Türi Rahvalehe sisu ja vastavus tellijate ootustele

The current research is about the content and expectations of subscribers of Türi Rahvaleht and focuses on the content analysis of Türi Rahvaleht in 2007 and the results of the survey done amongst the subscribers. This research subject is important because Türi Rahvaleht serves a smaller region than that of county newspapers and no in-depth analysis has been initiated, and the research offers good practical application for developing Türi Rahvaleht. The task of the research was to find out subscribers expectations and how successful the newspaper is at fulfilling these expectations. To find answers, on the one hand I researched the interest of subscribers in different subjects, sections and genres, the expectations of the subscribers to Türi Rahvaleht, and their opinion of weaknesses of the paper. And on the other hand I researched the frequency of subjects, genres and sources used in articles of Türi Rahvaleht during 2007. The primary task of the research was to compare and contrast the present newspaper content with subscriber expectations in order to determine the degree to which they are fulfilled. To find answers to my research questions, I mainly used quantitative methods – the survey amongst subscribers and a standardized content analysis. The standardized survey consisted of two parts. The first one included general questions about the paper and the subscriber, the second part contained questions about the content of the paper. The intent of this questionnaire was to find out why subscribers choose Türi Rahvaleht, what they expect from the paper in terms of their interest in different subjects, genres and the practical information written in the paper; their opinion of the weaknesses of Türi Rahvaleht and their proposals to make the paper better. I expected also to get an overview of subscribers and their evaluation of the content and design of Türi Rahvaleht. The aim of the content analysis was to quantify the occurrence of authors, sources, subjects and genres of Türi Rahvaleht in 2007. For the analysis of quantitative data I used the program MS Excel. The analysis of the open questions was made using the method of qualitative content analysis. Of subscribers, 80 participants were randomly selected from those who live in the Town of Türi. An additional 20 younger subscribers were selected from among workers employed in local companies, that are also subscribers of Türi Rahvaleht and also from recent graduates of Türi Gymnasium. Research showed that subscribers view the main tasks of Türi Rahvaleht in keeping them informed about local events, also writing about familiar people and places, introducing interesting people and informing them about local government decisions. They also expect the local paper to be more critical and write about local problems that exist. About the issues, subscribers are most interested in those topics psychologically close that affects them personally, as well as people and family, home and garden, and people’s achievements. In contrast the paper did not write about these preferred topics frequently enough. The most used genre in Türi Rahveleht was news, but subscribers also want to read more about familiar people, so the paper should use more feature and other genres. The editors were the main authors of articles written. To give proper coverage of all regional events, there must be more cooperation from other surrounding villages by finding some correspondents. The main sources are often representative of organizations. Of all sources, 16% were local ordinary people, but for a local paper this should be higher in order to make the paper more personal to readers. Two-thirds of all subscribers have been clients for more than six years, half of these for more than ten years. During the last year there have been very few new subscribers, only 1 out of 100 people surveyed. Older subscribers read regularly and thoroughly the entire content of each issue, while younger people are more finicky and selective as to what they take time to read. Older people also considered the content and design of the paper higher level than other age groups. When asked if they were only able to subscribe to one paper, the older group would choose mostly to subscribe to Türi Rahvaleht. The middle group would choose mostly the county paper, while the younger group would choose the national daily newspaper. Research shows that even if the different age groups of subscribers see the tasks and the weaknesses of the paper the same way, still their expectations of each age group for the paper differs. Research showed that Türi Rahvaleht is especially important to the older people. This fact should be considered more carefully by the editors when selecting material and presenting it.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2451085~S1*es