admin | April 19, 2024
Farm Radio’s network is now nearly 1,400 radio partners. In January, we shared a survey with our radio partners to learn a bit more about how they are using our resources and services, and what services might benefit them. In total, we heard from 323 radio broadcasters in 21 countries.
It is great to see the level of confidence our partners have in us: 85% of respondents said they are likely or very likely to turn to FRI with a question, which is fantastic. Additionally, 80% said their confidence in addressing gender equality on air has improved, which is a key focus for Farm Radio. If you are curious about how your station can address gender equality on and off air, check out our gender equality self-assessment for radio stations.
About 87% of respondents indicated they had used our resources in the past 2-3 months, and more than 70% say they use our resources weekly or several times a week! This includes more than half of respondents using Barza Wire or our Script items. We asked for respondents to indicate priority topic areas for future radio resources, and the most popular were:
- Climate change (46%)
- Gender equality and women’s rights (32%)
- Environmental issues / deforestation (26%)
- Gender-based violence (24%)
- Soil fertility (24%)
- Human health & nutrition (21%)
Our training resources were also popular this year, with 20% of respondents participating in our Radio for Development ecourse (which has a limited registration), more than 25% having participated in online discussions (we hosted a discussion on Collaboration) and more than 20% participating in our learning modules. Find our modules and Broadcasters how to guides here: https://training.farmradio.fm/ And stay tuned for our next online discussion in a few months!
Last year we launched a learning module on Knowing your audience and revised our Gender equality module. In total, we have more than 10 modules available.We were happy to see that our learning modules are useful. More than 70% of respondents said the modules helped them to learn new skills and 35% said they were reminded of best practices they had already been trained on. We’re also happy that more than 40% of respondents didn’t have any challenges accessing the modules, although 30% did say they have connectivity issues. We hope that you can access our newest module on Engaging youth in broadcasting and stay tuned for a module on Addressing sensitive issues.
We asked several questions about how broadcasters are using social media. We heard that more than 73% are active on WhatsApp – perhaps members of our own WhatsApp groups for radio partners! Additionally, 77% are active on Facebook and 20% are active on Youtube. Fewer use X (Twitter), TikTok, or Instagram.
Most are using these platforms to promote their radio programs (75%), while about half use social media to interact with listeners to get vox pops for future episodes or to better understand the audience. There are many ways you can use social media as part of your radio work, and we hope to develop some resources to help you take advantage of social media.
We also asked broadcasters about their experience working during emergencies and needs to better respond to future emergencies. This is extremely relevant, as 77% of respondents had experienced some type of emergency in the past three years. While most felt that “to some extent” they were able to provide their listeners with good information, they did identify several needs to improve their work during emergencies. The most popular response was training, and we do hope to develop some training resources in the near future. Other popular responses included the need for support to develop a preparedness plan, contacts with people and organizations to provide up-to-date and reliable information, and a good system for fact-checking.