Afghanistan

Audience measurement organisations

Although Afghanistan’s independent media had a great contribution in the process of democratisation since 2001, the sector as such is still very new and very young, in need of new establishments especially in infrastructure. One of the most needed systems is actually the establishment of audience measurement organisations, which are still lacking in Afghanistan. Although some international project-based organisation measure media audiences in Afghanistan, this does not imply a regular ongoing measurement system. Altai is one of those organisations. Media outlets sometimes also release data on audience measurement, but with standards that are not acceptable for the media and neither for the audiences.

Due to the lack of a regular measurement system, people guess which media are at the top. This even influences companies who are providing advertisements to media. The dominant discourse is based on sporadic measures and public guesses. Even though the public seems to have clear which media has the biggest audience and which the less, for professionals it is clear that this dominant discourse is not accurate and even correct.