Publieksonderzoek 70 Jaar Vrijheid

Transcription

1 Publieksonderzoek 70 Jaar Vrijheid Public Opinion Poll 70 Years Freedom June 2015 Paulina Schmitz

2 Table of contents Background information Objective Report structure Project management Methodology Survey design Survey administration Representativeness Part 1 - Sample characteristics Channels Age and gender Nationality Part 2 - General analysis Positioning World War II Organizations Websites Sites Perceived knowledge and interest Channels Part 3 - Focused analysis: Liberation Route Europe Awareness Website Interest Getting to know more about LRE Going on a tour Motivations Disincentives Appendix Paper questionnaire

3 Background information Objective This report presents the results of the survey Publieksonderzoek 70 Jaar Vrijheid / Public Opinion Poll 70 Years Freedom that was commissioned by the Foundation Liberation Route Europe, De Gelderlander and the Foundation Musea en Herinneringscentra Within the scope of the 70 th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands in May 2015, De Gelderlander took the initiative to publish the special newspaper supplement 70 Jaar Vrijheid, focusing on the meaning of commemoration and freedom in the past and in the present. This special newspaper supplement formed the initial stage for performing a survey within this theme. The objective of this survey is to learn more about people s perceptions and behaviors related to 70 years liberation, freedom and remembrance of the Second World War in general. Report structure At the beginning of this report a brief overview of the methodology will explain the survey design, administration procedures and a word of caution on representativeness of the results. In the first chapter an assessment of the sample characteristics is provided. The second chapter of the report analyzes the results of the questions used in the questionnaire one by one. The third chapter specifically addresses the Liberation Route Europe. Apart from graphs that visiualize the quantitative results and tables that compare means of different variables, each section ends with a set of key points that summarize the most important information derived from the data. Project management This research project is unique in the form it was organized and supported. It is presented by Paulina Schmitz, MSc student in Leisure, Tourism and Environment at Wageningen University and research trainee at Bureau BUITEN and Liberation Route Europe Foundation. The survey was composed and executed in cooperation with De Gelderlander and the Foundation Musea en Herinneringscentra 40-45, and supported and supervised by Wageningen University, Bureau BUITEN and Liberation Route Europe. Involved in the management of the project were: Anne Nijtmans Coordinator Specials De Gelderlander a.nijtmans@gelderlander.nl Max Meijer Project secretaris Stichting Musea en Herinneringscentra max@timeamsterdam.com Peter Kruk Project Manager Liberation Route Europe p.kruk@liberationroute.com Paulina Schmitz Research Trainee at Bureau BUITEN and Liberation Route Europe MSc Leisure, Tourism & Environment, Wageningen University paulina.schmitz@wur.nl Anneke van Mispelaar Senior Advisor BUITEN, Bureau voor Economie en Omgeving anneke.vanmispelaar@bureaubuiten.nl 3

4 Methodology Survey design The research instrument that was used for this survey is a self-completion questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed in English and translated into Dutch. The Dutch paper version of the questionnaire can be found in the appendix. It addresses the following variables: Interest in history Importance of keeping the remembrance of World War II alive Importance of commemorating victims of World War II Importance of the next generation learning about World War II Importance of celebrating freedom Interest in getting to know more about World War II in the free time Knowledge of selected organizations that are related to World War II Knowledge of selected websites that are related to World War II Frequency of visits to selected sites that are related to World War II Perceived knowledge about World War II Relevance of channels contributing to knowledge about World War II Interest in getting to know more about World War II Interest in the Liberation Route Europe Location of vacations Composition of nationalities in personal circle of friends Gender Age Education Nationality Province of residence Channel to access the survey Opinion about the newspaper supplement 70 Jaar Vrijheid Survey administration The Dutch questionnaire was printed in the newspaper supplement 70 Jaar Vrijheid that appeared on Saturday 2 May 2015 in the newspapers De Gelderlander, De Gelderlander, De Stentor, De Twentse Courant Tubantia, BN/De Stem, Eindhovens Dagblad,and Brabants Dagblad. In total, the supplement was printed times. To minimize the time consuming effort of manually digitalizing data from paper questionnaires, respondents were encouraged to fill in the survey online via the websites of the respective newspapers. The online version of the survey contained the same questions as the printed version. Moreover, the link to the survey was shared on the social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by the different partners. By participating in the online survey, the respondents had the chance to win one out of four parachute jumps organized by the Liberation Route Europe Foundation. Filling in the questionnaire on paper and sending it back by post to the LRE Foundation was also still possible, whereby postal costs had to be covered by the respondent. This strategy aimed at minimizing postal responses and maximizing online responses while at the same time not excluding respondents who are not familiar enough wi th t h e in t er n e t. T h e surveyw a s open for respondents from 1 till 17 May Representativeness As a direct consequence of the sampling procedure caution has to be advised regarding the representativeness of the results of this survey. The sampling frame, meaning the collection of people that have been approached for this survey, consists of people who read the aforementioned newspapers and are connected to the aforementioned online media platforms. As this sampling frame cannot be hold representative for the Dutch population, representativeness for the whole population cannot be claimed. The results of this survey may however give an indication of possible patterns and trends that offer valuable information to the organizations involved. 4

5 Part 1 Sample characteristics

6 Channels How did you get to know about this survey? Newspaper Facebook Answer Bar Response % % % Website of a newspaper Other: Word of mouth Twitter Other website: Website LinkedIn Total % % % % % % 4 0.3% 2 0.2% % What province do you live in? Gelderland Answer Bar Response % % Noord-Brabant Overijssel Zuid-Holland Noord-Holland Utrecht Limburg Flevoland Friesland Groningen Zeeland Drenthe Total % % % % % % % 9 0.7% 5 0.4% 4 0.3% 4 0.3% % The publication in the newspaper generated the highest number of responses, followed by Facebook. Due to the regional distribution of the newspapers, most respondents come from Gelderland and Noord- Brabant. 86 paper questionnaires were sent by post, almost all of them by respondents older than 65 years. 6

7 Age and gender Offine Newspaper / word of mouth Online LinkedIn / facebook / twitter / / websites Total All channels There is a clear distribution of approximately two thirds male and one third female respondents. There is no distinction in this pattern between respondents who got to know about the survey offline or online. 65 % of all respondents are older than 50 years. Respondents who got to know about the survey from offline channels (newspaper and word of mouth) are generally older, while the age distribution of respondents who got to know about the survey from online channels approximates a normal distribution. 7

8 Nationality What is your nationality? Answer Bar Response % Dutch % Other: % British 4 0.3% Polish 3 0.2% Moroccan 2 0.1% German 2 0.1% Indonesian 2 0.1% Chinese 1 0.1% Belgian 1 0.1% French 1 0.1% Surinamese 0 0.0% Turkish 0 0.0% Total % What is the highest level of education you have attained? Answer Bar Response % lower education % mbo % hbo % vmbo % havo/vwo % university % Total % Almost all respondents are Dutch. Respondents with other nationalities have not been excluded from the analysis, as the target group for this survey has been set as "people living in the Netherlands", not exclusively people with a Dutch nationality. More than half of all people in the sample (63,1%) have attained mbo or hbo as highest level of education. 8

9 Part 2 General analysis

10 Positioning World War II To what extent do you agree with the following statements? All statements score high or very high: World War II is still a relevant topic. "It is important that the next generation learns about what happened in World War II" is perceived as very important by most people (72%, followed by the need to keep the remembrance of World War II alive (70%, commemorating the victims of World War II (68% and celebrating freedom (64%. While a large amount of people feel a general interest for history (89%, fewer people like to learn about World War II in their free time (76%. These high-scoring results are likely to be at least party resulting from the fact that the questionnaire was published in a newspaper supplement that specifically focused on World War II. The readers of this supplement are likely to show more interest in this topic than the average Dutch person. 10

11 Positioning World War II To what extent do you agree with the following statements? Total Gender Age Male Female Question I think that it is important to keep the remembrance of World War II alive I think that it is important to commemorate the victims of World War II I think it is important to celebrate freedom I think it is important that the next generation learns about what happened in World War II Generally speaking, I am interested in history In my free time, I like to get to know more about the history of World War II The table shows the average values of the different statements on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The gender comparison shows that men and women share (almost) the same opinion in the importance assigned to keeping the remembrance of World War II alive, commemorating the victims, celebrating freedom and letting the next generation learn about what happened in World War II. Men show a slightly higher interest in history in general and a higher interest in getting to know more about World War II in their free time. The age comparison shows that young people (below 25 years) assign most importance to the idea that the next generation needs to learn about World War II. They show less interest in history in general and in spending their free time on World War II. The highest interest for this category is shared by people between 35 and 49 years old. This group is also the one that finds the commemoration of victims and keeping the remembrance of World War II alive most important. 11

12 Organizations Which of the following organizations do you know? Total People with a high interest in history People with a low interest in history ''The Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei' and the 'Anne Frank Huis' are by far the two best known organizations in this list, almost everyone either knows what they do or knows them by name. For all other organizations, there is a visible difference between people are generally speaking interested in history and those who are not. STIWOT, the 'Stichting Informatie Wereldoorlog Twee' is the least known organization in this list, followed by the vfonds. NIOD, the 'Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies' and the Liberation Route Europe are approximately at the same pitch of publicity, while the NIOD is a small step ahead 12

13 Websites Have you ever visited this website before taking this survey? Is it likely that you will visit this website in the future? The most known websites in this list are (40%), (37%) and (32%). Least known are (7%) and (8%). Respondents show a high increase in interest in visiting all of these websites in the future. In the online survey this question contained weblinks to all the websites, potentially increasing this interest in future visits. 13

14 Sites How often have you visited any of the following sites? Only 7% of all respondents have not visited a military cemetery yet. The most visited museum in this list is the Oorlogsmuseum in Overloon, followed by the Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein' in Oosterbeek and the Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork in Hooghalen. The least visited museum in this list are the Museum Rotterdam '40-'45 NU and the Bevrijdingsmuseum Zeeland in Nieuwdorp. These scores are likely to result from the regional distribution of the sample. Most respondents come from Gelderland and Noord-Brabant, so that the museums in these regions are visited more often by the respondents in the sample than museums in distant regions. 14

15 Perceived knowledge and interest How would you rate your knowledge about what happened... during World War II? How interested are you in getting to know more about what happened... during World War II? Respondents feel best informed about what happened in the Netherlands during World War II, followed by what happened in Europe during World War II and least informed about what happened outside of Europe. 68% do not feel well informed about what happend outside of Europe during World War II. The same amount of people (68%) would like to make up for that and get to know more about what happened outside of Europe during World War II. The interest in learning is even higher for within Europe (81% interested or very interested) and for within the Netherlands (85% interested or very interested). The averages for all 3 geographical areas are very high, all scoring 3,8 or higher on a scale from 1 (not interested at all) to 5 (very interested). 15

16 Channels To what extent did the following channels contribute to your knowledge about World War II? The comparison of means shows that the channel that contributed most to the knowledge about World War II among all respondents is film and TV (average 4,0 on a scale from 1 to 5). Closely behind are books (3,9). The working environment scored lowest (2.2). Visiting historical locations and newspapers / magazines share an average of 3,6, directly followed by museums, internet and online media, and school / education (all 3,5). The channels that appear to have the most intensive learning effect (% in category 'contributed a lot') are books (32%), followed by film and TV (24%) and visiting historical locations (24%). 16

17 Channels Total Gender Age Male Female Question School / education Work / colleagues Film / TV Internet / online media Books Newspapers / magazines Family and friends Museums Visiting historical locations The gender comparison shows that women learn slightly more from school / education and from family and friends than men, while men learn slightly more from their working environment, internet, books, newspapers / magazines and museums. The age comparison shows that young people below 25 experience school as the most important channel, whereas this perception decreases with age. For older people, especially books and film and TV seem to be important sources of knowledge about World War II. 17

18 Part 3 Focused analysis: Liberation Route Europe

19 Awareness Do you know the Liberation Route Europe Foundation? Total Gender Male Female Age Education Lower ed. mbo hbo vmbo havo/vwo university 19

20 Awareness Do you know the Liberation Route Europe Foundation? Interest in history High Low Interest in getting to know more about World War II in free time High Low Taking all respondents into account, one third has never heard of the Liberation Route Europe, one third knows them by name and one third knows what they do. The gender comparison shows that more men (73%) than women (56%) know the organization. The age comparison shows that the organization is less known among you people below 25 years (37% know it), while awerness levels only slightly fluctuate for the other age cohorts. The comparison of educational level shows that the Liberation Route is least known among university graduates (53% compared to 64%-71% for lower levels). It appears that people who are more interested in history in general know the Liberation Route Europe better than those who are not interested in history (68% compared to 58%). A bigger difference can be detected between people who are interested to learn more about World War II in their free time compared to those who are not interested (73% compared to 49%). 20

21 Website Have you ever visited the website before taking this survey? Total Gender Male All respondents Female Respondents who know what the Foundation Liberation Route Europe does (=34%) Male Female Age 0-24 All respondents Respondents who know what the Foundation Liberation Route Europe does One third of all respondents has visited the website of the Liberation Route before taking this survey. Age is not as determining for website visitation as one might have expected. It cannot be claimed that younger people would use the website more than older people. Out of all respondents who know what the Foundation Liberation Route Europe does, 68% of all men and 63% of all women have visited the website. Reverse that also means that around one third of the people who know the organization have never been on the website. 21

22 Interest Liberation Route Europe gives you the chance to discover and experience the route that the Allied Forces took during the final phase of the World War II: from southern England to the beaches of Normandy, the Belgian Ardennes, Brabant, Arnhem, Nijmegen, the Hürtgen Forest and on to Berlin and the Polish city of Gdańsk. How interested are you in...? Respondents are more interested in getting to know more about the Liberation Route Europe theoretically (average of 3,6 on a scale from 1 to 5) rather than practically going on a tour along (parts of) this route (average of 3,1). Only a minority of respondents (38%) is interested or very interested in actually going on a tour. 22

23 Interest: Getting to know more about LRE How interested are you in getting to know more about the Liberation Route Europe? Total Interests Respondents who rate their interest in history in general as... High Low Respondents who rate their interest in getting to know more about World War II in their free time as... High Low Never heard of it Awareness of the Foundation Liberation Route Europe Only know it by name I know what they do No Visited the website Yes General interest in history and specific interest in getting to know more about World War II in the free time are playing an important role in the question weather or not a person would like to know more about the Liberation Route. The higher the level of awareness about the organization, the more a person would like to know about it. People who never heard about the Liberation Route before are least interested in getting to know more about it. The same pattern is visible among people who have visited the website: 85% of the people who visited the website are interested in more information compared to 51% of the people who don't know the website. 23

24 Interest: Going on a tour How interested are you in actually going on a tour along (parts of) this route? Total Age International orientation Within NL Outside NL, within Europe Outside Europe Most frequent holiday location in the last two years Level of international contacts in personal circle of friends = All my friends are Dutch 2 = Most of my friends are Dutch and some have a non-dutch nationality 3 = Most of my friends have a non-dutch nationality and some are Dutch Interest in actually going on a tour along the route is highest among people between 25 and 49 years old (16% very interested, 30% interested). People who spend most of their holidays within the Netherlands are slightly less interested in going on a tour (30%) compared to people who usually spend their vacation outside of the Netherlands, but within Europe (43%) and people who travel mostly outside of Europe (38%). It appears that people who have more international friends are more interested in going on a tour than people who spend their time solely among Dutch friends. 24

25 Motivations Why are you interested in going on a tour along the route? 1. Experience the place myself Count: 54 Exemplary quotes: Keywords: See / feel / experience / understand / empathize Om in de voetsporen van onze bevrijders te treden. Dat brengt de verhalen tot leven. Ik zou graag met eigen ogen zien en meemaken wat onze bevrijders hebben gezien. Ik ben erg geïnterreseerd in de WW2. Weten wat onze bevrijders hebben doorgemaakt, proberen iets voor te stellen van hun ontberingen. Mogelijk ervaren of het gevoel - de emotie - van de inspanningen en opofferingen van de bevrijders er te vinden is. 2. General interest in history Count: 32 Exemplary quotes: Algemene interesse. Is belangrijk geweest voor hoe we nu leven. Omdat ik erg geïnteresseerd ben in de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Ik heb ook meegedaan met de Frank Graham Cycle Liberation Tour 2013 en En ik doe ook vaak mee met evenementen van Keep Them Rolling, met onze Jeep. Ik vind het interessant om op plekken te komen die verbonden zijn met de Tweede Wereld Oorlog, zoals ook nu het Westerborkpad wat ik aan het lopenben. Ik ben zeer geïnteresseerd in de Tweede Wereldoorlog en alles wat daarmee te maken heeft en deze reis lijkt mij prachtig om een keer te maken. Het is de reis naar vrijheid voor Europa, ook al is er in de tussentijd veel veranderd. 3. Education / Increase knowledge Count: 27 Exemplary quotes: Het zal voor mij bijdragen door meer specifieke kennis over de verschillende locaties. Ik wil de feiten en de gebeurtenissen van de geschiedenis weten... Onderdeel van verzamelen historische kennis 4. Past visits to related locations Count: 24 Exemplary quotes: "We zijn meerdere malen in normandie geweest wat daar staat is fantastisch en hoe die mensen daar alles in stand houden is werkelijk fantastisch en een eer voor diegene die daar voor onze vrijheid zijn overleden. Het zou dan ook heel mooi zijn als zoiets dergelijks tot stand kon komen in onze omgeving. want ook hier is heel veel gebeurt en zijn veel mensen voor onze vrijheid gesneuveld." "Ik ben zeer geïnteresseerd om de route verder af te leggen. Sinds ik in 2014 vanuit Normandië begonnen ben." 25

26 Motivations 5. Part of shared identity (who we are today) Count: Important to know about it Count: Fascinating / adventurous / impressive Count: Part of personal hobby Count: Genealogical reasons Count: Desire to pass it on to next generation Count: Desire to keep history alive Count: Geographical proximity Count: Show respect / honor Count: Commemorate Count: Discover new things / curiosity Count: Meet people with the same interests Count: Enjoyment of walking Count: Research Count: 1 The most important motivation among all respondents is related to indeas of experiencing historical places with ones own senses and being able to empathize with the people of the past. 26

27 Disincentives Why are you not interested in going on a tour along the route? 1. Physical condition Count: 48 Exemplary quotes: Rolstoeler, weinig energie, gebruik deze energie voor andere dingen Ben zelf moeilijk mobiel. Vanwege de leeftijd "Te oud; iets minder gezond dan wenselijk voor dergelijke 'excursie'." "Voel me daar te oud voor." 2. Not interesting enough / interested in other things Count: No added value Count: 25 Exemplary quotes: Ik ken de verhalen, heb veel plekken al uitgebreid omschreven gekregen en/of op tv en film gezien. Situatie rond Nijmegen is zeer goed bekend, omdat ik daar al decennia lang woon. Voegt voor mij niets toe aan de informatie over de oorlog waarover ik reeds beschik Heb niet de behoefte dit zelf te doen. Er over lezen is voldoende. Ik ben redelijk op de hoogte van het oorlogsgebeuren. Ik wil me er niet verder in verdiepen. 4. The topic is not up to date anymore Count: 15 Exemplary quote: Ik ben van mening dat je over het verleden moet leren en het loslaten. Je kunt niet in het verleden blijven leven. Je kunt niets veranderen aan wat er is gebeurd. En er bij blijven hangen leid alleen maar tot herhaling. 5. Visits to related locations in the past Count: 10 27

28 Disincentives 6. Disagreement with the focus the route sets Count: 8 Exemplary quotes: Soldaten zijn geen helden, zeker niet als zij voor volk en vaderland denken te sterven om een helden status Te verwerven. Routes als deze bevestigen alleen maar het heldendom. Voor mij ligt overigens daarbij het accent op dom. Want wie voor koning vaderland God of Allah wil sterven is dom. Wat wij moeten herdenken is dat wij nooit weer ons door de leugen van vorstendom en religie moeten laten leiden, zoals wij twee millennia hebben gedaan. Niet geinteresseerd; ook deze route zal een eenzijdig gekleurd verhaal zijn met betrekking tot de zwaar bevochten 'vrijheid' waarvan niemand een gefundeerde omschrijving kan geven. De zogenaamde huidige 'vrijheid' heeft scherpe kanten. 7. Family / travel company is not interested Count: 7 8. There is nothing to see anymore / the landscape has changed Count: 7 9. Takes too much effort / route is too long Count: Focus on World War II is too strong Count: No feeling og connection to the topic Count: Too little information about the route / don't know it Count: Only interested in local history Count: Dislike traveling Count: Too "heavy" theme for a leisure activity Count: 2 The most important disincentive among all respondents is related to old age and physical conditions that make a tour along the Liberation Route impossible. Even though this reason might be specifically significant in this sample with 30% of all respondents being 65 years or older, this physical barrier appears to be an important issue to address in order to not exclude anyone who is interested in the concept from experiencing the route him- or herself. 28

29 Appendix

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