Radio Drama Series “Our Street”: A Focus Group Evaluation

The Search for Common Ground (SFGC) Office in Washington, D.C. commissioned InterMedia to carry out a series of focus groups to evaluate a radio drama series “Our Street” developed and produced by the Ukrainian Center for Common Ground (UCCG). The primary and overall objective of the radio program is to facilitate inter-ethnic understanding, conflict prevention in a multicultural context, and conflict resolution among young people in Crimea, an autonomous republic within Ukraine. InterMedia designed the study in accordance with SCG’s specifications and contracted the Kyiv-based marketing research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) to carry out four focus group discussions in Simferopol and Sevastopol Crimea in early October 2002. The purpose of the focus groups – one with young (15 to 19 year old) Ukrainians and Russians and one with young (15 to 19 year old) Crimean Tatars in each city – was to solicit feedback on thirteen 15-minute episodes of programming and to explore the impact of the programming on stereotypical views. The radio program achieved its main objectives: it focused listener attention on inter-ethnic issues and problems and succeeded in delivering the cluster of interrelated messages that it intended to deliver – for example, that ethnicity should serve neither as a basis for conflict nor as a barrier to resolving conflict situations.
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