How do I manage that? I attend training sessions with editors from other outlets on how to set up and carry out audience research, hold discussions with the ESJM team on media monitoring and actively participate in discussions on internet forums. At a time when there were many sensitivities to this work, I was mostly working in isolation and with limited contacts. Things have changed since I became more involved in forums and training offered by the EJSM programme. My conversations with colleagues about strategy within their organisations help me better focus my research on useful outputs.”

“My drive is to improve journalistic standards by increasing and sharing our knowledge of the media landscape. By becoming aware of our role as independent media we can increase our influence in society. My role is to collect relevant data and make it usable in order to focus our strategies on the needs of our readers. The EJSM team helps and supports me to professionalise research and media monitoring reports and make them more meaningful. I deliver reports with reflections on audience engagement and discuss them with my fellow journalists.  It makes me proud to see that the outlets discuss my reports in their editorial meetings. Of course, research is sometimes questioned, people don’t always believe the data or findings and many people also don’t use it to its full potential. I need keep things digestible and attractive for people who want to make changes for their media approaches and audiences. Sometimes, we see audience research shared to our media organisation, but it can be difficult for media houses to really adjust in order to reach different audiences. However, there have been great moments where I see that the editorial managers have been basing their strategies on facts and I see the changes in the journalistic productions of Syrian media. What matters to me in the end is the impact of my research work: the audience is being served better and better!”