Audience Segmentation and Age Stratification Among Television Writers

Previous research on the Chinese media focused on political propaganda in the information media. This project extends this stream of research to analyze mass mediated entertainment, China Central Television's annual Spring Festival Galas, in the previous 26 years. Based on 475 performances from a sample of 13 complete Galas, this study confirmed a high presence of political propaganda and social education content. Among the many dominant values, values related to national pride and the traditional New Year observed an increased presence in the Galas over the years. Results are discussed in light of the Chinese media, social, and political environment.     

Predictors of Social Television Viewing: How Perceived Program,Media, and Audience Characteristics Affect Social Engagement With Television Programming

This study investigated social television viewing by introducing the social engagement construct. Three categories of factors, television program related perceptions, social media characteristics, and audience attributes, were proposed to predict the social engagement experience. This investigation tested 10 audience motives for using social media to engage with television content. It was found that social engagement is a complex process driven by multiple factors, particularly, program-related variables such as affinity, involvement, and genre preferences, as well as individuals' innovativeness trait.     

Revisiting Quality Television: Audience Perceptions

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes what the audience understands by the concept of quality as applied to television channels. This research also examines the influence of the perceived quality of the different programs broadcasted by a channel on the perceived quality of the whole channel. The empirical part is based on the answers provided by a sample of 405 respondents in Spain. The factors found to be associated with the idea of quality television by the audience are somewhat different depending on the method used to assess it, which points to the existence of social desirability bias when asking directly about it. Notwithstanding these differences, entertainment is the characteristic that the audience most consistently associates with the concept of quality in television channels. The results also show that news programs, movies and magazines, and talk shows are the genres with a greatest influence on the assessment of the quality of a television channel by the audience.     

Virtuality and the Television Audience: The Case of Futurama

This essay examines the impact of Internet-based discourse on television audiences by examining the specific case of the recent program Futurama. Futurama has inspired the development of a vast and diverse virtual community dedicated to discussions of the program and the production of a variety of secondary discourses. .     

Reconsidering Reflexivity: Audience Research and Reality Television

Critiques of reality television assume that audiences enjoy watching participants’ humiliation or adopt the reforming injunctions of the shows. This audience research project investigates how people who watch personal makeover shows (The Biggest Loser, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Starting Over, and What Not to Wear) use these texts in meaningful ways. Data from 1,800 survey respondents and 130 interviewees demonstrate that audiences use the shows to be self reflexive, while they also are highly reflexive about media production processes. Furthermore, they are reflexive about their participation in research about a disparaged television genre. Audiences’ perception of surveillance and shame in the shows suggest how reflexivity can provide a critical distance from the programs but is not necessarily ideologically freeing.     

Toward Ethical Cyberspace Audience Research: Strategies for Using the Internet for Television Audience Studies

This article examines the possibilities for qualitative audience study afforded by the Internet, carefully detailing both the benefits and dangers o f such research. In answer to methodological issues resulting from online communication with subjects, the essay calls for the application o f various feminist and anthropological methodological practices, and considers methodological dilemmas related to perceived privacy, natural data and lurking, informed consent procedures, balancing anonymity, and data accessibility. In the course o f outlining methodological considerations especially salient when finding audiences through Internet spaces, we reflect on our own dilemmas in designing studies that meet the ethical standards of feminist methodology.     

Engaging the Audience in a Digitised Television Production Process

This article discusses producer practices and the reasons why they engage their audience in the production process. In a digitised media context, audiences have become more visible, mainly through social media, and have more means to participate. Our research deconstructs the production process of a particular television programme by means of the “hierarchy of influences” model, which separates micro and macro levels that influence production. It draws on in-depth interviews with all editors of Flemish current affairs programme De Afspraak (The Appointment) and on a three-month participatory observation. We conclude that immersive ways of engaging the audience are applied in our specific case. More broadly, we argue that although practices change, pre-existing norms and values about the television audience remain central to how producers engage their audience through digital and social media.     

Predictors of Audience Interest in Adopting Digital Television

Although the deadline for mandated digital transmission for broadcast television (DTV) is fast approaching, we still know relatively little about viewer knowledge about and interest in adopting the new, higher resolution television receivers. This study profiles likely DTV adopters in terms of social locators, media adoption, orientation toward adopting new media, and affective measures. The relative success of the latter in distinguishing between likely DTV adopters and nonadopters underscores the utility of a new set of attitudinal variables to supplement demographics and technology adoption measures. These elements were less successful in explaining DTV awareness levels, which were relatively low.     

Audience Currencies in the Age of Big Data

ABSTRACT

Audience ratings data have long occupied the attention of marketers and media managers. These are the “currencies” that support the operation of commercial media. Today, metrics can be derived from many large datasets, raising the possibility that new kinds of currencies might emerge. We argue that data on exposure are the most likely to support currencies, and that these might well go beyond traditional measures of audience size and composition. We explore the relationship between the most plausible contenders for audience currencies: size and engagement as measured by time spent. Contrary to the “Law of Double Jeopardy,” we find these metrics to be uncorrelated in an online environment, suggesting that each might have a role to play as a currency. We conclude with a discussion of how the political economy of audience measurement is likely to affect audience currencies in the age of big data.     

2010年中国电视市场收视动态

2010年中国电视市场大环境相对稳定,常态时期的电视收视总量保持稳定,"内容为王"继续引导竞争方向,不同层级间频道竞争更加激烈.本文通过对2010年电视收视市场动态的分析,可以为透视电视市场现状表象后的动因提供诸多参考.     

Serving the Older Adult

Services to older adults in libraries have historically been weak or absent. Research published as a result of the oft-cited Cleveland study of 1971 and 1973, and update by Betty Turock in 1984, and studies by Celia Hales-Mabry in 1980-81 and 1984, have supported this thesis. Guidelines published in 1987 by the American Library Association suggest a much-expanded role for libraries. If these guidelines are to become a reality, we must take steps to implement them by assertively enlisting the involvement of our peer librarians as well as the funding to support new services. Evaluated in detail are the four guidelines that most directly influence reference services to older adults.     

Parental Mediation of Preschool Children's Television Viewing

This study examines parental mediation of preschool children's television viewing. Becker's (1981) theory of parent-child relations is used to frame mediation in terms of parenting resources. A survey of 129 parents of preschool children (ages 1-5) reveals that when resources are in highest demand, attitudes toward television are a factor in deciding whether television mediation will benefit children. Demographic variables, parents' attitudes about television, and parents' involvement with children all significantly predicted restrictive and instructive mediation. The findings are discussed in light of young Children's needs for mediation as a guide to television's novel set of technical and cultural codes.     

Television Viewing Preferences: Programs,Schedules, and the Structure of Viewing Choices Made by Israeli Adults

Using analysis of program content and programming features, this study identifies patterns of television viewing preferences that explain why certain shows are frequently watched with certain other shows. Principal components analysis (PCA) of data collected from a sample of 750 Israeli adults was used to identify groups of shows often watched by the same viewers. A further analysis was conducted to uncover common features of these shows. The results replicate earlier findings indicating that program viewing preferences are explained by channel loyalty and genre loyalty, but the study adds a focus on the importance of programming language in non-English-speaking television markets.     

Feeling Connected via Television Viewing: Exploring the Scale and Its Correlates

Contextualized in television program viewing, the current study seeks to develop a new scale that captures individuals' feelings of being connected to others via media consumption. Literature on general human motivation and media consumption motivation sheds light on social relatedness in television experiences. Data suggest a three-factor structure of the focal concept of feeling connected via television viewing (FCTV): (1) a perception of shared viewing among one's immediate social circle and anticipation of subsequent communication as aided by television programs, (2) a sense of global community enhanced by shared television experiences, and (3) communication with distant unknown others. A stronger sense of FCTV predicts a greater tendency for an individual to watch a program when it is first released, and to watch it together with one's friends, as well as a higher level of general involvement with television. Further, we differentiate the focal concept of feeling connected to other television viewers via television viewing from the related concept of parasocial interaction with television characters. Relative to parasocial interaction, FCTV better predicts collective viewing and first-run viewing.     

The Psychology of Marathon Television Viewing: Antecedents and Viewer Involvement

This study focuses on the expanding trend of marathon (“binge”) television viewing. It examines the personality antecedents of such media consumption (attachment style, depression, and self-regulation deficiency) as well as the psychological experiences of marathon viewers relative to the narrative (transportation, enjoyment) and its characters (parasocial relationship, identification). In a two-study design, theoretical models of media use and involvement, on one hand, and models of media addiction, on the other hand, are applied to predict the extent of marathon viewing and to compare it with “traditional” viewing. Results advance understanding of enjoyment and involvement theory and support cognitive theories of media addiction. At the same time, the study’s findings reveal that marathon television viewers are active both cognitively and emotionally during and after the media exposure, thus alleviating some concerns about the “problematic” nature of the “binge” viewing phenomenon.     

受众与影视品牌战略发展的民族化思考--北京电影、电视观众基本情况调查分析

当看电影、电视越来越成为人们日常生活方式和文化生活的重要构成的时候 ,当影视作品越来越烙上商品的印痕进入当今文化消费市场的时候 ,当影视作为文化产品越来越超越国界地域自由地行走在地球村的时候 ,探讨中国影视现状与未来发展的问题 ,显得尤为迫在眉睫。我们所进行的北京市重点课题“中国影视受众理论的民族化研究” ,正是在这样的背景下 ,从北京市民观看电影、电视情况的问卷调查入手 ,以受众研究为基点 ,以观众调查数据为依据 ,努力剖析我国当前影视传播中存在的问题 ,集中对受众与中国影视品牌发展战略中的民族化问题进行深入探究。     

从“受众”到“使用者”:网络环境下视听信息接收者的变迁

新媒体的发展带动了社会文化的变迁和信息传播方式的变革,传统的视听信息传播方式——电视,正受到越来越强烈的冲击。本文考察了网络时代政治经济、社会文化以及传播技术等方面的变革,并以此为基础探讨视听信息的接收者在此过程中发生的转变。本文认为,视听信息的接收者正在从被动接收、单次接收信息的"受众"(receiver)变为表现出主动选择和多向传播的信息"使用者"(uSer),而这种转变将带动视听信息传播路径的多级化和传播效果的多元化。     

Audience Research in the Post-Audience Age: An Introduction to Barker and Morley

This article considers the contributions that Martin Barker and David Morley have made to the ongoing debate about the future of audience research in communications. Considering their positions on theory and method in the field, the article concludes that audience research in the future must incorporate a variety of different methodological perspectives. The article also notes the increasingly political nature of questions posed in the field of audience research and our necessity as researchers to acknowledge the political dimension of our field.     

Television and Political Participation Among Adolescents: The Impact of Television Viewing,Entertainment and Information Preferences

Although sweeping statements about the effect of television viewing on political participation could still be found in the literature in the 1990s, it is now commonly held that the effect of television should be studied as a multidimensional phenomenon. Not only the time spent watching television but also the kinds of programs being watched and even the preference for particular stations are assumed to have an effect. In this article, we report on a survey among 6,330 Belgian adolescents allowing for a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between various dimensions of television viewing and political participation. We focus on adolescents, because research suggests that the decline in participation levels clearly manifests itself in this age group. The results of the analysis confirm a negative impact of the amount of television viewing, which is partly counterbalanced by a positive impact of a preference for information and for public broadcasting. We discuss the implications of these findings among adolescents for adult participation behavior.