SWI swissinfo.ch is the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s online media for an international audience interested in Switzerland. Veronica DeVore, Head of Audience, explains how this public service medium analyses and adapts to the new needs of this audience.
How does SWI swissinfo.ch work to understand the information needs of its users? How do you adapt to these information needs?
Veronica DeVore: We serve two primary audience groups: 1) Swiss citizens abroad, of which there are 813,000; and 2) People living outside of Switzerland, in any of our 10 language markets, who have an interest in learning more about the country. To understand the needs of these users, we first of all enter into dialogue with them through audience surveys, exchanges on social media platforms and on our own platforms. Our most recent audience research has told us that Swiss citizens abroad have a need to stay connected with those living in Switzerland, as well as a need for a quick, regular overview of happenings in the country that are relevant to them. These needs helped us develop products to serve them, such as a daily briefing and a debate platform. When it comes to the international audience interested in Switzerland, we learned from our research and exchanges that they have a need for perspective on issues that also affect them where they live; a need for inspiration from ideas or debates surrounding Switzerland; and a need for explanations surrounding complex issues having to do with Switzerland and its geopolitical ties. These needs led us to offer them products such as a multilingual debate platform to exchange on global trends and issues such as neutrality. We also understand our users’ needs through data analysis. By analyzing how our content is consumed and by whom, we can see, for example, that 70% of our users are reading us on mobile devices. Furthermore, we can see where our information is being blocked or censored, such as in mainland China and, as of recently, in mainland Russia. When we saw a need for reliable and accessible information about the Russian diaspora and the effects of sanctions related to the Ukraine war, we created a video format for YouTube that addresses these needs and allows Russian-language users to access the information, since YouTube is not blocked whereas our website is. The format has seen hundreds of thousands of views since its conception.
What new trends do you see emerging? Do you analyse the outcome of the presidential election in the United States also in terms of media environment and audience needs?
We have seen for years, but ever more prominently, a trend of people finding news and information via social platforms or podcast applications. Therefore, we adapt our storytelling to these platforms: we produce vertical short-form video content about our reporting to serve audiences on these platforms, and podcasts from International Geneva and elsewhere for our various language markets. Media consumption in the United States has long been fractured along platforms and communities as part of this longtime trend. This was made evident this election cycle in the way the candidates engaged with media, choosing for example to appear on independent podcasts rather than on “mainstream” or legacy media outlets and shows. Listeners of such podcasts and followers of media platforms and personalities outside the “mainstream” show the need of belonging to a community of like-minded individuals and feeling “seen” through that community. In these spheres, fact-based reporting often takes a backseat. This altered media landscape certainly had an impact on the presidential election and its outcome.
This extract is taken from the 14th issue of Mediation, entitled "Adapting to changing information need", which you can find attached up to this article.
How does SWI swissinfo.ch work to understand the information needs of its users? How do you adapt to these information needs?
Veronica DeVore: We serve two primary audience groups: 1) Swiss citizens abroad, of which there are 813,000; and 2) People living outside of Switzerland, in any of our 10 language markets, who have an interest in learning more about the country. To understand the needs of these users, we first of all enter into dialogue with them through audience surveys, exchanges on social media platforms and on our own platforms. Our most recent audience research has told us that Swiss citizens abroad have a need to stay connected with those living in Switzerland, as well as a need for a quick, regular overview of happenings in the country that are relevant to them. These needs helped us develop products to serve them, such as a daily briefing and a debate platform. When it comes to the international audience interested in Switzerland, we learned from our research and exchanges that they have a need for perspective on issues that also affect them where they live; a need for inspiration from ideas or debates surrounding Switzerland; and a need for explanations surrounding complex issues having to do with Switzerland and its geopolitical ties. These needs led us to offer them products such as a multilingual debate platform to exchange on global trends and issues such as neutrality. We also understand our users’ needs through data analysis. By analyzing how our content is consumed and by whom, we can see, for example, that 70% of our users are reading us on mobile devices. Furthermore, we can see where our information is being blocked or censored, such as in mainland China and, as of recently, in mainland Russia. When we saw a need for reliable and accessible information about the Russian diaspora and the effects of sanctions related to the Ukraine war, we created a video format for YouTube that addresses these needs and allows Russian-language users to access the information, since YouTube is not blocked whereas our website is. The format has seen hundreds of thousands of views since its conception.
What new trends do you see emerging? Do you analyse the outcome of the presidential election in the United States also in terms of media environment and audience needs?
We have seen for years, but ever more prominently, a trend of people finding news and information via social platforms or podcast applications. Therefore, we adapt our storytelling to these platforms: we produce vertical short-form video content about our reporting to serve audiences on these platforms, and podcasts from International Geneva and elsewhere for our various language markets. Media consumption in the United States has long been fractured along platforms and communities as part of this longtime trend. This was made evident this election cycle in the way the candidates engaged with media, choosing for example to appear on independent podcasts rather than on “mainstream” or legacy media outlets and shows. Listeners of such podcasts and followers of media platforms and personalities outside the “mainstream” show the need of belonging to a community of like-minded individuals and feeling “seen” through that community. In these spheres, fact-based reporting often takes a backseat. This altered media landscape certainly had an impact on the presidential election and its outcome.
This extract is taken from the 14th issue of Mediation, entitled "Adapting to changing information need", which you can find attached up to this article.