Finding the wisdom in research

McMillan - whose CV, the ebullient Erik du Plessis of Millward Brown who introduced him, said was lost in the eons of time, McMillan has been around so long in this industry - themed his talk around the writings of TS Elliot on wisdom.

His theme was: 'Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?'

"Information is deluging researchers and non-researchers alike, so that we've lost the 'wisdom' when interpreting facts."

He blamed this on "the contraption called the computer". "So much is lost in software proprietary programming: sample size; substitutional rates; questionnaire designs; the actual field work - how is it conducted and what is the margin of error?

"All of those things do not easily appear on the computer screen," McMillan explained.

He used as example, the proprietary software which provides the TV media owners with "previous day ratings" to make predictions on forthcoming source periods. However, they don't take into account real world events, changes in programming, changes in competitor programming, even minor perturbations such as school holidays in which kids would be glued to the TV screen much more than during school term.

Said McMillan: "It sounds like common sense, but it's so easy to overlook that."

Even with the remarkable rain in Johannesburg this season, there have been remarkable increases in soap opera viewing and other programming - an unusual occurrence. So that is the problem with the focus on software - researchers and marketers become less aware of the "wisdoms", says McMillan.

McMillan drew on another example from his recent TV consulting: Peoplemeters (which are placed in people's homes to measure their daily viewing habits) cannot be compared with AMPS data because AMPS measures anybody who watched TV, even if they were walking past a TV in a shop.

That creates problems because Peoplemeters measure everyone in a household. A peculiar issue in South Africa is that there are more people in a household and less TV sets per household, than in other countries using the same mechanism. So data shows proportionately, that more men in SA watch soap operas and more women watch soccer. But, whoever has control over the remote control, watches the TV, that's obvious.

So where is the wisdom? McMillan asks again.

Research "soundbites" in popular media have undermined scientific research, is the gist of what McMillan is saying.

"I think that research has been embraced by more of the population than just by researchers. However, I feel that research should be left to the researchers to interpret. The ease of access to numbers has tended to blind us to the real problems that occur in research."