St. Joan, Literacy & Internet Research

There’s an old story, probably apocryphal, about a consumer survey in America which asked ‘Who was Joan of Arc?’   It emerged that some 12% of respondents thought she was Noah’s wife.

Whilst an unexpected result, we shouldn’t be surprised.  The Bible is one of the most widely read books in the US – and one that is much quoted aloud.  We should also remember that some past studies in the States have estimated about 20% of adults are illiterate to the point of not being able to do much more than read and write their name.  (This somewhat contrasts with the CIA World Factbook which claims 97% literacy).  Some relevant factors are visual impairment and dyslexia, which have an estimated incidence of 1-3% depending on degree.   There’s also a very large grey area where reading and understanding may not connect.  Prof. Michael Hart of Illinois, cites a definition of functional illiteracy as not being able to read and understand a training manual – a test used by the US Army in the First World War – and infers that by this definition up to 47% of the US population could have some problems!

The US is not alone in this respect although as the world’s leading economy, and the cradle of the internet, it does perhaps provide the most dramatic example.  In the UK, some six years ago the Government estimated that about 7 million adults struggle with reading, writing and maths – an incidence of about 20%.  Furthermore Kate Willis, a UK researcher, has noted that children - tomorrow's trendsetters - are now bombarded with alternative visual and audio media.  Over half of those aged over 9 yrs now have a TV in their room and a similar proportion have a computer or games station –  so print is a lessened priority.  It would seem likely that Australia is in a similar situation, perhaps worse given our historically high immigration levels and that some older adult functional literacy may be in languages other than English.

Such inaccessibility via text can put a damper on using the internet for comprehensively researching particular target markets.  This is compounded when computer illiteracy is taken into account. 

However, computers are now in over three-quarters of homes with an increasing proportion connected via broadband; although specific users tend to be younger. 

There are also some compensating facilities available for the functionally illiterate, eg via the use of pictures and the option of versions in different languages.  And it's still probably the quickest and one of the cheapest ways to get answers from big samples - magic if your target market is young, computer oriented and affluent.  

The US is said to now conduct over a third of its quantitative research using the net, already probably an underestimate.  Whilst the proportion is probably closer to a quarter in the UK, there's no doubt that a shift as big as the previous move to telephone interviewing is now under way in Australia too.

So what do we do?  The answer of course is to embrace the advantages of technology – speed, low cost and better control of questions & stimuli – whilst not being dazzled by it.  The keys are compliance with target market definition, not asking too much of respondents, crosschecking they understand – and crosschecking the results.   If you’d like to explore this more, why not give Nexus a call.

Incidentally, history tells us that Joan of Arc was burnt as a heretic in 1431, partly for listening to voices that couldn’t be substantiated.   She was vindicated much later and made a Saint in 1920 – about the same time as the US army was exploring functional illiteracy.  The Bible doesn’t record the name of Noah’s wife; but other books say it was Naamah and that she gathered the plants for the Ark whilst Noah collected the animals.