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“Voices from the Hall – Deliberative Forum on Landfill Extension” was jointly organized by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and Public Opinion Programme, the University of Hong Kong (HKUPOP). It aimed at encouraging the public to deliberate on the issue of implementing landfill extension as soon as possible through holding the forum. The concept of this activity is based on the idea of “Deliberative Polling” created by the Stanford University in the US. Around 100 Hong Kong citizens were randomly selected to attend the deliberative forum. The participants listened to both affirmative and negative opinions from respective guests, and were given the opportunity to pose questions to the guests on the spot. The organizer would then analyze the change in public opinions collected before and after the debate. For the background information of Stanford University’s “Deliberative Polling”, please refer to the Deliberative Polling page.

This activity was divided into two parts, which included a public opinion survey with a representative sample of no less than 1,000 citizens, and a debate entitled “Voices from the Hall” attended by around 100 people. For details and results of the public sample, please access the page here.

Research Team Members

Director:
Robert Ting-yiu Chung,
Karie Ka-lai Pang

Research Executive:
Frank Wai-kin Lee

Data Analysts:
Edward Chit-fai Tai, Kelvin Chung-ho Yu, Kam-tat Leung, Jazz Ma, Andy Ka-ho Kwok, Felix Chi-hang Chan, Oskar Lai-ho Yau

Other Team Members:
Winnie Wing-yi Lee, Joyce Wai-man Chan, Jasmine Kin-wing Li, Cynthia Hiu-yan Tse, Angel On-kei Lai, Evely Yee-fung Ching, Tony Chun-nam Chan, Kamie Ka-sim Lam, Julia Chung-yan Leung, Jasmine Wing-yi Ngai, Isabelle Tsz-wing Wan, Carman Ka-man Yip

Details of the forum

Details of the “Voices from the Hall” were as follow:

Topic: “Landfill Extension”
Date: 24 August 2013 (Saturday)
Time: 11 am to 1 pm
Venue: Studio 1, Radio Television Hong Kong

Rundown:	10:30-11:00　Registration
	11:00-12:00　Debate
	12:00-12:20　Participants to fill in questionnaires
	12:20-12:30　Feedback from participants
	12:35-13:00　Conclusion and announcement of poll results

Transport: Apart from participants who went to the venue by themselves, shuttle buses from the venue to Kowloon Tong, Admiralty, Tsuen Wan and Tai Po Market were also provided by the organizer.
Note: Each participant received HKD$100 as a token of appreciation of their attendance.

Preparation work before the Forum

The Public Opinion Programme officially started the invitation process around 5 weeks before the Forum. A Hong Kong-wide random telephone survey was conducted between mid -July to mid-August. In the first round of calls, around 400 citizens showed interest to attend the activity. This was followed by the second round of calls by the Public Opinion Programme. The calls were made according to the interviewees’ age group (i.e. 18 to 29, 30 to 49 and 50 or above) and their self-claimed social strata (summarized into upper, middle and lower class) to ensure the representativeness of the participants. On 20 August 2013, there was a confirmed list of around 180 citizens. Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) then mailed or emailed the invitation letter for the debate, the first round survey and the background information to each participant.

In between 20 and 23 August 2013, the Public Opinion Programme conducted a third round of confirmation and around 150 citizens confirmed that they would attend the event as scheduled.

In accordance with this activity, the Public Opinion Programme has launched a “POP App” for smartphone users, and constructed a feature page for “Voices from the Hall” at PopCon(PopCon, http://popcon.hk) to collect opinions from netizens through online surveys and forums. People can now download the App from Google Play or iOS App Store, or submit their opinion to PopCon directly.

On the date of the debate, the organizer asked each participant to hand in the completed first round survey questionnaire upon his/her arrival. In the middle of the debate, the organizer asked each participant to fill in the second round survey questionnaire, which was exactly the same as the first one. The two questionnaires were used to analyze the change of citizens’ opinion before and after the debate. The survey was jointly designed by the Public Opinion Programme and Radio Television Hong Kong. All the operations, data collection and analysis were done independently by the Public Opinion Programme without the interference of any other party. The survey questions were as follows:

Q1. On the whole, to what extent do you support or oppose implementing the landfill extension plan as soon as possible?
Q2. When implementing the landfill extension plan, how important do you think is the need to respect the wish of local residents / public interest?
Q3. How important do you think the following local waste disposal methods are? [weight-based waste disposal charge / building incinerators / expansion of landfills / recycling]

Research Results

A total of 103 citizens attended the debate on that day. 102 of them completed and submitted the first and second round survey questionnaires. The Public Opinion Programme conducted the analysis based on these 102 people and announced the research results on the spot.

Research presentation (Chinese PDF available only)

Other Matters

Radio Television Hong Kong did a live broadcast of the “Voices from the Hall” forum at Radio 1 and simultaneously a live streaming at RTHK TV 32 and its online broadcast station on that day. Besides, Radio Television Hong Kong also uploaded the clip of the entire debate onto the website, citizens can watch the archive at the following links:

Activity Photos

To be uploaded