RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

1. The statements by the progressive researchers at the annual assembly of International Society of Researchers of Mass-media in Leicester 1976. proved this fact too. A similar tendency was shown at the meeting of communication section of the International Society of Sociologists in Trident in 1977. Report by L. Pohar in the article »Perspectives of Modern Communicology«, SŠP Bulletin, Ljubljana, March 31, 1978, no. 3-4. 2. Our own bad experience with such polls was recently proved by B. Kavčič and V. Antonič, The Self-Managing Organization and Economic EJficiency of Working Units. »Delavska enotnost«, Ljubljana, 1978. 3. See L. Pohar, »After Ten Vears - Some Remarks and Reflections on TV Research in Slovenia«, report on The Symposium of RTV Research Services, Portorož, 1973.

approaches. 1 It can be said that only the first steps were done in defming the methodological starting points of our socialist communication science at both universities and RTV centres. We can rightfully expect that we shall soon overcome the consequences of the insufficient number of mandst researches in the past years. Those consequences still harmfully affect the field of aplicative researches in the mass media, Research centres at RTV, for example, аге still too directed towards the routine, empiristic, mathematical-static researches in the public of the media which had been brought in our country from abroad. Firstly in USA and then in some other foreign countries, questionnaire methods for the determination of the pubhc’s number and attitudes, their behaviour and reactions to radio and television programmes occurred and developed in the ninety-fifties. These researches are based on commercial interests and financial resources of sponsors. Тћеу must know the pubUc in order to invest their топеу for the advertising in the best possible way. Our researches are stiU based on the similar questionnaire approaches in spite of different auns and needs of our society 2 and in spite of criticism that those imported methods аге one-sided and non-examplary. It was found out already several years ago that the researches in the pubUc media m Slovenia should be different. 3 Our question was: Was it our persistance in view of appUcation of the questionnaires consisting of standard questions and neglecting of other methods, such as studying of special groups by means of deep interviews, experiments with special communication contents, etc., that lead us to discover the pubUc which we had' expected. Why аге the recipients m most cases the object of communication institution in aU our researches? Why is it an aim directed and shaped by the power of the media? Why are the psychological and social aspects excluded so often from our researches although they actively and decisively determine the relation between the media and its consumers. We also pointed out that a communication process cannot be explained scientifically by means of

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