Radio Drama Series Our Street: A Focus Group Evaluation

Excerpts from the Evaluation follow:

Executive Summary

The Search for Common Ground (SFGC) Office in Washington, D.C. commissioned InterMedia to carry out a series of focus groups to evaluate a radio drama series "Our Street" developed and produced by the Ukrainian Center for Common Ground (UCCG). InterMedia designed the study in accordance with SFCG's specifications and contracted the Kyiv-based marketing research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) to carry out four focus group discussions in Simferopol and Sevastopol Crimea in early October 2002. The purpose of the focus groups - one with young (15 to 19 year old) Ukrainians and Russians and one with young (15 to 19 year old) Crimean Tatars in each city - was to solicit feedback on thirteen 15-minute episodes of programming and to explore the impact of the programming on stereotypical views. All participants were required to complete a home listening exercise before taking part in focus group discussions lasting approximately two hours each. Thirty-two (32) individuals took part in the group discussions.

• On the whole, the focus group participants reacted positively to the radio drama series "Our Street." The radio program achieved its main objectives: it focused listener attention on inter-ethnic issues and problems and succeeded in delivering the cluster of interrelated messages that it intended to deliver - for example, that ethnicity should serve neither as a basis for conflict nor as a barrier to resolving conflict situations. "The most important thing about a person is his soul, not his nationality" and "there are no bad nations, there are bad people" were some typical comments in both the Russian-Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar groups.
• Most participants also found the series helpful in dealing with a wide array of problems confronting them in their daily lives, including such issues as inter-ethnic relations and inter-generational differences. Some participants indicated that listening to the drama series exposed them to specific ways to deal with potential conflicts and introduced them to skills that might be helpful in resolving various disagreements.
• The majority of participants displayed a favorable attitude toward the series content and noted that the problems addressed by the drama series were urgent and needed to be addressed. A notable exception was the Russian-Ukrainian group in Sevastopol, whose reactions to the drama series were decidedly negative. But Sevastopol is...not necessarily representative of attitudes of the target group in Crimea as a whole.
• ...[T]he Crimean Tatar respondents were more outgoing and articulate than their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, and were more attuned to inter-ethnic issues...
• Overall the Russian-Ukrainian groups tended to minimize the inter-ethnic issues. The Russian-Ukrainian group in Sevastopol was particularly "immune" to ethnic themes. They tended to focus on more "lofty" or universal themes (friendship, love, mutual understanding). Nevertheless, it was apparent that the participants were more aware and more concerned about ethnic issues than perhaps they wished to let on. The nationality question in Crimea, it appears, competes with other serious problems such as crime, drugs and high unemployment, issues that have the effect of overshadowing inter-ethnic problems.

Evaluation of Content

• During the focus groups, participants were also asked to rate the content and presentation of the drama series on a ten-point scale. With respect to content, two patterns emerged: (1) the groups in Simferopol appreciated the series more than the groups in Sevastopol, with ratings of 8.8 and 6.2, respectively; and (2) the Tatar groups, on the whole, were more pleased with the series than the Russian/Ukrainian groups, with ratings of 8.4 and 6.6, respectively.
• The lower scores in Sevastopol, according to observers, reflected the special outlook and attitude of these peoples living in this closed city...: they tend to be critical of all things coming from the outside. By contrast, Simferopol is a more ethnically balanced and diverse place whose population reflects a more tolerant attitude.
• The Tatar groups reacted more positively to the drama series than the Russian/Ukrainian groups, most likely because they related more closely to the situation in the drama. The Tatars appeared to demonstrate a stronger emotional association with the plot, as well as greater empathy with some of the characters.

Style and Presentation

• The majority of the focus group participants thought that the plot was easy to follow and that it evolved naturally and logically, albeit somewhat slowly at the beginning. The participants also liked the voices of most actors...Some voices, however, were criticized. Among them were the voices of the characters Alex, Nina's mother and Marina. According to the participants, these characters' personalities were not particularly likable, their intonations were inappropriate and their acting lacked improvisation.
• Some participants found the repetitious musical theme irritating. This was probably because participants listened to all the episodes in one or two sittings at home, which did not reflect a "real" situation in which the target audience will be exposed to only one episode per day.
• Some of the participants thought that "Our Street" needs updating insofar as the so-called street dynamics and slang are concerned. The overall feeling was that the problems that were portrayed are real enough, but that this is not quite the way things happen on the street.
• Overall, with respect to program style and presentation, the participants rated the presentation of "Our Street" relatively favorably. On a ten-point scale, the average presentation score for all four groups (7.2) was only marginally lower than the score for programming content (7.5)....

Editor's note: click here for an Impact Data Description of this programme.

Click here to access a Microsoft Word version of the Evaluation; click here to download a PDF version.

Source:

UCCG page on the SFCG website.