The Impact of New Media on Audience Research

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The influences of media are growing exponentially along with the technology development in the last several centuries. Media evolves originally from the books, magazines, visual and audio recordings to television, radio and films, and now to the new media relying on the digital technologies. Nowadays, almost everyone lives with the support of new media in the daily life. Accordingly, the research of media is also dependent on the evolutions. Thus, this essay will discuss the impacts of new media on audience research from the respects of both values and challenges. 1. Audience Research Audience research, in the qualitative research background, involves a relatively small amount of participants aiming to generate a more detailed and in depth interpretation of the participants’ attitudes and experiences with the respect of a specific topic (Kim Schoder, 2003). Besides, audience research is also regarded as a communication research method which is employed on the basis of a specific segment of audience (Livingstone, S., 1998) in order to get the knowledge of the audience’s attitudes, preferences and interests, etc. The segments of audience may vary on the researchers’ strategies of grouping. The audience can be segmented based on their race group, age, career categories, level of education and income, etc. The purpose to conduct an audience research is to better understand the target audience and provide an effective strategy for the project. It provides researchers an opportunity to acquire a heightened understanding of the audience’s meanings beyond their surface response, their motivations to take a specific action, feelings and experiences regarding to this specific incident. The term ‘audience’, based on the definition of John ... ... middle of paper ... ...er to do in the age of the Internet?. European journal of communication, 19(1), 75-86. Marie Gillespie (1995) Television, Ethnicity and Cultural Change Psychology Press Shaun Moore (1993) Interpreting Audiences London: Sage Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. MIT press. Press, A., and Livingstone, S. (2006). Taking audience research into the age of new media: Old problems and new challenges. Questions of method in cultural studies, 175-200. Silverstone, R. (1999). What’s new about new media? New Media & Society, 1(1), 10-12. Tracey Jensen (2011) ‘Watching with my hands over my eyes: shame and irritation in televisual encounters with bad mothers’ Radical Psychology Vol 9 Issue 2 available online The Big Opportunity: Audience Research Meets Big Data, Retrieved from www.rajar.co.uk/docs/news/IPABIGOPPORTUNITY.pdf last accessed on 28th May 2014.

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