Integreeritud kommunikatsiooni roll sihtrühmade kaasamisel Eesti Rahva Muuseumis
Date
2010
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
“Target Group Engagement Through Integrated Communications in
Estonian National Museum”
Keywords: engagement, cultural participation, integrated communications, onlinecommunication,
Estonian National Museum, museum visitor
Estonian National Museum (ENM) is a state funded museum, the main mission of which is
gathering, preserving, researching and mediating culture materials of Estonian and other
Finno-Ugric people, and of nation groups living in Estonia and neighbouring countries.
Additionally, the museum undertakes to promote work in the fields of ethnology and
museology (ERM põhimäärus 2009). In relation to opening the new exhibition building in
year 2014, an opportunity has arisen for ENM to modernize its communication activities,
considering the possibilities and expectations created by the new technological means.
The aim of the Master’s thesis “Target Group Engagement Through Integrated
Communications in Estonian National Museum” was to study ENM’s target groups,
engagement of these target groups and current engagement practices, taking into account
the fact that in addition to regular communication tools, there are online-communication
opportunities for communication organisation’s messages and to engage target groups. The
main research questions were: Which external communication channels are used to
communicate with the ENM’s target groups? What are ENM’s engagement practices?
What have been the strenghts and weaknesses of ENM’s participatory interventions during
past two years?
In the theoretical part of the paper I explained the term “integrated communication”, which
by my definition includes all the activities of an organisation that are necessary for the
successful functioning of the organisation and for communicating with stakeholders and
target groups. In this paper the term focused on interrelated external communication
activities that result in a more efficient communication with the target groups. To do that
there is a need need to use new online-media channels and ways of communication in
addition to the more traditional ways of interaction and communication. Web 2.0 creates
the expectation for an organisation to be open, to create trusting relationships with the
customers and to deconstruct existing barriers (e.g., O’Reilly 2005, Solis & Breakenridge
2009, Scott 2010). I also pointed out how ENM has positioned itself as a multifaceted
social binder and placed the museum into the present market economic context, where the
museum has to compete with other recreational institutions for the attention of the visitor as
well as fulfil the socially placed mission. Determining engagement I utilized the 5-step
model used in the Estonian public- and non-profit sectors, developed by the International
Association of Public Participation (2007, also Hinsberg & Kübar 2009), and following it,
engagement is a sequential process from informing to empowering. Ways of cultural
participation can be divided: attending/receiving, performance/production by amateurs,
interaction I used the guideline given to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics by Adolfo
Morrone (2006:6).
The methods of this paper include quantitative research with data from study
Mina.Maailm.Meedia 2008, interviews with ENM’s communication manager and focus
group interviews with teachers and tourism organizers and tour guides.
As a result of the analysis the following conclusions can be made:
• ENM has a wide variety of target groups due to the multifaceted activities, but these
are rather general (e.g., the whole world, Estonia, tourists, researchers) and the
target groups are mostly event- and project-based. However, there are some target
groups which are set apart from the rest, for example ENM’s Friends’ Society,
Lettersenders, research related people and the portal Eesti Hetked;
• ENM integrates offline and online communication channels: the main channels are
press release, emails to mailinglists and the museum’s home page. Additionally, the
social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo) are being tested, at the
moment they are mainly used to inform the target groups;
• The target groups consider the following as necessary qualities of a museum: good
access, flexibility, active participation interventions, good presentation of
information and collections, good self introduction/advertisements and manifold
spin-off activities, clear presence of conception and maintaining balance between
information and space in an exhibition. The teachers also pointed out the ability to
expose the existing as much as possible and the presence of various activities.
• The present exhibition at ENM is thought to be boring and dated, especially for
foreign tourists. However, ideas that were offered by the focus groups could be
used by the ENM even before the opening of the new building: e.g., exhibiting the
museum complex at Raadi better, enlivening exhibitions through role plays and
improving the present spin-off activities.
• For the future ENM two important expected aspects were highlighted: attractive
activities and role-plays and good access and flexibility (including the chance to be
a guide in the museum);
• The data from Mina.Maailm.Meedia 2008 said that 64% of Estonian population
likes to visit museums, but more than half go there rarely or not at all. Therefore,
this is the target group where museums could find most of their potential visitors;
• The main reasons for visiting museums were the same for all who like to go there,
disregarding the frequency of visits. These were: gaining new knowledge, finding
out new things, the opportunity to spend free time usefully and in an interesting
way; to see and experience for oneself things that have been only heard of, to get to
know other cultures, eras, countries and nature;
• ENM has dealt with engagement activities ENM since its establishment in 1909.
Today ENM uses enagement on the level of participation, where necessary data to
enhance ENM’s collections is gathered systematically from different target groups.
The museum mainly cooperates with the ENM’s Friends’s Society, Lettersenders
and Photosenders (also the portal Eesti Hetked).
• Additionally, there have been experiments in engaging people more widely. The
project “In thousand steps…” asked people to comment on the photo exhibition in
the physical space and this indicated that it is possible to enliven the show by simple
and cheap means. Furthermore, “Give the museum a day of your life” and “My
Exhibition” proved that people prefer online channels to send in their stories and
ideas and offering online possibilities could multiply the amount of the users.
• In my discussion, I offered a version of a participation and engagement scale, that
can be used to position participatory interventions in the present and the future. I
also give ENM suggestions on how to plan theyr communication activities: to
prioritise target groups and to devise a strategic integrated communication plan that
would take into account the fact that for ENM visitors and general public, all the
observable activities of the museum are a part of the museum.
In conclusion, the ENM’s activities are varied and I believe that connecting different parts
of the museum, finding target groups, and setting priority target groups and offering them
participatory intervention and engagement opportunities would help to increase the
visibility of the museum.
Present Master’s thesis is part of the research project “Developing Museum
Communication in the 21st Century Information Environment” (ETF8006) funded by the
Estonian Science Foundation. The mapping of targget groups in this paper give an
opportunity to compare the communication activities of a museum and other memory
institutions. The keywords from different areas used in museum communication and
engagement and cultural participation in a museum and more generally in memory
institutions, definitely deserve additional research.