The Talk Back In-house Audience Research project is a follow up to the Gender and Media Audience Study (GMAS) conducted by Gender Links with universities around Southern Africa using a questionnaire devised by experts from the Rhodes University Media Studies Department. However, the findings of the GMAS were at a country rather than at a media house level. One of media houses that engaged with the GMAS findings proposed simplifying the questionnaire so that it could be used by media houses to gather their own data. This suggestion led to pilot projects being conducted with the Namibian, News on Sunday in Mauritius and the Chronicle in Malawi. The media houses presented their findings at the second Gender and Media Summit in 2006.
In 2007 the project was extended to media The Voice newspaper of Botswana and The Swazi Observer of Swaziland. This was done in conjunction with the policy leg of the Media Action Plan on HIV and AIDS and Gender. The final reports on findings are attached below.