Concluding too much from too little?

BY hoot| IN Media Freedom | 14/12/2007

How much credence should one give to world press freedom surveys? The latest comes from the BBC World Service on its 75^th anniversary.   It polled  all of 11,344 people in 14 countries and arrived at a variety of conclusions on world opinion about press freedom. These can be summarised as follows:

• While an average of 56% across all countries think that freedom of the press is very important to ensure a free society, 40% believe that social harmony and peace are more important, even if it means controlling what is reported for the greater good.

• 56% of people in the 14 countries polled think the press and media in their country is free to report the news accurately without bias. Only 19% say there is little or no media freedom in their country.

• Private and publicly funded news organisations receive similar ratings from the public when it comes to reporting the news honestly and accurately. 39% of people across all countries say publicly funded news agencies are doing a good job, while 43% say the same for private news organisations.

• However, in some countries the poll shows concern over the ownership of private media. Strong majorities in Brazil (80%), Mexico (76%), USA (74%), and Great Britain (71%) believe that the concentration of media ownership in fewer hands is a concern because owners¿ political views emerge in reporting.

• Of the countries where press freedom is most highly valued, Western developed countries are more critical of how honestly and accurately the news is reported, including Germany (28% average rating for good performance of public and private media), Great Britain (29%), and the USA (29%) whereas Venezuela (44%), South Africa (49%), Nigeria (58%), and Kenya (61%) rate the media performance more positively.

• In countries where social stability is more highly valued, those surveyed in India (61% good performance) and the UAE (52%) believe the news is being reported honestly, contrasting with a more negative view of press performance in Russia (27%), Mexico (28%), Brazil (31%) and Singapore (37%). 

The survey was conducted for the BBC World Service by the international polling firms GlobeScan Incorporated and Synovate. Fieldwork took place between October 1 and November 21, 2007.  Tbe countries covered were Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Venezuela. 

It gets interesting when you look closer at what Indians say. Together with Kenyans, we seem to have the most faith in the freedom of our press.  While 81 per cent in Kenya thought their press was "very free", 72 per cent of Indians did so. In contrast people in the US and Europe gave their countries a rating in the fifties. At the same time Indians said they  valued stability more than freedom.  

Who are these Indians? A little over a thousand people who live in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai.  These cities make up around 3 per cent of the population the survey hastens to add, but does metropolitan India constitute a representative sample for the  entire country? On the basis of this sample the survey concludes that  Indians believe stability is more important than press freedom. "Forty-eight percent of Indians (versus 40% globally) put stability first, while 41 percent (56% globally) put freedom first." 

The same Indians also have faith in the news purveyed by Doordarshan and All India Radio. "Indians are more positive about the accuracy and honesty of government or publicly-funded news reporting than any other country surveyed. Fifty-seven percent of Indians give a "good" performance rating to public news organisations, compared with 39 percent globally." But that is, more positive that other nationals. Indians were less positive about public funded news than about private news. Sixty four percent gave a good performance rating to private news. We don¿t of course know what income groups were surveyed, and how much access they had to private news, and surely some of this would have looked different if the sample had taken into account the rural population across the country. 

Sampling is always a tricky business.  While it is accepted wisdom that numbers don¿t matter if the sampling is scientifically done, it is still a bit odd to have a sample size that is roughly the same for India with its billion plus and Singapore with four million people. The US, Great Britain, Germany, Singapore, Nigeria, and India all have a sample size of 1000 or a few more in this survey, Brazil has a sample of 1500, the highest.

In six of the surveyed countries including India, the polling  was done by a market research firm called Synovate, which " generates consumer insights that drive competitive marketing solutions."   How did Synovate define concepts such as stability and social harmony for the people it surveyed, we wonder.