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	HU OSA 300-6-2
Fonds 300:	Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute (RFE/RL RI)
Subfonds 6:	Media and Opinion Research Department
Series 2:	East Europe Area and Opinion Research

Date(s) 1962-1990

Extent and medium 8 Archival boxes, 1 linear meters

Scope and content

The series contain statistical analyses of Radio Free Europe’s effectiveness in the target countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary).

They represent the result of multi-level questionnaires given to the refugees or visitors coming from the above countries by RFE researchers in collaboration with independent Western polling institutes. The reports are issued periodically and they include data about listening habits and preferences, listeners’ profiles, evolution and distribution of the mail inflow. Perceptions as well as subjective evaluations of RFE’s broadcasts are presented within different comparative frameworks, either locating RFE’s listernership among other Western radio stations or other type of media, or analyzing RFE’s appeal on an internal departmental basis.

Although conducted under precarious circumstances, the sociological surveys have a considerable degree of relevance because of the method of Comparative and Continuous Sampling, originally developed in the 1970s by Henry O. Hart, Director of Radio Free Europe’s Audience and Public Opinion Research Department. (The computerized data were carefully analyzed for internal consistency between sampling points before being accepted for use in analysis. Chi-square tests were applied to sub-sets of the data being gathered in different areas, and if results did not show statistical consistency, the data would not be used in the analysis.) Thus, they offer not just situational empirical data, but information regarding listening trends and patterns. Of special interest might be the cross-surveys about the different audiences’ knowledge about the developments in the neighboring countries and on the international scene (the Sino-Soviet conflict, the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Solidarity movement in Poland) and the comments accounting for the unintended consequences in listening behavior.

Accruals Not expected

Language/scripts of material English

Finding aids

• 8 containers

Related units of description

• HU OSA 300-6-1 Administrative Files, 1956-1994
• HU OSA 300-6-3 Soviet Area Audience and Opinion Research, 1975-1994

Note Keywords: opinion poll, audience, broadcast

Date(s) of descriptions

Processed by Olga Zaslavskaya in 2005; described by Ioana Toma in February 2009
Online version updated 8 June 2010