Regular research in twenty ânon-westernâ but ânewâ European countries helps decision makers at top political levels (European Union parliament) analyse and better understand the opinion of the general public in their respective countries with regard to their standard of living confidence in the economy respect of human rights and development of democracy evaluation of the European and NATO-membership their respective advantages and disadvantages overall image and evaluation of the European Union and the ways they inform themselves about the âwestâ. In the ten candidate countries of central Europe a parallel study was run with some of the same questions amongst decision makers and opinion formers (1996-1997) thus completing the picture perfectly. Some remarkable differences could be noticed from 1990 on. This paper shows how the results were and are used by politicians and social and economic organisations and put into practice and is an excellent example of how to solve problems (or prevent them) by using data collected through specific market research in emerging markets.
This paper presents the way in which content analysis of the Europe-wide written press and television can be applied to study trends in public opinion and in market development, and to evaluate the success of communication policies. The first part describes what media analysis is and what a typical project looks like, especially in an international context. Apart from showing a number of application areas, the paper concentrates on methodological issues. The second part of the study shows the use of this method by the European Commission. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are demonstrated, concerning the written press, but also television. Although content analysis as such has already existed a long time, applied media analysis is presented as a relatively new area in which methodological standards are still in development. Accepted market research standards can be considered as helpful in that development.