"Classification of Educational Radio Research" (January 1, 1941)

(5) Those concerned directly with program production can get a great deal of valuable information from research done on analytical preferences . It is here that much commercial listener research has "been concentrated. A good example of the technique of obtaining information on analytical preferences has been published by Coutant.* Some of the results of this research are available to the public, many more can be deduced from the programs that are. so popular. Detailed research of this type is not needed so urgently in educational radio because there is no requirement to make educational programs as smoothly un¬ objectionable as are the commercial programs. However, it will sometimes be found** that the listener rating of a program depends on a very few features (distinguishability of voices, dramatization by speakers, pacing) and that conscious control and improvement of these will greatly improve the program. (6) The influence of programs on preferences themselves is now beginning to become a subject for research. For example. Miss Jeanette Sayre, in studying the listeners and non-listeners to "America’s Town Meeting of the Air" found one considerable group whose attitude toward the program was changed when they were induced to listen to one or two broadcasts. This group consisted of well-educated, urban residents. It is fairly certain, however, that well- educated persons coming from small towns and rural areas would like the program in even larger numbers if the coverage were adequate to reach them and if they could be induced by publicity to listen to one or two programs. Such research data should supply useful information to publicity directors interested in audience-building. ( 7 ) Educational radio programs may initiate or stimulate further educational activity (discussion, reading, listening to other programs). Since many educational programs have as their primary aim such stimulation, studies investigating effectiveness of stimulation are badly needed by broadcasters who are also educators. Research studies of this type are now in progress under the direction of the Evaluation of School Broadcasts group of Ohio State University. (8) The changing of attitudes is a common objective of educational broadcasts. Such changing (or ingraining) can only be estimated by careful research studies. Work in this area is now being conducted by the Office of Radio Research at Columbia University and by the Evaluation of School Broad¬ casters Project. (9) The influence of educational broadcasts on the thinking of those who listen is probably the most important to all educational aims, and at the same time is the most difficult to measure. Work on this subject is being carried on in connection with a few educational series by the Evaluation of School Broadcasts group at Ohio State University. If it can be shown that first- rate educational programs do have significant effects on the thinking of those who listen to them seriously, the educational broadcaster will have fully justified his work. If such research can show what types of programs and what * - Coutant, F R, "Determining the Appeal of Special Features of a Radio Program," Journal of Applied Psychology . Yol. XXIII, No. 1, February, 1939. ** - As in Miss Marjorie Fleiss’ study, "University of Chicago Round Table, 1938, on file at Office of Radio Research, at Columbia University. -6-