Designing a crowdsourcing operational model for monitoring IRIB TV programs

 
Received: 27/08/2017

Accepted: 30/01/2018
 
Introduction:
One of the key elements in management, especially the management of media organizations in particular, is to have a control and monitoring systems.  Without this element, other elements of management, such as planning, organizing and conducting, are incomplete and there is no guarantee for their proper functioning.  Ensuring that the program is correctly implemented and directed, and proper steps would be taken in case of deviations, requires a process that is called monitoring and control.  By setting up different levels of monitoring and, of course, spending expenses on various aspects, before and after production, at the time and after the programs are broadcasted, the IRIB monitors different programs of various radio and TV channels as much as possible.  They do that so that not only it pursues current normative and legal frameworks but also meets the satisfaction and trust of the target audiences. The question now is whether the media can use a new concept in management science by the name of crowdsourcing and make a situation so that the media would be able to engage the audiences in monitoring IRIB TV programs and pave the way for increasing the number of observers and strengthening the trust of its audiences?  Is it also a question whether it is possible to reduse heavy costs of the traditional monitoring layers of the organization?  By the same token it can be asked whether it improves its monitoring performance using mass participation of people in monitoring the programs?
 
Conceptual Framework:
Crowdsourcing is a combination of the two word of population and outsourcing, meaning outsourcing to masses of people.  Crowdsourcing means outsourcing activity or task of a mass of people (a large network of unspecified people) through a public call.  Meanwhile in outsourcing the activity or task is transfered over to a particular person or group (Keshtkar, Peshayee and Mohammadi, 1391).  The benefits of using crowdsouring is to promote access to a community of potential employees who have a diverse range of skills and specializations that are willing and able to complete and fulfil their duties, in the shortest period of time and also a significant reduction in costs compared to doing the activities as before (Whitla, 2009, p. 23-24).
People monitroing is the systematic monitoring, and guarantees periodic analysis of information that has been selected and registered with the help of others (population). The primary purpose of participatory monitoring is to provide the necessary information throughout the life of the project, so that, if necessary, adjustments or changes are made.  People' monitoring provides a participatory monitoring mechanism that allows the community to decide whether the ongoing activities are in line with previous plans.  It also indicates the diversion of the activities from the main path, so that the initial planning can be re-established and we can identify the problems and provide the required solutions at the same early stages. This is especially feasible and easy to use with new technologies (Reyes, 2003).
 
Research Methodology:
In order to achieve the desired pattern of this research, we used the grounded theory method. We considered the research community to consisted of senior and middle managers of different times in the IRIB organization, university professors in the field of communication and media management, experts in the field of national media supervision, and knowledgable and competent individuals working on the new media.  The units of observation were selected using theoretical sampling method and the data were collected using in-depth interview technique.  The implemented and adjusted data for each interview were analyzed using the three types of open, pivotal, and selective coding.  The process of sampling and data collecting was continued until the data saturation phase, which was achieved after sample 17.
 
 
Findings:
The six central categories of "feasibility and determination of people monitoring", " monitoring classification and being placement in the formal monitoring layer of the IRIB TV", " audience participation in monitoring programs", "the way of analyzing information in people monitoring", "obstacles to the implementation of people monitoring in IRIB TV" and "possible conflicts and the way of solving them,” along with their subcategories, were the result of coding the interviews.  Based on the research findings, the potential presence of audiences in TV monitoring cycle is definite, and is divided into three parts of before, during and after broadcasting, which, according to the potential risks before broadcasting with limited displays for the elite population, as well as using the compiled database during and after the programs are broadcasted.  Then the utilities and the delicacies of the popular demand will be measured. Since the social standard is one of the major monitoring issues in the IRIB TV, people's customary monitoring can be easily seen at all levels of official monitoring, and would be achieved through taking into consideration the desire and the need of the audience and of course producing programs artistically and maximum audience participation in people monitoring using all traditional (telephone, SMS, ...) and new (social media, etc.) communication channels.  The feedbacks would then be received directly and indirectly, and by creating a comprehensive feedback system, all audiences’ needs would be analyzed and indexed in a centralized way and ultimately the barriers and possible conflicts would be removed by creating the necessary media protocol.
 
 
Conclusion:
In the end of our resedarch the proposed model for popular monitoring of the IRIB TV was presented.  What is outstanding in this research is the novelty of the subject as well as the way of dealing and using the concept of crowdsourcing.  Meanwhile other studies have solely worked on the defining and analysing the crowdsourcing itself or, in the field of media, and have woked on subjects such as content production and feed preparation for program production.  Therefore we have made use of a new outlook to the monitoring process in the IRIB TV, the audience will therefore participate in this process using the crowdsourcing technique and within the people monitoring and, in addition to preventing the momentary deviation barrier, the necessary monitoring, the popular monitoring, trust to the media would increase.  In the end, it is suggested that, in the wake of the normal indicator within the IRIB TV monitoring framework, the public approval of the programs, i.e., an indicator for promoting and ordering future works and products will be provided to the developers so to enhance the possibility of improving the programs.  This, in turn will provide an order and discipline for  professional rating of the suppliers.  It is also suggested that we should focus on social networks and cyberspace and Web-based tools which enjoy a pre-technological approach.  We also should focus on analysing and following the networks continuously and their results should become systematic in order to be used in the IRIB TV monitoring systems.