Contribution of community radios in rural areas development case study of Habwa Ijambo? program aired at RC Huye

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses how the research will be conducted in a specific way using an appropriated methodology for collecting and analysing data. Methodology is the philosophy of research process that include assumptions and values which serve as a basis for research and the standards or criteria the researcher used to identify research instrument and lead the way to the conclusion. It determines how a researcher writes a hypothesis and what level of evidence is necessary to decide whether or nor to discard or retain hypothesis. This is due to the existence of many alternative methodologies and ways of conceiving social phenomena found in social sciences.

My research methodology requires gathering relevant data from the specified documents and compiling databases, in order to analyze the material and arrive at a more complete understanding the real role of community radios in uplifting population in rural areas in poverty.

2.2 Research design

Rajendar(2009) defined research design as it communicates the intentions of the researcher - the purpose of the study and its importance, together with a step -by - step plan for conducting the study. Problem is identified, questions of hypthesis are stated, variables are identified and terms are defined. The subjects to be concluded in the sample, the instuments to constructed, the procedures to follow how the data will be analyzed - all are spelled out.

Research design, thus, is a logical and a systematic plan prepared for conducting a research study. It is comparable to blue print which the architect preparer for construction of the building commences (Rajendar, 2009).

2.3. Data collection tools

In this research I used different data collection tools to gather all necessary information; those tools helped me to collect all information needed from the respondents. Here are the data collection tools you used:

2.3.1. Interviewing (face-to-face)

Interview is an important tool to collect data. Rather than asking respondents to fill out questionnaire I choose to ask questions orally and record respondents' answers on an audio recorder. This type of survey generally decreases the number of do not know and no answer responses.

Here what I observe is if a respondent has misunderstood a question, the interviewer can clarify, thereby obtaining relevant responses. Face- to-face interviews are a good way to gather information from community respondents because they might be unwilling or too busy to complete a written questionnaire.

This technique was useful to me because it helps me to gather information easily while talking to respondents, a big number of them don't know how to write and while speaking to them they feel at ease to speak whatever they think.

2.3.2. Focus Groups

A focus group typically is defined as a group of people who possess certain characteristics and provide information of a qualitative nature in a focused discussion.

This group is special in terms of purpose, size, composition, and procedures. Participants are selected because they have certain characteristics in common that relate to the topic at hand.

In this present research I used focus group to collect data, in an approach that is very helpful according to the state of the research it requires to talk to the population in the community and who mainly listens the program together; this oblige me to use the focus group where I went in the different villages located in Rwaniro sector and I talk to different group while I choose five among different people and we sat together and I start to converse with them basing on an interview guide this helps the researcher to identify deeply what is the perception of the respondents concerning the program.

The total respondents of 30 it was divided into five focus groups.

The importance of using focus group is that respondents feel at ease to express themselves because it's like they're discussing in their respective village there's not a different situation ton what they live in. They saw their neighbors around and this incites them to speak openly whatever they think.

2.3.3. Using available information

This tool of using available information is important in the process of research, to know exactly what other researchers did on the role of a program in uplifting population into poverty I consult other information related to this research from books and internet.

For obtaining accurate and dependable data, researchers are suggested to combine two or more of the above mentioned data collection techniques ( S. Rampur, 2010).

2.4. Data processing and data anaysis

Once the interview are completed, the analysis of the collected data will necessarily take a great deal of time. This is where you determine wheter the evidence supports your hypothesis, whether other variables have had a greater influence on reported violence.

This research was analysed by using qualitative method; Qualitative Data Analysis(QDA) is the range of processes and procedures whereby we move from the qualitative data that have been collected into some form of explanation, understanding or interpretation of the people and situations we are investigating. QDA is usually based on an interpretative philosophy. The idea is to examine the meaningful and symbolic content of qualitative data. For example, by analysing interview data the researcher may be attempting to identify someone's interpretation of the world (P. Atkinson,1996).