(Part Two Of A Series) How To Find Out What Listeners Won't Tell You (Or Write In Their Diary)

Niegel and Christensen at first turned to focus groups in their quest to find out why one in five diary ratings "news on the hour" listeners to the Danish broadcaster actually seemed to be changing stations when the news came on in PPM measurement.

The behavior appears to have been at a subconscious level, since in the focus groups, no one was "willing" (or able?) to admit that when news on DR started, they quickly changed stations.

So, the intrepid researchers recruited family members of the focus group respondents and unbeknownst to the original news avoiders, were asked to observe their actual behavior.

Then, both the "spy" family member and the "switcher" were questioned in detail to fully understand what was driving their avoidance of news even though at the conscious level they reported hearing it.

Tomorrow: what they learned.