Research and learning

©Gwenn Dubourthoumieu - Rostand Guembou, enquêteur formé par la société Immar, réalise une enquête d’impact pour la Fondation Hirondelle à Obo, à l’extrême sud-est de la République Centrafricaine le 30 novembre 2023. — ©Gwenn Dubourthoumieu – Rostand Guembou, enquêteur formé par la société Immar, réalise une enquête d’impact pour la Fondation Hirondelle à Obo, à l’extrême sud-est de la République Centrafricaine le 30 novembre 2023.

Knowing our audiences for greater impact

Fondation Hirondelle aims to be a learning organisation that adapts and improves its activities in response to objective information. For over a decade, we have worked closely with academics to measure the effects of our projects and tailor our news programmes to meet people’s needs.

What we do

Fondation Hirondelle analyses the impact of the media and news programmes that it creates and supports. We participate in research on the role of news and the media, including the parts they play in social cohesion and advancing the rights of the most vulnerable in crisis situations. In this way, we contribute to generating knowledge about situations, audiences, media actors and data that are too often overlooked or difficult to access.

Our objectives

Understand information ecosystems (information needs and the way in which certain segments of the population access and share information).
Improve the quality of media productions in order to better respond to our audiences’ needs and expectations.
Define our theories of change and our monitoring indicators.
Identify the impact of our programmes and report to funding providers.
Contribute to the production and sharing of knowledge on providing support to media in fragile situations.

Methodology

To improve our understanding of the news ecosystems in which we operate and our impact on them, we apply different methods including large-scale audience surveys and quantitative impact studies, such as randomised controlled trials (RCT).

We also carry out qualitative studies based on data collected from focus groups (audience segments that meet before and after broadcasts), interviews and observations, or from the analysis of media content and speeches.

Our research work includes a digital innovation section which explores social media monitoring tools and the use of AI software to transcribe, translate and analyse on- and offline media productions.

Partnerships

Our research is carried out in partnership with national and international experts, most often academics, who add value through their academic independence, methodological rigour and analytical skills. For its part, Fondation Hirondelle facilitates access to media actors and audiences in the field, including those in the most remote areas.