Administrative Files

Series

The series contain different types of evaluations, mainly concerned with the content and the impact of Radio Liberty broadcasts before and after 1989. They are presented either as personal comments written by professional analysts and random persons on some special programs, or as sociological surveys combining statistical data and excerpts from the listeners’ mail. Issued four times a year, the last ones are the most representative of the attempts of the Research Division to grasp the listening trends of Radio Liberty in the target area. They contain systematic indications about the geographic and ethnic origin of listeners, their social and educational profile as well as their listening habits, preferences, and strategies (when confronted to jamming). Audience mail-flow is also classified according to the geographical distribution of the letters, their content and their authors’ social profile. Among the documents relating mainly to the Soviet area and Radio Liberty broadcasts, there are scattered reports about Radio Free Europe’s impact on Eastern European countries after 1990. (Although RFE and RL merged in 1976, their research divisions were united only in 1990. RFE’s East European Audience and Opinion Research Unit then joined SAAOR.) One can also find a few holograph and typewritten letters coming from the listeners. The whole material is of special interest because of the sociological difficulties in conducting audience surveys under abnormal sampling conditions. The detailed reports convey the tension of transmitting accurate data by means of distant assessment. Particularly interesting are the critical evaluations coming from the listeners, which highlight the complex perceptions towards Radio Liberty’s role. The special program evaluations can thus be viewed as complementary technical inputs about the possible improvement of a message sometimes perceived as propagandistic or not consistent with its mission.

Not Expected

Not Restricted

Third party rights are to be cleared.

The surveys are based on interviews conducted with Soviet citizens traveling outside the USSR, under the auspices of the Soviet Area Audience and Opinion Research Unit (SAAOR) of RFE/RL. Projections of Western radio audience estimates on the population of the USSR were done through the mass media computer simulation methodology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and adapted to the requirements of RFE/RL. As complex computational procedures are elaborated to serve SAAOR’s particular needs, one can argue that the development of statistical methods is enhanced by the sociological challenges brought about by RFE/RL problematic assessment of their audiences.

Arranged by Olga Zaslavskaya, 2005; described by Ioana Toma, February, 2009.