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6.4.1 Findings and lessons learnt from the Pilot study.
I The study revealed a particular problem with questions requiring a
Iikert-scale type of response from respondents. Consequently, a "no
response" column was highly recurrent throughout the findings.
I There was also a high "'no response" rate with regard to certain crucial
questions, such as the need for and use of information in various sectors,
e.g. education, agriculture etc. In other words, the needs and purposes of
information depicted no relationship between the variables. For instance, no
relationship was noticed between tables depicting "'needs" for health
information and the "purposes# this information was used for by the
respondent. This discrepancy was minimised through the use of a more
comprehensive research instrument and more experienced research
assistants when interviewing respondents.
I It was necessary to redesign the questionnaire in order to make it less
cumbersome for both the respondent and the research assistants.
I It was also found necessary to recruit more experienced research
assistants who could get the respondents to answer more/all questions.
I Due to the language barrier, particularly amongst the black ethnic
group of the study in the rural areas of Pongola and Gugushe , particular
attention had to be paid to the research assistant recruited to provide
translation services.
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