Rating the Audience: The Business of Media

Description

Knowing, measuring and understanding media audiences have become a multi-billion dollar business. But the convention that underpins that business, audience ratings, is in crisis. Rating the Audience is the first book to show why and how audience ratings research became a convention, an agreement, and the first to interrogate the ways that agreement is now under threat. Taking a historical approach, the book looks at the evolution of audience ratings and the survey industry. It goes on to analyse today's media environment, looking at the role of the internet and the increased difficulties it presents for measuring audiences. The book covers all the major players and controversies, such as Facebook's privacy rulings and Google's alliance with Nielsen. Offering the first real comparative study, it will be critical for media students and professionals. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements 1. Why the Ratings Are Important Introduction The Single Number Summary 2. The Convention ‘The Crossleys’ – Archibald Crossley Arthur C. Nielsen (and the ‘Black Box’) Bill McNair and George Anderson New Forms of Knowledge about Audiences Theorizing the Convention Summary 3. The Panel and the Survey The Ratings Intellectuals Lazarsfeld The Very Idea of Measurement Single Source: ‘The Holy Grail’ Summary 4. The Audit Taming Error Invisible Audiences The BBC: Robert Silvey’s Thermometer and Barometer Summary 5. The Technologies of Counting The Diffusion of Ratings Technology Proliferation of Channels and Measurement Neuroscience, Neuromarketing and New Technologies of Measurement Timeshifting and Technologies of Counting The Increasing Technical Complexity of Audience Measurement Calls for Harmonization Summary 6. The Ratings Provider The Official Truth The Silent Revolution Superior Technology’: ATR-OzTAM and ACNielsen Controversy in Australia Superior Technology’: Nielsen versus Hooper, Nielsen versus Arbitron Summary 7. The Networks (and Other Media Providers) TV Economics Standardization Small Audiences and Set-top Boxes United Kingdom Summary 8. Advertisers and Media Planners The Dual Persona of the Advertiser The Media Planner Cost Efficiency and the Curve of Experience The Competent User Summary 9. The Audience The Modern Audience The Average Household and the Representative Individual Home Studies and the Public Audience Consent The Knowledge Aggregators Summary 10. The Critics The Broader Context The Bogart Persona Objections to Ratings Setting Limits to Statistics Problems with Increases in Scale Impersonal Secondary Data Deprofessionalization of Media Research Summary 11. The Future of Ratings Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z