The audience study carried out by AIMC dedicates a very low number of interviews to Lanzarote, since its objective is not to measure island audiences but provincial ones.
As a most recent example, in its last wave (Oct./Nov. 2020) the number of interviews conducted by the EGM on the island was 47, a clearly insufficient sample for a population of 152,289 inhabitants (Source: INE 2019).
The distribution of the 47 interviews does not follow an island-wide demoscopic logic either. In Arrecife, which accounts for more than 40% of the population with 62,988 inhabitants, 16 interviews were conducted. In Teguise, with a population of 22,342 people, 12 people were surveyed. However, in Tías only 6 surveys were conducted, despite having a population similar to that of Teguise (20,170 inhabitants), while in San Bartolomé that number rose to 10, with fewer inhabitants (18,816). In the rest of the municipalities, the survey became even more residual or directly non-existent. In Yaiza (16,571 inhabitants) only two people were asked, in Tinajo (6,279 inhabitants) one person was asked, and in Haría (5,123 inhabitants) no one was asked.
Every time the EGM publishes its data, various media outlets in Lanzarote echo local results that lack representativeness and without referring to the insignificant size of the sample at the island level. Even more striking is the case of Lancelot Medios, which, without obtaining any mention in the study for its station Lancelot Radio, also assigns itself the listeners that Radio Marca obtains in Gran Canaria.
The survey is conducted three times a year, although this year the second wave was suspended due to the Covid-19 health crisis. The sample is planned to reflect audiences at the national level and is segmented by provinces. In its third wave, the study conducted 412 interviews in the province of Las Palmas
Need for island studies
Faced with this panorama, Miguel Martín, director of the Perfiles Institute, has pointed out that the study is not designed to obtain data at the island level.
"The EGM is a measurement tool that works, allowing to obtain information from the national whole and divide it by provinces, because it has a sufficient sample for each of them. The problem is that for the Canary Islands the provincial zoning does not make sense".
In order to reflect the island realities, "the segmentation would have to be insularized, proposing representative samples for each island. The provincial segmentation causes an over-representation of the capital islands and an under-representation of the so-called smaller islands. The islands are tremendously different from each other. That is why it is highly recommended to have a specific study for the Canary Islands", says Martín.
Regarding the minimum size of the sample that a specific audience study for Lanzarote should have, with a universe of 152,000 people, "this should not be less than 800 interviews, with a sample error margin of around 3.5%, which would allow to correctly reflect the audiences at the island level. If we wanted to reflect the audiences by municipality, 2,500 interviews might be necessary, with an error margin of 2%"
The island has lacked official radio audience data for 12 years, since in 2008 the Cabildo de Lanzarote conducted an audience study with 1500 interviews.
