The Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland (RCN) communicates with residents of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba through different communication channels. Because the media landscape continues to change, RCN once again commissioned an independent research agency to carry out a media study.
With this study, RCN gains insight into how residents use media and how they experience communication by RCN. Using the results, RCN can better tailor its communication and media use to residents of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.
The research agency conducted the study through online and offline surveys in Dutch, Papiamentu and English. In total, 984 residents participated in the study.
This week, RCN Communication presented the main results of the study during a meeting with the media on Bonaire.
The results show that social media still have the largest reach on all three islands. On Bonaire, social media reach 91.6% of residents, on St. Eustatius 92.7% and on Saba 94.3%. Facebook and WhatsApp remain the most widely used platforms.
Radio also remains an important communication channel on Bonaire with a reach of 70.1%. On St. Eustatius this is 37.5% and on Saba 22.2%. News websites as well continue to play an important role, with a reach of 61.4% on Bonaire, 69.6% on St. Eustatius and 72.2% on Saba.
Newspapers have a smaller, but still relevant reach: 40.1% on Bonaire, 32.8% on St. Eustatius and 32.4% on Saba.
With the results of the study, RCN can better determine which communication channels best fit each island and target group.