| dc.description.abstract | Researches on the reception of radio broadcasts in Poland, are done by means of a staff of interviewers working without fee, their sole motivation being the desire to participate in the prestige of the Radio and to perform an important social work. To secure a correct selection of persons to be interviewed in the system of quota sampling, the Centre instructed its interviewers during several years by mailing to them directions concerning the methodological principles of interviewing.
A survey on the interviewer staff was conducted in 1963 in order to assess the degree to which they observed those directions. The survey Comprised 794 interviewers constituting 71% of the whole staff. It was found that: 1° – the professional composition of the studied group differed considerably from that of the whole radio audience, the difference consisting in an over-representation, among the interviewers, of white-collar workers and persons with a higher educational level; 2° – the interviewers tended to select for interviewing the persons coming from their own socio-professional and regional milieu (this tendency manifested itself most strongly among the peasant interviewers, least strongly among interviewers being white-collar workers); 3° – many interviewers selected their respondents from among their friends (63,6%), fellow workers (43,9%), neighbours (35,%), family members (9,8%); in addition, a considerable number of them chose respondents according to erroneous criteria, selecting persons who were particularly interested in the topic of a given survey (29,1%), were “passionate radio listeners” (17,3%), or had a more sophisticated intellectual level (20,5%). As little as 11,1% of interviewed declared to select their respondents at random only, e.g. in the streets, etc.
It follows from the analysis that research results in the domain of public opinion and cultural preferences and tastes, obtained by means of such an interviewing staff, must be burdened with a systematic-bias. At present certain measures are undertaken to improve the techniques of quota sampling used by the Centre. | |
