All programme makers and journalists like to think they know their listeners or readers. I know when I was a news editor I used to have an instinctive feeling for a story my audience would be interested in.
At Radio 4 we could draw a pen portrait of a rather stereotypical member of the audience based on listening habits, media consumption and leisure activities. All very crude when it comes to making editorial decisions about programmes but for years it worked.
I was interested to read about a recent magazine launch where, for two years before the launch, editors were sent out to live with potential readers.
Employing ethnographic techniques was an effort to "understand the DNA" of their readers as IPC, as the company behind the launch of the new women's weekly 'Look' described the initiative.
It's an idea we're using with producers at the BBC. Even the director general, Mark Thompson, recently spent a day with a family as part of the BBC's Audience Festival. At the moment we¹re taking radio producers through the process of meeting listeners to gain an insight into their lives.
In an article in the Independent the managing director of IPC Connect, Evelyn Webster, describes the power of the technique. She stayed with readers in Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.
"We didn't start out with a special concept. I was just interested in this group, so I decided to immerse myself in their lives. What pees them off, what turns them on. In their own environment, women with open up and talk frankly. You¹re not just observing, you're experiencing their life. We went to nightclubs, the pub, or I¹d rummage through wardrobes, chatting."
By living with the listener you can spot things that would normally go unnoticed.
Watch this space.
Matt
ethnographic ethnography matt+foster immersion+research bbc creative creative+consultancy
