SOURCES OF MEDIA INFORMATION
One of the very important requisites of a media planner is familiarity with media choices and various sources of media information. Media information is available from sources within the media itself as well as external sources. Some of the media source books in the Indian context and other database publications often used by media planners include the following.
Population Census
Conducted every ten years, the census probably is the most broadbased database offering a profile of the Indian people. The census data provide information about the population size, population strata, age, sex ratio, literacy level, family size and forms, etc. the data also provides information about various castes, religions, faiths and beliefs.
Annual Economic Survey
This provides an industrial survey, based on SEC (Socio-economic classification), income and occupation, etc.
India-Year Book
Brought out by the Publications Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the India-yearbook provides a holistic view of data on various aspects of governance, demographics, progress, etc. Since the data are compiled from various governmental sources, they have a high degree of accuracy and authenticity.
INFA (research on print media)
The Indian News and Feature Alliance Year Book, known as the INFA yearbook, is published every year from Delhi and it details information on various newspapers and magazines. The data includes basic information about India, who is who in the press, in marketing and advertising, a list of publication with details about number of editions, mechanical data about the size of the publication, what kind of ad. material will be acceptable to them, circulation and names of the concerned persons in the ad. department, etc.
Audit Bureau of Circulation (research on print media)
In the early days of advertising, each medium reflected its circulation figures. Inconsistencies in reporting and a tendency on the part of certain media to inflate figures put a question mark on the credibility of the figures. To provide an impartial assessment, an organization known as the Audit Bureau of Circulation, better known as ABC, came into being with the support of newspaper publishers, magazine publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies. ABC provides advertisers with impartial and authentic check of circulation statements of member publications.
Indian newspaper Society Handbook (INS) (research on print media)
Known earlier as the Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society Handbook or IENS, INS is a comprehensive book about newspapers, which are members of INS. INS gives accreditation to advertising agencies on certain terms and conditions. Only those
Agencies get credit facilities from the media, which are accredited, to INS. INS broadly covers the following information about the member publications:
- Location of headquarters and registered office addresses of member publications.
- Number of editions
- Cover price
- Issue day
- Representatives at various centers
- Key personnel
- Circulation
- Ad. Tariff
The publication also includes details about accredited advertising agencies and their key people. The accreditation procedure is also reflected in the INS.
Syndicated research
Syndicated research is often based on a given sample or panel survey, of which the entire or part is supplied to various users. A number of marketing, research agencies like the Indian Marketing and Research Bureau (IMRB), Marketing and Research Group (MARG), MODE, as also academic and economic outfits like the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and others are constantly engaged in gauging the behaviour of markets and consumers. Syndicated research can be initiated by client organizations also. Many blue chip companies especially in the consumer sector go in for the research of this kind, all with the basic purpose of understanding the market, the consumer psychology and the shifting paradigms. In the last couple of decades, there has been an increasing urge to know about the “media-consumer”, his/her media habits, accessibility and changing perceptions. This has been the result of the proliferation of media, especially in the context of the satellite channels and the ultimate power of “remote” to surf channels or prefer one media vehicle over the other. The National Readership Survey (NRS) and more recently the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) have fulfilled the need to a great extent.
National Readership Survey (NRS) (research on various media)
Brought out first in 1971, the NRS was conducted to yield readership data instead of circulation data. The second NRS was published in 1978; the third in 1983, the fourth in 1990, fifth in 1994, 1995 and NRS VI had also come to the market in the early 1998.
NRS VI has the distinction of being an industry survey as it is sponsored by publishing advertisers and advertising agencies. The aims of the NRS among others are the following:
- To provide information that can be used for buying and selling of advertising space in the print media.
- To provide media users with data on comparative levels vis-à-vis TV/radio, cinema and video.
The NRS covers readership estimates for various selected publications, viewership of TV, video and cinema, listenership ratio, duplication between publications and inter-media duplications.
For the first time, the NRS provides the distribution of households by social classes, according to the new SEC developed by the Market Research Society of India. This system is based on the occupation and education of the chief wage earner of the household, so as to create an alternative to the household income, so far used as the basis of classifying households. The NRS has covered urban areas except for the states of J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Punjab.
The universe of NRS VI is now a resident of urban Indian of age 15+. It covered 590 towns, classified into respective population strata based on the 1981 Census (Over 40 lakh base metros; 10-40 lakhs mini metros; 1-10 lakhs and below 1 lakh).
A stratified multi-stage sampling procedure was used for the survey. Administrative districts constituted the primary stratum for sampling. All the towns with over 2-lakh population, those with publication centers of dailies in the district were included purposely. The rest were a predetermined number of towns within a district selected using PPS methodology (Probability Proportional to Population Size of each town). The selection of respondents for the survey was made using a two-step procedure.
A sample of voters was drawn from the electoral rolls in clusters of a predetermined size; then those addresses were selected, where voters who were currently or formerly residing. The adults of these households participated in the readership interviews.
Although the survey was urban in nature, 140 villages in Kerala were included (Kerala as we know is a 100 percent literate state and is also a center of some of the highly circulated publications).
The selection of publications was finalized by a committee, which comprised a cross-section of media planners and media directors from leading advertising agencies. The publications were selected on the basis of the Minimum Circulation Criterion.
The measurement criterion of readership was ascertained using the Masthead method. A booklet which had the reproductions of mastheads of various publications was used for aided recall of respondents. The average issue readership of a publication was estimated by determining the number of respondents who read any issue within a specified time interval = publication interval, i.e., daily, yesterday, weekly-7 days, fortnightly-14 days, monthly-4 weeks.
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