Focus Groups and Panels
Focus groups and panels can provide programme-makers with qualitative research, examining opinion in more depth and often with more colour, flavour and spontaneity than conventional opinion polling or surveys. However, because they are not, generally, quantative, they should not usually be regarded as representative.
We can draw a distinction between focus groups and some sorts of panels. The latter, if selected with robust criteria by a credible company and of sufficient size, may be used as a legitimate method of polling on some issues. Panels can be useful, over time, in indicating changing views, in reaching groups where conventional opinion polling has difficulties, such as children or particular religious groups, or in analysing contrasting attitudes of different groups. They should never be used to estimate party support or voting intention.
Those in the BBC commissioning panels should be aware of the impact of “conditioning” – in other words, a controlled group of individuals who are asked on a number of occasions for their views over time will, by definition, become untypical of the population as a whole, or of their own part of the population. Although it is good practice for such panels to be selected with a broad range of balancing views, they should not normally be regarded as representative.
Focus groups do not necessarily need to be “balanced”, even if the research is about politics or public policyi. It may be legitimate to conduct such research into particular groups, such as “Labour voters” or “working women”. But we should be aware of the limitations of focus group research and ensure that our output does not make claims for its value beyond the particular set of people who have taken part.
Advice in this area should be sought from the Head of Political Research and, if there is a proposal to use either focus group research or a panel on party political issues, that must be discussed with the Chief Adviser, Politics “at an early stage” – before it is commissioned.