kenya. For its start-up phase, AVF secured over £1m in multi-year core funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Elaine Potter Foundation and the Cairns Charitable Trust. By 2018, Africa's Voices' applied model for using interactive radio for citizen engagement and social evidence generation in development, humanitarian and fragile state contexts had been successfully deployed in Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and South Africa, through partnerships with UNICEF, Oxfam, BBC Media Action, Well Told Story, Livity Africa, Troicaire, MasterCard Foundation, ICRAF, World University Service Canada and others. These partnerships covered a range of sectoral deployments, from public health, gender and education to agriculture, social policy and civic engagement in governance. For its work with UNICEF in Somalia, Africa's Voices Foundation was awarded the 2016 President's Medal by the Market Research Society, the world's leading professional body for market and social researchers, for innovations in social research with societal impact. See www.africasvoices.org. Longer term and sustainable impacts of our research on policy and practice are thus fully in process. Other impacts from the research have included: 1. Improving the skills and capacities of media practitioners: Active engagement throughout the research project and since (through Africa's Voices Foundation and its partners) with media practitioners and policymakers. The project's work with Internews, a project collaborator for impact activities, guided impact activities through the life of the project. During the project, collaboration with Internews' was a focal point for targeting local media houses and the development community in Kenya and Zambia and across Africa. This involved developing, testing and publishing tools (an expert designed interactive media toolkit; an awareness raising brochure for media, and their donor and governance partners, on the project findings on the value of interactive media for participatory governance) that translate and communicate research to media practitioners in accessible and meaningful ways. Internews, Africa's Voices Foundation and members of the research team continue to disseminate, support and apply the tools developed with media practitioners. 2. Translating and integrating research methodologies into development practice, specifically evidence-informed policy/programming, beneficiary feedback, social analysis and accountability: Direct practical engagement with radio stations in Africa through the Africa's Voices pilot (funded partly through this grant) provided a platform to help media houses improve their evaluation activities, and its feedback into station practice. With the establishment of the research spin-out charity, Africa's Voices Foundation, a long-term vehicle for impact from PiMA research is guaranteed. Africa's Voices is developing new approaches to citizen engagement, social data analysis and evidence based decision-making. These include ongoing collaborations with researchers in Cambridge, especially in computational linguistics and technology design. 3. Enhancing and expanding 'public knowledge' and debate through public broadcast: We continually sought out in diverse opportunities to present and share research with diverse audiences during the life of the project. This included presentations and workshops with practitioners and policy makers interested in the field of broadcast media at Oxfam East Africa and IBM Research Africa. As well, we disseminated findings to a more diffuse and wide-reaching audience, including, the PI taking part in SOAS World Radio Day 2015 and the BBC World Service programme, The Forum, in a discussion on 'Big Data and Us'. Other presentations and online or webcast interviews included a presentation and rich discussion at the 2014 Voice and Matter Festival (Sweden and Denmark) for development communications practitioners and policymakers, with both researchers and practitioners, online interviews for SciDev.net and an interview for the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University. Since then, the work of Africa's Voices has featured at the annual TicTec and ICT4D conferences, at the 2016 Hay Festival, at the European Survey Research Association annual conference, as well as briefings for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Africa Directorate, the British Council's Africa management team and at the 2017 DFID Education Research in Conflict and Crisis symposium in Nairobi. A Q&A with Dr Srinivasan on the power of interactive radio as a tool for social research also featured on the highly read Devex development industry website in 2018. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Environment,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | DFID Education Research in Conflict and Crisis workshop for practitioners and policymakers: panel presentation on using interactive radio in fragile states for citizen engagement and rapid social research |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | After this presentation, World University Service Canada engaged with Africa's Voices Foundation to support their £20m DFID funded project on girls education in refugee and host communities in Kenya, with a citizen engagement and social research intervention using interactive radio to enhance efforts to tackle social norms that act as barriers to girls education outcomes. If successful, this pilot will be rolled out for wider deployment in their programmes. |
| Description | Interactive radio toolkit for media practitioners |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| URL | https://medium.com/local-voices-global-change/calling-all-listeners-5bdc73636e29#.rezsxx4qu |
| Description | Cambridge University ESRC Impact Acceleration Account |
| Amount | £17,500 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RG72757 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2014 |
| End | 09/2014 |
| Description | Cambridge-Alborada Africa Research Fund |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Alborada Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2013 |
| End | 09/2014 |
| Description | EPSRC Global Challenge Research Fund Institutional Grant 2016 |
| Amount | £39,167 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | ESRC Impact Acceleration Account - University of Cambridge |
| Amount | £3,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 12/2016 |
| Description | Isaac Newton Trust Research Grants |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RG74476 |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | Isaac Newton Trust |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2014 |
| End | 09/2014 |
| Description | King's College Research Committee |
| Amount | £2,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Department | King's College Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 10/2015 |
| Description | Smuts Memorial Fund |
| Amount | £1,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 10/2015 |
| Description | University of Cambridge Vice Chancellor's Discretionary Fund |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2013 |
| Description | Wellcome Trust on Social and economic impact of Zika |
| Amount | £246,192 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 09/2017 |
| Title | CODA: open-source research tool for labelling and analysing local language textual data at scale |
| Description | CODA is an open-source software tool commissioned by Dr Srinivasan in collaboration as Co-I with Professor Alan Blackwell and his team at the Cambridge Computer Lab. It was created to help researchers at Africa's Voices Foundation (AVF) to quickly analyse large volumes of short texts. It's currently being put to use for AVF's ongoing partnership with UNICEF Somalia. For this project, more than 44,000 people so far have participated in interactive radio shows on a range of health and gender-related topics, leading to a rich dataset of over 250,000 text messages in the Somali language. Participants are from a wide variety of backgrounds and across every district in Somalia, including from remote regions and low-literacy populations. As such the responses vary in dialect, length, and legibility. These thousands of messages need to be translated, analysed, and coded (categorised) by AVF Somali-speaking researchers: skilled analysts who must constantly make decisions about which code the message belongs to. These skills are rare, and their time is valuable. The design philosophy for CODA was to combine principles of interaction design and artificial intelligence, to create a tool that would allow AVF researchers to use their time as effectively as possible, and get the greatest benefit from their analytic decisions. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The tool is now being deployed across Africa's Voices projects, enabling human-led qualitative research processes to be scaled up to large volumes of text data by enabling automation and machine learning approaches to optimise the process. |
| URL | http://www.africasvoices.org/ideas/newsblog/introducing-our-latest-analysis-tool-coda/ |
| Title | PIMA dataset |
| Description | Household survey dataset from survey conducted in mid-2013 in four constituencies, one rural and one urban, in Kenya and Zambia as part of the Politics and INternative Media in Africa (PIMA) research project. The survey was designed to supplement other research methods, such as participant observation, key informant interviews and focus-group discussions. The surveys, based on representative samples of citizens of voting age in selected sites in Zambia and Kenya, enabled the research team to provide indicative answers to the first research question: "Which citizens are able to exercise voice using ICTs in media-driven public discussion and opinion-making?" The rationale for conducting the surveys was: (1) to generate demographic information of people who listen to or watch, and text or call-in to radio or television stations; (2) to try to understand the factors which encourage or discourage them from participating; (3) their socio-political attitudes; and (4) their opinions regarding the efficacy of participating in interactive broadcast shows as a way of expressing their political agency or of holding the authorities to account. The surveys in four constituencies in Kenya and Zambia followed the same core methodology, despite some minor adjustments made in order to take context specificities into account. In Kenya, the surveys were conducted in Ruaraka: a peri-urban constituency in the capital Nairobi, with mixed demographics including one of the city's major slums; and Seme: a rural constituency settled around Lake Victoria in the country's largely fisher-agricultural community in the western Kenyan city of Kisumu. In Zambia, the surveys were conducted in Mandevu: an urban constituency in the capital city Lusaka with a mixed demographic including some of the city's major slum settlements; and Chipangali: a marginal rural constituency in the country's largely agricultural Eastern Province. The four samples were designed as a representative cross-section of all households in those constituencies. Although no claim is made that the constituencies themselves were representative of the wider national population, they were selected based on the possibility of capturing variation in terms of socio-economic factors, political context and media landscape. The results of the survey allow inferences to the voting population in the four constituencies (macro-units) with some degree of accuracy (but not to the two countries). The sample sizes are 760 for Kenya (383 for Ruaraka and 377 for Seme) and 688 for Zambia (327 for Mandevu and 361 for Chipangali). The margins of error for a 95% confidence level are no more than plus or minus 5% for both Ruaraka and Seme, 5.41% for Mandevu and 5.12% for Chipangali. The response rate for Kenya was 90.4% (84.6% for Ruaraka and 96.3% for Seme). The response rate for Zambia was not available because the team did not record the number and reasons of unsuccessful calls. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Under finalisation for making open access |
| Description | Analysis of socio-cultural dimensions of high maternal mortality and morbidity in Uganda |
| Organisation | Makerere University |
| Country | Uganda |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Led by PiMA PI Dr Sharath Srinivasan and former PiMA Research Associate, Dr Claudia Abreu Lopes, an innovative methodology and approach to doing social research and analysing public opinion developed through the PiMA research was applied to better understand the potential socio-cultural dimensions to high levels of maternal mortality and morbidity in Uganda. PiMA researchers led on designing interactive radio show formats, on the adaptation of the data collection methodology, and also on the analysis of data, which included a combination of qualitative techniques and large-scale automated analysis of text messages. |
| Collaborator Contribution | PiMA researchers collaborated with two expert researchers in maternal health, Dr Annettee Nakimuli (Makerere University, Uganda) and Professor Ashley Moffett at University of Cambridge (Pathology), as well as Professor Grace Bantebya (Gender Studies, Makerere University, Uganda). These researchers provided the motivation, expertise and pathways to impact for the research. |
| Impact | While this was only a pilot project, the findings were designed to be practically applicable, and in a format easily digestible and relevant to health practitioners, and local and national policy decision-makers. The research findings have the potential for the direct application to improve support for when at risk of pre-eclampsia and other causes of maternal morbidity and mortality, with findings relevant to health practitioners with influence over medical staff practices and awareness campaigns, and policy decision-makers to potentially address more systemic issues identified, for example, training and salaries of medical staff, and accessibility of medical facilities. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Collaborative research agreement with University of Nairobi |
| Organisation | University of Nairobi |
| Country | Kenya |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We engaged University of Nairobi as research collaborators on the project and they are funded under the grant. We jointly executed the Kenya country case study research, and brought specific capacity support for research activities to strengthen their capabilities, including on survey design and execution, qualitative data analysis and impact design. |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of Nairobi contributed human research capacity, premises and contextual expertise and networks to the study, enriching it in diverse ways. |
| Impact | Collaborative publications: Mudhai, FO and Mitullah, W. Media Practitioners and Public Opinions on Interactive Shows in Kenya: The Case of Citizen TV's Power Breakfast / Cheche. Book Chapter. Mudhai, O.F., Abreu Lopes, C. et al (August 2014) 'PiMA Survey Design and Methodology', PiMA Working Paper #1, Cambridge:University of Cambridge, Centre of Governance and Human Rights. Mitullah, W., Mudhai, O.F., Mwangi, S., (April 2015) 'Background Paper: Politics and Interactive Media in Kenya', PiMA Working Paper #2, Cambridge: University of Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights. Abreu Lopes, C., Okoth, F. M., Mitullah, W., Simutanyi, N., Balongo, S., Diepeveen, S., Fraser, A., Milapo, N., Mwangi, S., Tembo, E., Srinivasan, S. (2015) 'Interactive media audiences in Africa: A comparison of four constituencies in Kenya and Zambia,' PiMA Working Paper #4, Cambridge:University of Cambridge, Centre of Governance and Human Rights. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Collaborative research agreement with University of Zambia |
| Organisation | University of Zambia |
| Country | Zambia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We engaged University of Zambia as research collaborators on the project and they are funded under the grant. We jointly executed the Zambia country case study research, and brought specific capacity support for research activities to strengthen junior researchers' capabilities, including on survey design and execution, qualitative research methods and research writing. |
| Collaborator Contribution | INESOR provided research capacity in the form of junior researchers, premises and networks |
| Impact | Collaborative publications: Mudhai, O.F., Abreu Lopes, C. et al (August 2014) 'PiMA Survey Design and Methodology', PiMA Working Paper #1, Cambridge:University of Cambridge, Centre of Governance and Human Rights. Abreu Lopes, C., Okoth, F. M., Mitullah, W., Simutanyi, N., Balongo, S., Diepeveen, S., Fraser, A., Milapo, N., Mwangi, S., Tembo, E., Srinivasan, S. (2015) 'Interactive media audiences in Africa: A comparison of four constituencies in Kenya and Zambia,' PiMA Working Paper #4, Cambridge:University of Cambridge, Centre of Governance and Human Rights. Simutanyi, N., Fraser, A. & Milapo, N. (April 2015), 'Background Paper: Politics and Interactive Media in Zambia', PiMA Working Paper #3, Cambridge: University of Cambridge Centre of Governance and Human Rights. |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Joint Study Agreement with IBM Research Africa |
| Organisation | IBM |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | As Technical Coordinator, Dr Sharath Srinivasan nominated Dr Claudia Abreu Lopes from his research team to be our University Representative on the Joint Study. Dr Abreu Lopes spent three months at the IBM Research Lab working on this joint study. The costs for her time on the joint study were paid from a grant from the Cambridge University ESRC Impact Acceleration Account. |
| Collaborator Contribution | IBM provided research lab premises and IBM researchers to collaborate on the joint study |
| Impact | Implementation of methodology and collaborative partnership beyond Joint Study in applied project in Sierra Leone, with the government, telcos and media actors, to create a citizen engagement and data analytics platform to support public health objectives in the Ebola crisis |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Company Name | Africa's Voices Foundation Ltd |
| Description | Africa's Voices Foundation is a citizen engagement and social data analytics organisation that enables charitable organisations, governance actors and non-charitable organisations pursuing charitable purposes to better understand beneficiary populations needs, feedback on ongoing activities and evaluate interventions. It's primary focus is on deploying a platform for interactive local language radio programmes that invite audience feedback. It also works with digital social media platforms. Africa's Voices Foundation has an expertise in analysing large volumes of unstructured digital social data in African languages. It's initial focus of work is East Africa, where it has established a branch office. Africa's Voices Foundation Ltd is a company limited by guarantee and a registered UK Charity (1159589). In 2015, Africa's Voices secured major multi-year grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Elaine Potter Foundation to carry through its start-up phase in East Africa. |
| Year Established | 2014 |
| Impact | Africa's Voices enabled Emmy-Award winning Well Told Story to track the impact of its communications for development work (notably Gates-funded contraception work) among Kenyan youth, on changing the conversation young people are having. This enabled them to enhance targeted messaging in their work to reach specific segments of their audience identified during our work. Africa's Voices has worked with UNICEF Somalia since 2015, currently deploying a multi-sector Communication for Development programme using interactive radio shows on 27 stations across the country to gain evidence from hard-to-reach populations to guide programming and to evaluate interventions. This pioneering work was recognised by the Market Research Society, which awarded Africa's Voices Foundation the 2016 President's Medal for extraordinary contributions to research. During the 2017 drought, UNICEF has reached out to Africa's Voices to deploy rapid remote monitoring capabilities. Africa's Voices has also worked with Oxfam in Kenya on opinions towards extractive industries amongst marginalised communities in the north-west, and on attitudes towards tax justice, with its insights shaping new interventions in Kenya and other countries where Oxfam operates on this theme. |
| Website | http://www.africasvoices.org |
| Description | 'ICT4D and Citizen Engagement' presentation at 2014 Voice+Matter Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Rich discussions on what counts as 'citizen engagement' and how best to apply research insights in practical development work. Connections with practitioners for future collaborations, new research networks and invitation to contribute to an edited book on 'Voice & Matter - Contemporary Challenges in Communication for Development' targeted at researchers and practitioners. Strong and continuing interest in our non-profit spin out, Africa's Voices Foundation, from practitioners and donors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://voiceandmatter.net |
| Description | BBC World Service 'The Forum' panel discussion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited panellist on the BBC World Service weekly show, 'The Forum', hosted by Bridget Kendall, to discuss the theme 'Big Data and Us', I presented on insights from our research project and new spin-out. This stimulated lots of discussion on the show, on Twitter and social media afterwards. I have had follow up enquiries from organisations interested in our research and the spin-out's plans. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029y54m |
| Description | Contribution to data science policy briefing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | PiMA/Africa's Voices project researchers contributed to writing a policy challenge briefing on present and future priorities for policy in data science, launched at Cambridge in June 2015. It brings together views from authorities in academia, policy and practice in an accessible format aimed at policy makers, highlighting key challenges across different policy areas, looking forward. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/policy-challenges/big-data/ |
| Description | DFID Education Research in Conflict and Crises workshop - panel presentation on using interactive radio for citizen engagement and rapid social research in fragile states contexts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A panel presentation by Dr Srinivasan on the work of Africa's Voices Foundation in Somalia at the DFID "Education Research in Conflict and Crises" workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2017, hosted by the British Council. Attended by practitioners, policymakers and researchers from across the region and continent. After the conference, World University Service Canada have engaged with Africa's Voices Foundation to support their £20m DFID funded project on girls education in refugee and host communities in Kenya, with a citizen engagement and social research intervention using interactive radio to enhance efforts to tackle social norms that act as barriers to girls education outcomes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Devex Q and A on interactive radio as a tool for research supporting development programming |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I was invited for a Q&A with Devex, an industry leading online information portal for the worldwide development community. The Q&A focused on the work of Africa's Voices Foundation, a spin-out from research partly funded by the ESRC DFID grant, and its unique approach to using interactive radio for deploying innovative new social research methods to gather evidence from hard to reach populations. Since publication, a number of development actors have contacted Africa's Voices for further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.devex.com/news/q-a-using-interactive-radio-to-inform-development-programming-92171 |
| Description | Interview for SciDev on interactive radio in Africa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A short online interview for SciDev on how interactive radio is shaping politics in East Africa, communicating research findings from PiMA |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.scidev.net/global/icts/multimedia/how-interactive-radio-is-reshaping-politics-in-africa.h... |
| Description | Oxfam East Africa presentation on interactive broadcast research findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Oxfam Kenya followed up with a strong interest to collaborate on using our methodologies in their future work. Other enquiries for the same made by NGOs present at the talk. The session evidenced strong support for our spin-out, Africa's Voices Foundation, as a sustainable non-profit that would attract users who can pay for costs of service. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Policy forum (WSIS) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Fred Mudhai presented on research associated with the DFID/ESRC-funded Politics and Interactive Media project as part of a policy-oriented UNESCO panel at the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) Forum in Geneva in May 2016. The wider forum is estimated to have had more than 19,000 participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2016/ |
| Description | Public Interview on YouTube for Centre for Media Data and Society, Media and Change Series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Through an interview with Dr Phil Howard, Director of the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University, Dr Sharath Srinivasan, project PI, discussed implications of project research findings to wider policy and research questions, including access to information and innovation hubs in East Africa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NojQtLUiGrE |
| Description | Public engagement (Hay Festival) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | AFRICA'S DIGITAL REVOLUTION: POWER TO THE PEOPLE? Can new technology bring greater democracy and allow a wider range of voices to be heard? CGHR and Africa's Voices' Director, Dr Sharath Srinivasan, led a panel at The Hay Festival 2016 with Well Told Story's Rob Burnet and iamtheCODE founder Mariéme Jamme. When this century began, one per cent of Africans had mobile phone subscriptions. Only 15 years later, it's 40 per cent. "Big changes in communications parallel big changes in society, in economics and in politics," Sharath began, during a lively discussion on innovative uses of digital technologies across the continent. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.hayfestival.com/p-10730-sharath-srinivasan-marieme-jamme-and-rob-burnet.aspx |
| Description | Workshop at IBM Research Africa on research findings and future directions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked strong interest amongst IBM Researchers and other organisations present (BBC Media Action, Oxfam East Africa, the Well Told Story, the Kenya Community Radio Network) to continue to develop applied insights and applications of the core research. The presentation culminated the Joint Study between Cambridge and IBM Research and laid foundations for future work, including on the Ebola crisis in West Africa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | World Radio Day public presentation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of a World Radio Day talk and trade fair at SOAS, University of London, project PI, Dr Sharath Srinivasan gave a public talk about findings from PiMA. They discussed key research findings around the potential for political change through the powerful combination of interactive radio and mobile technologies. The talk provoked the audience to think about the the particular political dimensions of the new space for public discussion through the convergence of digital and broadcast media. The presentation remains publicly accessible on Soundcloud. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://soundcloud.com/soasradio/world-radio-day-london-2015-radio-and-international-development-tal... |