This question is designed to discover how well the participants are informed about news and events from the local community to world news and events. It is designed to determine the efficacy of the above mentioned communications methods.
The responses shown in the graph are “mean” numbers.
The rating of 4.23 for the response to the question of how well the participants were informed about the community demonstrates the efficacy of the local communications modes such as the Local Newspaper and PEG, particularly WCCA TV 13 since it covers local community organizations and events. Given a lack of local Broadcast stations and the fact that most radio stations are not locally programmed, it is surprising that the participants showed such a high degree of begin informed about the community, this group rated .06 to 2.23 points higher than previous studies we have conducted. The participants of the Focus Group session are “community stakeholders” and as such, because of the organizations and agencies they work for, may pay greater attention to local news and events than the general population. However, we have found that when there is not robust PEG access television in a community, participants show a higher degree of knowledge about the “world” or the “country” than their local community, because of the pervasiveness of twenty-four hour newscasts such as CNN or Fox News.