RESEARCH PROJECT

MEDIA OF THE NETHERLANDS

- Dutch peoples attitude towards the media -

Simona Rotaru (Chirici)

INDEX
Introduction..3 Methodology..4 Analysis..5 Conclusion..9 Annexes

INTRODUCTION
People wonder more and more nowadays whether the media still reflects the truth in the society or not. Their expectations regarding the media are higher and higher. New innovations in the media vehicles have started to be popular but can we still trust the information given by the media or are they just focusing on entertainment to attract attention and gain more profit? With this research, we are trying to discover the Dutch peoples attitudes towards local and national media. We will try to find answers to different questions about media; which media vehicles do they prefer to follow (Local, national and international choices), which media brands do they follow and how often do they follow these media. Moreover, we will search if they consider the media is objective and impartial, how do different agendas of different media affect them and if the Dutch still trust the media. With the technological improvements and innovations, new media vehicles were born (internet; blogs ,forums ,news sites) and also old ones have started to improve themselves (convenience to reach more people by satellites and other new technologies). But because of increasing media vehicles and brands, it has started to be an open market and competition of media brands has started for gaining and using the power of media (4th power after legislation, executive, judgment). But did the media lost its watchdog feature? As a new term on communication education, you can hear infotainment mix of information and entertainment word but to reach targeted benefits (more profit etc.) the media brands had started to lose their trust and the seriousness about the news. First of all, we are going to interview people and notice their reactions, see if their attitudes and behaviours have changed in the last years and then experts and researchers can try to find solutions for the met issues.

METHODOLOGY

We decided to choose twelve relevant questions for our research on Dutch peoples attitude towards the media in the Netherlands. Our aim was to discover which of the four media ( TV, newspaper, radio , internet ) they are more focused on and why do they follow it. We didnt have a certain target group, we tried to capture all the segments of age (-18: 13% ; 19-25: 63% ; 26-35:10% ; 35+:10% ) and we interviewed both men and women (Male: 52% ; Female: 48% ). Furthermore, because we wanted to discover Dutch peoples tastes, we did our research in different locations in Ede : at CHE, at Ede Wageningen railway station, in the centre. Consequently, we consider we are able to offer a broad and realistic picture of the Dutch societys behaviour towards the media. Before answering the questions we asked them to give us some information about themselves, such as : age, gender, job, nationality ( we talked to : Dutch: 98%; Chinese: 1% ; Moroccan: 1% ) and religion ( the results were : answered: 74% out of which Christian: 84%, Islam: 4% , Hindu: 1% , not religious: 11%) We noticed that most of them didnt pay attention to this first part and went directly to the questions, so that we had to tell them they should also fill in the first part. Mostly women skipped this part, men paid more attention to every detail, looked carefully to every element of the questionnaire. Moreover, there were many people who didnt feel comfortable about telling their age ( again, especially the women), their job or religion.

ANALYSIS
When we look at the answers for the first question we can observe an interesting approach. People didnt choose in the same way the media they prefer to follow. Some of them just ticked or circled one or more of the option, others ranked them. However, a common thing is the fact that most of them didnt choose just one of the four options. Our results for the first question are : internet:1st TV: 2nd newspaper: 3rd radio: 4th (only 7% listen to the radio to get information)

Next, we asked people to give us an argumentation for following that media and we were told they prefer the internet for being easy to access and choose whatever they are interested in rapidly, TV for the combination of information and entertainment (infotainment). Those who said they prefer newspapers gave as a main argument the fact that they are the best way to spend time while travelling by train, or because they are free or very cheap and radio was mostly listened to while driving, usually for the music, not for the news. As for the brand of the media, the most followed were : TV: Nederland 1,2,3;

RTLs

TMF

Discovery Channel

For newspapers :

Metro

Sp!ts

Netherlands Dagblad

De Volkskrant

De Telegraaf

De Gelderlander
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For radio :

Radio Veronica

Radio 538

Radio 3FM For the internet, the answers were more complex, we were told they surf on many websites; nevertheless, there is a website mentioned by the majority : www.nu.nl . Afterwards, we asked them how often do they follow their favourite media. We discovered that 81 % of them follow it daily, 16 % 2 or 3 times a week and just 3 % weekly. Regarding the owner of the media they prefer, only 10 % of the people weve interviewed know who rules the indicated media. One other interest we had was linked to the objectivity and impartiality of the Dutch media. According to the people weve talked to, the media in The Netherlands is mostly objective and impartial ( 58 % said it tried and most of the time it is objective and impartial ). However, 42 % said it isnt and supported their answers with the following arguments : the editors have their own political point of view, there are certain interests involved, journalists write from their own perspective or one frequent answer : nothing is objective. Only 7 % of the people that agreed to answer to our questionnaire said they follow local media. We werent surprised by the results for this question, as we were sure globalisation has also reached The Netherlands, as it did with most of the countries all over the world. Nowadays, people arent satisfied with knowing only what happens near them, they want to know not only the national but more and more they want to find out whats going on in the other part of the globe.

Finally, we focused on the agenda, we wanted to know if there is any important difference between the national and the local agenda in the Dutch media and whether people are influenced or not if people around them talk about a different media than the one they follow. The respondents said the quality of the national media is better, it has more news, and its more interesting; local media build the community, its about less interesting local news. Moreover, they sustained that they are not affected by the fact that other people have a different opinion or follow other media than them ( 85 % ). Our results show us Dutch people are very interested and care about the media they follow, thing proven by the fact that most of them follow one or more media channels daily. They are not focused just on one of the media, prefer to be informed from multiple sources and give much credit to the media they follow. Nevertheless, they listen to the others opinions and like to be informed but dont let themselves influenced too much by the outside world, they want to make their own opinions about whats happening around them. As most of the Europeans and Americans, Dutch people tend to be more oriented towards the internet, they consider it to be the best media channel for finding everything they want and let radio on the last place, listen to it especially for the music. The conclusion of our research is that media is important for the Dutch people and the main reason for following it are the news.

CONCLUSION

Annexes

Questionnaire Dear participants, we are asking you the following questions in order to find out your opinion about the media in the Netherlands. Thank you ! Age: Gender: Job: 1. Which media do you prefer to follow ? 2. Why do you prefer that media ? 3. Name the brand of the media you follow. 4 .How often do you follow it ? 5. Do you know who is the owner of the media you follow ? 6. Do you think the media you follow is objective ? 7. If not, why ? 8. Do you think the media you follow is impartial ( neutral ) ? 9. If not, why ? 10. Do you prefer national or local media ? 11. Whats the difference between the national and the local media concerning the agenda ? 12. Does it affect you when people prefer other media than those you follow ? Nationality: TV Religion(optional): Newspaper Radio

Annex 1 Questionnaire

Internet

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Annex 2: Results in procents Research project: The Dutch peoples attitude towards the media in the Netherlands N= 83 Age -18: 13% 19-25: 63% 26-35:10% 35+:10%

Gender: Male: 52% Female: 48% Nationality: Dutch:98% Chinese: 1% Moroccan: 1%

Religion: answered: 74% Christian: 84% Islam: 4% Hindu: 1% not religious: 11%

1. Which media do you follow (make an order): internet:1st TV: 2nd newspaper: 3rd radio: 4th (only 7% listen to the radio to get information) 2. Why do you follow media: to be up-to-date TV: easy to watch it, entertaining newspaper: you can read it anywhere, anytime, quit, more objective and more informative than the others, it has background information internet: easy to search news, more informative than TV, its integrated the other medias (you can read, hear and watch it), interactive Because it is fit to their point of view/ philosophy, they like its quality 3. Most followed chancels: TV: Ned 1,2,3; RTLs; TMF; Internet: www.nu.nl Newspaper: Metro, Sp!ts, Netherlands Dagblad, De Volkskrant, De Telegraaf, De Gelderlander Radio: Radio Veronica, Radio 538, Radio 3FM

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4. How often do you follow it? daily: 81% 2-3 times in a week: 16% weekly: 3%

5. Do you know the owner of the media you follow? yes: 10% no: 90% 6. Do you think its objective? yes, it try to be objective and most of the time it is: 58% not: 42% 7. If not , why ? Because the editors have their own political point of view, and they cant show the whole truth so nobody can be objective 8. Do you think the media you follow is impartial ( neutral ) ? The results were similar to those at questions 6 & 7 10. Do you prefer local or national media? local: 7% national: 93%

11. Whats the difference between the national and the local media concerning the agenda ? National media is a better quality, it has more news, and its more interesting. Local media build the community; its about less interesting local news. 12. Does it affect you when people prefer other media than those you follow ? No: 85 % Yes: 15 %

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