Politics and interactive media in Africa (PiMA) household survey, Kenya and Zambia, 2013

Individual-level household survey dataset for one urban and one rural constituency in Kenya and Zambia, covering questions on media and communications habits, political behaviour and attitudes.
The objective of the surveys was to obtain representative samples of two constituencies per country. Constituencies were selected according to their social and economic characteristics, in order to capture a wide variety of contexts. A random procedure was deployed in all stages of sampling, ensuring representativity of households and individuals of voting age in the four constituencies.
The results of the survey can be generalised to the particular constituencies with a margin of error of approximately minus or plus 5% for a 95% confidence interval.<p>Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PIMA) examines whether and how Africans, particularly the poorest and least politically enfranchised, use new communication technologies to voice their opinion and to engage in a public debate on interactive broadcast media, and its effects on modes of political accountability. Through detailed qualitative case-studies in Kenya and Zambia, PIMA critically interrogates the heralded potential for digital communications and liberalised media sectors to promote more responsive and inclusive democratic governance, with a keen eye for turning project insights into relevance for policymakers, media houses, journalists and development organisations.

By employing survey-based, qualitiative and ethnographic methods to comparatively analyse interactive radio and TV programmes in the context of electoral and everyday politics, we will probe whose voice counts, why and to what effects in these new digitally-enabled spaces of voice and accountability. The project takes into account local innovation in the use of ICTs and the interactions between different modes, venues and actors of information gathering and dissemination that are particularly prominent in African contexts. PIMA brings together researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Nairobi and Zambia, working closely with select broadcast stations and other stakeholders.</p>