This web site has useful and we hope accessible information for communicators of all kinds: broadcasters, publishers, NGOs, arts groups, webmasters, educators...anybody who's interested in using research-based methods (evidence) and sound planning of systems and services to make their organizations more effective. Indeed, that applies to any type of organization including commercial ones.
The underlying goal of Audience Dialogue is to improve people's lives through informed participation and successful experience. We try to achieve this through a blend of research, evaluation, and inquiry methods, incuding analysis of system performance data (like how people use a website). Our emphasis is on action research, interactivity, and user involvement - because we've found that unless a wide range of stakeholders can reach consensus, a problem is seldom solved. Our preference is for formative evaluation ("how can this be improved?") rather than summative ("did that project work?"). We like to work with our clients, rather than for them, helping to build their capacity to solve their own problems.
This website has three main sections: Tools, Techniques, and Cases.
Tools The Tools section of this website describes the tools available for communications research, evaluation and planning. These are not hammers and saws, but tools for working with words, numbers, and software. The tools include links to useful websites in our main topic areas and reviews of books on social research methods. This section also has glossaries of technical terms, reviews of research software, and notes on writing global English. Another tool to help people whose native language is not English is online translation.
Techniques Techniques is the largest section of our website. It focuses on practical methods for research and planning. This section includes most of the text of two books by our founder, Dennis List: Know Your Audience: a Practical Guide to Media Research, and Participative Marketing for Local Radio. This section also includes pages on two new qualitative research methods that we've been developing: the consensus group technique and the co-discovery conference.
Cases and examples. The cases section is in a different style: mostly narrative. Here you can find 30-odd stories about some of our most interesting research projects, Also, amusing tales about projectsthat didn't turn out as we expected.
For an overview of all the pages on this site, see our site map. Also, you can search this site for a particular word or phrase. Or click on the 'quick' links below at right to access some of our more popular content and pages. This list will be updated periodically based on visitor search requests, page visits and inquiries.
| Our Services - How we can help | Updates and new content | Quick Links & Free Downloads |
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The sustainability of community radio stations is a very important topic, and we are always keen to see new ways to raise money, such as this mobile phone based requests and funding service created by Internews in Kenya.
You are now able to order and pay for books from this website by simply clicking the Buy Now button on relevant pages. You will be taken to our PayPal payments service for quick and secure payment and order placement, via credit card or PayPal account. If you prefer other ordering or payment methods then please let us know. |
Content Analysis / Content Analysis Example Radio Branding / Radio Marketing / Radio Station Marketing Survey Report / Survey Report Sample Free Downloads Co-Discovery Conferences: A Users Manual (PDF) Quick Guide to Audience Research (PDF) |
Contact us with any questions about our services and how we may be able to help you and your project.
Please read the latest developments with Audience Dialogue and this website in the News panel below.
A source for info on web site hosting
November 2010: Are you managing or plan to manage a radio station? If so, a practical new book titled Managing Radio by UK academics and radio practitioners Brian Lister, Caroline Mitchell and Tony O'Shea may be very helpful to you. This book provides a comprehensive coverage of the practice and theory of managing radio stations, public, commercial and community-based. The first section provides an overview of the radio sector in the United Kingdom and presents the core concepts of radio station management. The second and core part of the book is a detailed and comprehensive practical guide to the different elements of managing commercial and community radio. It provides useful tools and examples of management practice, ranging from 'station and organisational structures' and 'financial management, sales and fundraising' to 'managing news and phone-ins' and 'knowing and researching your audience'. The last section uses three case studies (a local radio, a community radio, the BBC 6 music programme) to illustrate different station structures and management approaches. The clear structure, plain language and the illustrative examples make this guide a useful tool for any person interested in radio management and it may also give advice on setting up a station from scratch. The book complements our book Participative Marketing for Local Radio, we provide a breadth and depth of knowledge in specific areas that are only briefly addressed by Managing Radio. You can buy the book in hardcopy form, as an e-book or if you can't afford it, it can be read online.
http://www.soundconcepts.ltd.uk/managingradio/
January 2009: A happy new year to you from Audience Dialogue. We've recently completed the electronic version of the renowned book Know Your Audience - A Practical Guide to Media Research, written by Dennis List and revised in 2007. This clearly written and detailed book covers research principles and methods for use by people working in media, community & public services and other organisations that deal with the public, to discover more about them/their audience or market, how many there are and what they like and don't like, such as views on specific programs or services. It incorporates all survey methods including email and web surveys, and also explains how to use the results of surveys to support management decisions. Much of the many useful insights in this comprehensive book have been gained through actual research projects many of which were conducted in developing countries.
Browse the content list below (PDF, 3 pages) to see for yourself.
Know your Audience: A Practical Guide to Media Research - List of contents
If the book interests you simply email us to request a copy via email or ask questions. The book is 384 pages long, with contents listed, but does not have an index, but if there is demand I can develop one and add it. Producing short versions of the content covering specific topics or chapters might also be possible. Also, if you have any comments and ideas for content or format, or would like to explore using the content for your purposes or translating into a different language then please let me know as the material is subject to copyright.
December 2008: Are you involved in commercial, public-owned or community radio or interested in setting up a radio broadcasting service? If so, then you will need to know about marketing and how you can apply it to meet your needs. Dennis List wrote a useful source-book called Participative Marketing for Local Radio based on a request from a radio station manager in Indonesia who wanted to know more about marketing for local radio, about which there was (and still is) little readily available. The book takes the view that marketing is about communication about relationships of exchange - and that participative marketing means making full use of all available channels to improve communication between an organisation and all the various groups and people it has relationships with.
Marketing results can be improved by removing barriers to communication and enhancing the flow of information between a radio station and its stakeholders, in both directions. The book covers a range of marketing issues/options such as station publicity, sponsorship, fundraising, winning grants, extending your reach (such as by using the internet) and stimulating a dialogue with your listeners. Refer the list of contents below.
Marketing and radio (inc. goals and stakeholders in radio stations).
Audience concepts (inc. measures of audiences).
Findings about radio audiences (inc. about time use).
Marketing through program strategy (inc. station format and positioning).
Publicity and promotion (inc. off-air publicity)
Advertising and promotion (inc. scheduling messages and making sales).
Funding from listeners (inc. on-air appeals and how to manage subscribers).
Funding from grants (inc. how to secure grants and get sponsors).
Selling programs and airtime (inc. giving access to airtime).
Internal marketing (inc. working with volunteers).
Beyond radio (inc. radio and websites).
Making it happen (inc. marketing plan and affordable audience research).
Further reading.
We have a limited number of copies of the book (softcopy, 160 pages) available, if you would like one please email us and agree to pay the costs of postage/delivery plus a small fee to cover administration costs (chiefly for this website) and we'll get it to you. It's a unique resource as far as I can tell, and I would be happy to explore running a course for your radio station or network based on the book.
November 2008: Yes, it's been a while since the last update but we have some news to share.
Jeffrey Vickers, a scholar based in New Zealand, has applied Dennis List's work in scenario network mapping to the issue of sustainable product development, to map trends in a business' core markets and enabling the creation of roadmaps into the future. This conceptual paper is being presented to a conference hosted by the New Zealand Society for Sustainability Engineering & Science. Jeffrey intends to run workshops to build scenarios with findings to be published next year.
Click here to download an abstract of the paper (PDF file). The confrence paper will be available here in mid-December. You can access Dennis's presentation on scenario mapping at the 2007 conference here
Audience Dialogue is based in Adelaide, South Australia, but a lot of our work is in developing countries. In Australia, we mostly do communications research, evaluating the success of communications between organizations and their stakeholders. Internationally, we work mostly with media and aid agencies: training staff and evaluating communications projects. We run coursesin simple evaluation methods: how to collect relevant data, and how to use it well. Our work includes...
More about us, and our privacy policy. We specially welcome visitors from developing countries, so we have tried to make this web site easily accessible - even if you have a slow internet connection or an old computer. To help people whose first language is not English, we try to write in a way that's easily understood, avoiding technical jargon and cultural assumptions.
We always welcome feedback. If anything on this site is unclear or confusing, please let us know, and we'll fix it. If you have any questions or comments, we'd be pleased to hear from you. We try to answer the same day. How to contact us.
