Mass Media in Zambia- Demand-Side Measures of Access, Use and Reach

By Gayatri Murthy, InterMedia
and Muzammil M. Hussain, University of Washington

Based on the AudienceScapes nationally representative survey of Zambia, conducted in April and May 2010

This report uses AudienceScapes data from a nationally representative survey of Zambia to focus on how people of different social groups gather, share and assess information through mass media - radio, television and newspapers.

Notably, this report assists development professionals in crafting their communications strategies through mass media conduits. It showcases how the AudienceScapes survey data can be used by the development community to better target communications and information-sharing efforts.

The scope of Zambia's media environment is limited by the country's modest level of economic development and the lack of infrastructure to service non-state outlets.

Radio is the most dominant and widespread medium in Zambia. But it has yet to truly diversify and offer its audience a wide range of choices for news and information. This obstacle is mainly economic - the state run Zambian National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) dominates the radio market nationally, making it harder for private stations to garner sufficient advertising revenues.

While ZNBC’s stations reach throughout the nation and broadcast in several local languages, private stations have limited reach and as our survey results show, they are unable to move to a wider, national audience outside the provinces from which they broadcast. They generally only broadcast within the provinces  they are located in and find it difficult to expand beyond their small listener base. In order to reach a wider audience, the private commercial stations broadcast primarily music and entertainment content and limit their political and news content in. Non-commercial radio stations focused on development-related issues are run by NGOs, religious organizations or educational institutions. While they are, in principle, catering to local information needs, their reach is quite limited.

Television and newspapers do not yet have large national reach in Zambia, and it is not clear when or if they will. Lack of economic resources, poor rural road networks and lack of knowledge of English are all important barriers to access. Development organizations should be aware of the fact that many segments of the population will not be reachable through these media. In addition, for those privileged enough to have access to television and newspapers, few choices exist and once again, state media dominates.

Read Full Report (pdf)

Report Summary- A Detailed Overview of the Main Findings

Report  Methodology

Read Chapters

Chapter 1 Mass Media Access and Use:  Common determinants of access (such as regional distribution, income, and available infrastructure); key issues in Zambians’ media use habits, particularly use differences between designated "opinion leaders" and the general population.

Chapter 2 Barriers to Media Access and Use:  Profiles of those Zambians lacking access to various mass media; analysis of obstacles to access. 

Chapter 3 Media Outlet Preferences in Radio and Television:  Audience and programming profiles of specific media outlets.

Appendix- List Of Non-State Owned Radio Station In Zambia's Provinces


For more information contact

Gayatri Murthy
Email: murthyg@intermedia.org
Phone: 202-652-2269

Peter Goldstein
Email: goldsteinp@intermedia.org
Phone: 202.434.9584

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Picture Courtesy: Tristam Shandy via Flickr