SOW_Current_UKR-NS-15-1-VOA_SOW_Ukraine_Survey_of_Adults_National_Survey_7Aug15.docx

SOW –National Survey of Adults in Ukraine

The Broadcasting Board of Governors/International Broadcasting Bureau (BBG/IBB) has a requirement for a contractor to obtain current estimates of media access and habits including news usage of media for news and news interests, reach of domestic and foreign media outlets, and opinions on selected policy issues, and trust in various outlets as news sources, via face-to-face interviews among national probability sample of 2,000 adults (15+ years old), with the exclusion of Crimea and—as necessary—parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts under control of separatist forces. For face-to-face respondents who use US International Media (USIM) products, the contractor will arrange follow-up phone interviews to administer BBG broadcaster questionnaire modules detailed evaluations from USIM users. For the oblasts where conditions prevent normal face-to-face administration of BBG’s questionnaire, contractor should propose feasible options for obtaining the most reliable and comprehensive survey information possible. A mixed-mode approach would be acceptable.

SECTION A: OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

BBG’s main objectives in this research are to obtain a complete picture of the evolving media environments in Ukraine, where issues of media control and news objectivity, as well as disrupted access in many areas, are not resolved, to estimate the audience reach and impacts of particular outlets (most importantly, U.S. international and other foreign broadcasters), and to understand trends in audiences’ news and issue interests, as well as opinions and concerns on basic issues the country faces. BBG has begun major initiatives in expanded TV programming, digital media, and Russian-language products for Ukrainian markets, and seeks to gain insight into their current and potential impacts.

VOA in Ukraine: Holos Ameryky, VOA’s service for Ukraine, reaches the largest weekly audience of any Western international broadcaster in Ukraine’s television market, acting as a de facto Washington bureau for four major national television channels. At a time when Ukrainians look to Washington for support and when Russian propaganda so stridently employs inaccuracies or distortions, VOA is a source of news, information and analysis regarding U.S.-Ukrainian relations and American life that is available to mass audiences in Ukraine. VOA helps Ukrainians understand U.S. policy towards the region, with its content featuring a variety of U.S. officials, lawmakers, experts, entrepreneurs and NGO activists figure prominently in VOA’s of U.S. foreign and domestic policy, Ukraine’s democratic evolution and American society, institutions, thought and values. VOA reaches 6.5 million Ukrainian adults weekly with its TV products: Chas-Time, a 15-minute daily program that on Channel 5, focuses on international news, developments in the US, and relations between Ukraine and the US. Window on America is a 20-minute weekly TV magazine that focuses on trends in American society. Studio Washington is a daily Russian-language news segment on ICTV for people in Ukraine who prefer to obtain their information in Russian. The service also produces frequent interactives and special reports for major TV networks ICTV, First National TV, and Channel 24. VOA’s digital products include up-to-date multimedia desktop and mobile websites, a YouTube channel, the BBG Direct video site, presences on Facebook and Twitter, as well as syndicated content on major online media in the market (Ukr.net and Ukrainska Pravda).

RFE/RL in Ukraine: Radio Svoboda, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Radio Svoboda targets 25-45 year-old professionals who work in a variety of sectors and live in urban areas throughout Ukraine. Radio Svoboda’s main goal is to help Ukrainians find their own path toward a more mature democracy by engaging, informing, and offering thoughtful audiences the chance to learn from one another, to understand other sectors of society and cultures within the country, and to participate and begin to integrate more constructively into European organizations and structures. Radio Svoboda also plays an important role in countering Russia-originated propaganda by providing pertinent and relevant analysis.

In 2014, Svoboda launched six television shows that are aired by local partners in Ukraine. Radio Svoboda TV partners include national and regional channels in Ukraine, including First National channel, First Ukraine, News Channel 24, Espreso TV and Donbas TV. Programming content includes the weekday "Your Liberty," which discusses the most important topic of the day with experts and VIP guests, special programs on events in Crimea and Donbas, and an investigative program on corruption on First National called “Schemes.” Svoboda also prepares ad hoc television reports from Brussels and Prague for Ukrainian TV stations. Svoboda continues to produce radio programming that airs in the morning and evening on national affiliate Radio Era along with a number of smaller affiliate partners throughout the country. RadioSvoboda.org is updated 18 hours a day on weekdays and 16 hours a day during the weekend. Over the course of 2014, visits grew dramatically, averaging nearly 7.3 million per month.

In annexed Crimea, the Service targets people living in urban areas, who do not support Putin's model of state and societal development. The Service pays special attention to Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and other minorities living on the peninsula. The Service strives to provide exclusive local content, in addition to regional coverage, in line with RFE/RL's mission. Since the launch of RFE/RL's website for Crimea in March 2014, the Russian page has attracted over 32 million visits and 52 million page views. The Ukrainian page has logged over 1.5 million visits while the Crimean Tatar page has registered almost 44,000 visits. On average, there were almost 2.6 million visits monthly to Krymr.com last year. The Crimean website is updated 16 hours on weekdays and 12 hours on weekends.

Joint RFE/RL-VOA Program Current Time: RFE/RL and VOA together produce a 30-minute news and current affairs weekday program in Russian that targets audiences in Russia’s strategic periphery, including Ukraine, where it airs on News 24, First Ukraine, Vintage TV, and TV Chornomorskaya /TRK Socialna Kraina channels. Recognizing the strategic importance of countering the false narrative provided by Russia’s current propaganda onslaught both within the Russian Federation and the former Soviet space, the program has a strong news focus and includes in-depth analysis of current events.

Competition:

VOA and RFE/RL are the dominant Western broadcasters in terms of the reach of their TV, radio and online content in Ukrainian and Russian. USIM continue to depend for most of their audiences via domestic TV and radio affiliates. Ukrainian media offer high-production values on TV though have often been influenced by economic and governmental interests. Nascent development of TV and online independent/public outlets offers competition, but also opportunities for expanded partnerships. Russian channels, though their access is limited in much of Ukraine, offer competing perspectives both to Ukrainian and Western broadcasters.

SECTION B: RESEARCH TASKS

Contractor will propose a sampling plan and advise on questionnaire design for, oversee the conduct of, and provide results from a face-to-face media survey among a national probability sample of 2,000 Ukrainian adults (15+), exclusive of Crimea, with the BBG core questionnaire which contains modules on (1) media use, (2) TV access, habits and reach of channels and programs, (3) radio access, habits an reach of stations, (4) use of digital media, (5) use of digital media for news and reach of online content providers, (6) trustworthiness of media outlets, (7) news gathering habits and interests and opinion questions, and (7) demographic information; in total approximately 275 closed-end items. It is anticipated that this face-to-face interview could last about 55 minutes on average. At the end of the face-to-face interview, respondents who have been identified as a VOA or RFE/RL weekly user will be offered a chance to participate in a follow up phone interview. The interviewer will offer an incentive (ideally in form of airtime or another electronic payment that will be provided after the successful phone interview) and an appointment will be made on the spot. Weekly users of VOA and/or RFE/RL content who have agreed to do so will be interviewed by phone (using CATI systems), asking users of each broadcaster questions on their usage and evaluations of the entities’ performance. All information from the face-to-face interview that is necessary for routing respondents to the appropriate questions must be entered into the CATI system ahead of the phone interviews. As it is anticipated that such an interview could reasonably last up to 30 minutes (depending on how many broadcasters the respondent used, and on which media), and will be scheduled for a time convenient for the respondent and there will be an incentive paid. Proposals should include options for surveying adults in areas where population displacements, disrupted infrastructure and unstable conditions are deemed to prevent normal face-to-face administration of BBG’s questionnaire.

(1) General Responsibilities of Contractor. The contractor shall be responsible for the project design and execution, including the following specific tasks:

(2) Questionnaire. The questionnaires will be based on the BBG core instrument, as described above, for the face-to-face interviews, and on the standard BBG broadcaster modules, as described above, for the follow-up phone interviews (for option 2—outlined below in section 10–a modified broadcaster module questionnaire would be used for the second follow-up phone interview). At the conclusion of the single or final interview, the contractor shall ask USIM users interviewed with by phone if they would be willing to participate in future research projects, and shall preserve contact information for those who agree. The contractor shall prepare written translations of the questionnaires for field use in Ukrainian and Russian, as well as any other languages that the contractor deems necessary to the successful completion of the project.

(3) Sample design and documentation. BBG requests proposals for a national sample of 2,000 adults 15 or older (exclusive of Crimea), with options for areas of surveying Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts deemed to exclude normal face-to-face interviews. The sample shall be drawn using recognized probability methods, all the way down to the selection of the individual respondent at the household level. In the event that any departure from probability sampling methods is recommended by the bidder for all or any part of the survey, the sampling methodologies to be employed shall be described in detail and a rationale for their use shall be provided. A detailed sampling plan shall be submitted to the BBG at least three weeks prior to commencement of fieldwork, and shall include a description of the survey coverage, allocation of the sample, description of the sampling frame, description of any stratification criteria to be used, description of the stages of selection and the selection methods to be used at each stage, a definition of the PSUs and approximate number of interviews to be conducted within each PSU, the method to be used for selection of the respondent at the household level, and call-back rules to be employed. It is assumed that the sample will be distributed in proportion to the population of each region or other geographic unit to be surveyed; in the event that the bidder wishes to propose a sample design departing from this principle the proposal should describe the allocation to be used and the reasons for doing so. The sources(s) of population data used in developing the sampling plan should be clearly stated. The proposed Sampling Plan will be reviewed and approved by BBG prior to commencement of fieldwork and any further changes agreed upon by BBG and Contractor will be incorporated. In follow-up phone interviews, for the mobile portion of the sample the respondent selected shall be the individual with whom the line is associated (i.e. whoever answers the phone); for the fixed line portion of the sample the initial unit of selection shall be the household with which the phone line is associated and random selection methods shall be employed to select the actual respondent within the household.

(4) Pre-tests. The initial questionnaire shall be pre-tested by the contractor prior to the commencement of any fieldwork. At least 15 pre-test interviews with both face-to-face and phone follow-up questionnaires shall be conducted. The contractor shall provide BBG with a written report of the results of the pre-test, along with details of any problems encountered and suggested remedies, prior to the commencement of any fieldwork. Each follow-up questionnaire shall be pre-tested with at least 5 interviews.

(5) Fieldwork and training. Interviews shall be conducted by experienced field workers who shall be thoroughly briefed by contractor prior to commencement of any fieldwork. For face-to-face interviews, the contractor shall ensure that interviewers are thoroughly familiar with household and respondent selection procedures, call back procedures, and the structure of the questionnaire, including routing and filtering. Interviewer training shall last a minimum of 4 days shall include practice sessions in administering the questionnaire, both inside and outside the classroom setting. All interviewers must attend all days of training. A minimum of 10% of face-to-face interviews shall be back checked and at least 5% of the interviews shall be accompanied by a team supervisor. BBG reserves the right to send an observer to the interviewer training and to observe up to 5 days of fieldwork. For the phone follow-up interviews, a minimum of 10% shall be back checked.

(6) Data Processing. The contractor shall be responsible for data entry, cleaning, and processing. The contractor shall supply data to BBG as a clean, fully labeled SPSS “*.sav” file with a complete data dictionary of variable names and value labels. There shall be one data record for each respondent and records shall be of fixed length. The contractor shall be responsible for deriving and applying any post-stratification weights required to bring the sample into conformity with the demographic profile of the population, as well as any additional weighting factors required to correct for disproportionate allocation, if use. Each record shall include a unique respondent ID number, interviewer ID number, PSU ID number, and codes for precise location and date of interview. Each record shall include demographic information about the respondent, including: gender, exact age, and education level.

(7) Technical Report. When delivering data, the contractor shall provide a Technical Report which shall include the following:

(a) A complete Sampling Plan, including description of the sampling frames used and procedures employed for respondent selection.

(b) Details of response rates, including tabulation of unsuccessful interview attempts, with reasons for non-response (i.e. respondent refusal, proxy refusal, inability to locate selected respondent, etc.).

(c) Interviewer instructions;

(d) A brief report on survey operations including any practical difficulties encountered in carrying out the survey;

(e) Estimated sampling error;

(f) A complete explanation of the weighting scheme including details of how weighting factors were developed and applied, as well as the demographic data on which weights were based (i.e., age, gender, and education distributions in the population);

(g) The technical report will be updated after the follow-up interviews to reflect the response rate as well as any potential bias in the completed follow-up interviews (e.g. follow-up interviews with female audience members were much more likely to be completed than with male audience members)

(8) Summary of deliverables. The Deliverables to be provided in digital form to BBG by the contractor are as follows:

(a) A complete data set formatted as SPSS file, updated after the follow-up interviews

(b) Copies of the final questionnaires, as fielded, in English and translations

(c) A technical report as described above.

(d) A topline of frequencies for all variables; and

(9) Delivery Schedule. It is anticipated that fieldwork for this survey will begin no earlier October 2015 2015, with all deliverables of option 1 to be submitted no later than January 2016. Additional deliverables outlined in Option 2 would be submitted no later than March 2016 2015. Contractor will advise BBG on a feasible timeline for completing work on this project as soon as possible after contract award. The Period of Performance is September ##, 2015-March ##15, 2016 (Option 1) or September ##, 2015-June ##, 2016 (Option 2.)

(10) Quotation options 1.) n=2000 F2F survey (phone interviews acceptable in Eastern Ukraine conflict oblasts). Interviews exclusive of BBG modules. During the initial interview, contractor will attempt to recruit all weekly users of VOA and/or RFE/RL for one follow-up phone interview lasting up to 30 minutes. The phone interview will be scheduled within 2 weeks of the initial interview and the respondent will be offered an incentive. It is expected that at least 75% of recruited participants complete the phone interview—multiple attempts must be made if necessary. Data from the F2F survey and phone interview will be combined into a single SPSS dataset.

2.) n=2000 F2F survey (phone interviews acceptable in Eastern Ukraine conflict oblasts). Interviews exclusive of BBG modules. During the initial interview, contractor will attempt to recruit all weekly users of VOA and/or RFE/RL for two follow-up phone interviews lasting up to 30 minutes each. The first phone interview will be scheduled within 2 weeks of the initial interview and the respondent will be offered an incentive. It is expected that at least 75% of recruited participants complete the first phone interview—multiple attempts must be made if necessary. Data from the F2F survey and first phone interview will be combined into a single SPSS dataset. The analytical report will be prepared on data from both the initial and the first follow-up interview. Upon analysis of the dataset, the client will design a questionnaire for a second follow-up phone interview. This questionnaire will contain elements from the BBG broadcaster modules as well as newly formulated questions based on issues raised by the data. It is expected that at least 50% of initially recruited participants complete the second phone interview—multiple attempts must be made if necessary. Data from the second phone interview will be added to the existing SPSS dataset.

SELECTION CRITERIA

An award will be made based on review of the Technical Capabilities and Experience as well as best value to the government. Of the two Selection Criteria, Technical Capabilities and Experience, sub-criteria are as follows:

1. Offeror’s demonstrated experience conducting representative face-to-face/CATI surveys in Ukraine;

2. Proposed methodology (face-to-face only or mixed mode with CATI for Eastern Ukraine conflict oblasts), coverage (discuss planned geographic exclusions in proposal) and sampling

3. Quality control procedures, including interview qualifications, interviewer training, interviewer supervision, data entry, data validation

4. Ability to complete the project in a timely manner