Global Connections

Media Monitors recently won four medals at the 2010 International AMEC Awards.  The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication ( AMEC ) has 103 media analysis / research companies as members from 38 countries. At the 2010 Awards there were 92 submission across 11 categories. This blog talks about the analysis for the Gold medal we received for Best use of measurement for a single event for Te Papa.

View our other award wins

The report produced for Te Papa was one of my favourite projects that I have worked on during my career as a media analyst. It proves that analysis doesn’t have to be on a large scale, over a long term, or costly for a client in order to produce meaningful results. Reports of this nature prove that the key to any successful analysis project is engagement with a client on a number of levels in order to answer key questions, and draw valuable conclusions.

This report was designed to evaluate media coverage of a significant repatriation project undertaken by Te Papa in late 2009. This included the repatriation of 33 Māori ancestral remains from five institutions in Wales, Scotland, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland, to be returned to local iwi.

Repatriation has had the potential in the past to be a controversial topic in New Zealand media, which is often standard for any event or issue that links cultural significance and government funding, and is a difficult area for any communications professional to negotiate. Te Papa wanted to look in more depth at how the repatriation events were portrayed within New Zealand and international media as a tool for greater understanding of how to potentially manage this kind of issue.

In order to appropriately evaluate and design a project for the repatriation coverage, it was important to understand what repatriation could mean to all stakeholders, including Te Papa, local iwi, as well as the wider New Zealand public. This meant that the research design had to deal with some complex themes, including cultural identity, and how media can and do engage with this concept locally and internationally; in print, online and broadcast media.

Examining this kind of issue is becoming increasingly important to New Zealand clients. As media becomes increasingly more international, the ability to translate culturally significant events in an appropriate and meaningful way across markets is crucial. However, stories still need to be engaging enough to capture local media interest in order to reach key local audiences in more depth.

This is where measurement and analysis can add further value than as purely a traditional reporting tool. When given the opportunity, media analysis has the ability to engage with complex concepts across multiple markets, while remaining actively involved in the day-to-day strategies and local media interactions of clients.

Well designed research and analysis should be able to engage with where a client has been, as well as where they are going. Something that I know I am passionate about in my work within the New Zealand industry, as are all the New Zealand-based analysis team. I’m incredibly proud that in two consecutive years a New Zealand project has achieved international recognition at the AMEC awards, accolades that only further demonstrates our commitment to high quality research and analysis for the New Zealand market.

Image provided by Andrew Currie on Flickr under CC Attributions Licensing.