A Sense of Community

As the key to giving, the "personal importance" of one’s public radio station has locked in like a deadbolt three times – in the Cheap 90 study, AUDIENCE 88, and now in AUDIENCE 98^® .

When it came to the top again for this report we began to wonder whether personal importance has a deeper meaning for listeners.

Could this idea of personal importance incorporate "a sense of community"? A community bound by shared interests and values rather than by city limits or county lines? A virtual community so real and meaningful that its citizens are willing to support it voluntarily?

As public radio’s career-oriented, college-educated adults relocate repeatedly for advancement, they may not stay long enough in one place to put down roots. But their basic human need to bond with others like themselves is still strong.

Could public radio provide a portable community that travels with them?

That was our theory.

Though listeners weren’t surveyed specifically about this idea, we explored it using information from AUDIENCE 98’s database.

Seeking out public radio when they travel or move residence; valuing news and music programming for its uniqueness; gravitating to it because it resonates with their "social and cultural values"….  We believed that listeners’ agreement with these questions should be highly reflective of their "sense of community," and we posited that those deeply imbued with this sense would be more likely to give.

We were right.

Some fancy statistical footwork convinces us that a listener’s "sense of community" is a significant component of "personal importance."

The outlines of a virtual community map are emerging, and they may offer a better route to the listener’s sensibilities.

If givers think of public radio as a community, then a fund drive is a barn raising, not the Home Shopping Network. On-air pitching is passing the hat, not selling Beanie Babies. Shirts and mugs – still the most popular premiums – are emblems of membership and pride in the community, not merchandise exchanged for cash.

"Sense of community" may add dimension to the seminal concept of personal importance, and thereby help public radio professionals to influence giving, focus fundraising messages, and schedule programming.

Communication technologies let us choose our neighbors based on their sympathies rather than their proximities. Being connected to other people by psychological rather than geographical space isn’t so alien anymore.

Larry Josephson talks about public radio as a secular church. E. B. White called it "our Lyceum, our Chautauqua, our Minsky’s, and our Camelot." Our exploration gives credence to these metaphors. For public radio, "a sense of community" is an idea that merits moving from poetic rhetoric to further, serious research.

– Leslie Peters
– David Giovannoni
AUDIENCE 98 Core Team

 

Audience Research Analysis
Copyright © ARA and CPB.  All rights reserved.
Revised: September 01, 2000 12:38 PM.