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.     

Audience Measurement and Media Fragmentation: Revisiting the Monopoly Question

Many studies have examined contests between audience measurement systems in media markets. These suggest that the audience measurement industry is a natural monopoly. This study revisits the question with a novel approach by investigating a market at a time when two measurement services provided data. Executives were interviewed in the Indian television market on how they used information available from two competing ratings services. Although market participants recognized only one system (TAM, which provided weekly ratings) as the currency for trading advertising time, many used the second system (aMAP, an overnight ratings service) selectively for improving network performance. Therefore, fragmented markets can support multiple systems if they serve distinct institutional interests.     

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.     

关于观众排斥电视广告现象的思考

虚假广告、广告形式媚俗、表现手法雷同与重复、创意单调与生硬等是人们对电视广告产生排斥的主要原因。观众排斥电视广告将使广告主投资失去效应,影响电视广告行业的发展。     

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. .     

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 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.     

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.     

The FCC and Indecency: Local Television General Managers' Perceptions

A number of factors have been suggested to help explain the success of broadband in Korea. However, whatever factors are mentioned, just as many questions are raised as to why comparable roll out of high-speed Internet access has not occurred in other countries with similar characteristics. This paper argues that supply-side push and demand-side pull, a synergistic process, are combined to make broadband Internet access in Korea particularly strong. With a new type of supply of broadband capacity in the market, and an intensely competitive environment, prices dropped drastically and new killer applications were continuously created. This resulted in a supporting responsive surge in demand and sky-rocketing numbers of new subscribers. This is a very clear case of a positive spiral generated by the synergistic process of the market: success breeds success.     

In Search of the Older Audience: Adult Age Differences in Television Viewing

General Social Survey data were used to test the claims that (a) older adults watch more television than younger adults and (b) they do so because of poor health, retirement, and widowhood. Older adults did watch more television on average than other age groups. This effect was not explained by birth cohort or altered by time of measurement. However, the age effect was small (despite striking mean differences), because variability within the youngest and oldest groups was large. Overall, traditional explanations of older adults' viewing were largely unsupported. Demographic and social variables explained younger adults' viewing better than older adults'.     

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。     

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.     

Six Uses of Analytics: Digital Editors’ Perceptions of Audience Analytics in the Newsroom

ABSTRACT

This article investigates how digital news editors perceive the uses and implications of audience analytics in contemporary digital newsrooms. Based on 21 interviews with digital news editors at 11 Belgian news organisations, including 7 national newspapers, one news magazine, one public and one commercial broadcaster, and one digital-born news medium, the study shows how audience analytics have become normalised in these digital newsrooms and how, in the perception of those who use them, tools for capturing audience behaviour data inform and shape their daily work practices and organisational strategies. Combining insights from literature with empirical findings, the study distinguishes six uses of audience analytics: Not only do analytics inform editorial decisions on (1) story placement, (2) story packaging, (3) story planning and (4) story imitation, but they can also serve as instruments for (5) performance evaluation and (6) audience conception. Overall, the digital news editors are convinced that audience analytics support rather than harm their journalism.     

The Duality of Structure in China's National Television Market: A Network Analysis of Audience Behavior

This study adapts Giddens' structuration theory to assess audience agency and its relationship with media structures. It employs network analysis to examine the co-evolution of audience duplication patterns and elements of media structure in China's national television market. The findings reveal that Chinese audiences tend to gravitate to channels with greater market share, higher household penetration rates, and more drama programming. Furthermore, channels tend to adjust their levels of drama programming relative to patterns of audience duplication in the long run. Finally, there was evidence of higher-order patterns of audience behavior, suggesting the existence of channel repertoires, and market concentration.     

Cultivating Conceptions of Masculinity: Television and Perceptions of Masculine Gender Role Norms

The potential of television to both reflect and shape cultural understandings of gender roles has long been the subject of social scientific inquiry. The present study employed survey methodology with 420 emerging adult respondents (18–25 years old) in a national U.S. sample to explore associations between amount of time spent viewing television and views about “ideal” masculine gender roles. The viewing of particular television genres was explored in addition to (and controlling for) overall amount of time spent with the medium, using cultivation theory as the theoretical foundation. Results showed significant statistical associations between viewing sitcoms, police and detective programs, sports, and reality television and scores on the Masculine Roles Norms Inventory–Revised scale. Biological sex of respondent (which very closely approximated gender identity in the sample) moderated a number of these relationships, with positive associations between viewing some genres and endorsement of traditional masculine gender roles stronger for biological male compared to biological female respondents.     

我国广播电视对农传播的媒介赋权与价值考量

在我国城乡二元结构的现实国情下,农村受众应当成为大众传媒关照的重点群体,在传播场域中为其留出足够的传播空间,并给予足够的关照.文章以拉斯韦尔的"5W"为分析角度,借助公共经济学、受众研究等研究范式,着重分析我国当前对农传播遭遇的现实困境,探究广播电视对农传播在价值循环过程中的尴尬,廓清在我国特殊的媒介政策环境下,大众传媒在对农传播过程中的媒介赋权不足及传播价值失衡现象.     

美国广播电视市场上通货:受众调查

文章讨论美国受众调查方法和企业的历史 ,调查报告的基本概念、主要内容以及调查的商业用途 ,勾勒出美国受众调查产业的发展和现状。     

Predicting Audience Exposure to Television in Today's Media Environment: An Empirical Integration of Active-Audience and Structural Theories

Scholars have long advocated empirical integration of active-audience and structural theories to best explain audience exposure to television. This study incorporated both uses and gratifications and structural variables in an integrated model of audience exposure. Results indicated that seven statistically significant factors—ritualistic motivations, use of the Internet, audience availability, the cost of multi-channel service, age, instrumental motivations, and gender—combined to explain 30.3% of the variance in audience exposure to television. Findings suggest that no single theoretical construct explains the complexities that determine exposure to television. Future inquiry should continue to seek theoretical and empirical integration as a way to understand and explain media behavior.     

Food and Beverage Advertising on U.S. Television: A Comparison of Child-Targeted Versus General Audience Commercials

Major advertisers and children's television networks have announced marketing policies designed to combat childhood obesity. A content analysis of food advertising was conducted on programming from broadcast and cable networks most likely to be viewed by children. Unlike previous content analyses, the results show that nutrition appeals are among the most frequently used. However, as in past research, unhealthy foods are most frequently advertised. Further, child-targeted commercials employ production techniques and persuasive appeals that children have found difficult to evaluate critically. The potential impacts of this advertising landscape are discussed on both the individual and social level.     

Autonomy and Perceptions of Work Quality

Self-determination theory says intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influence our goal-oriented behavior and determine satisfaction. For TV news workers, those motivations include deadlines, breaking news, multiple-screen obligations, competition, and the desire to produce quality journalism each day. In this study of nearly 900 broadcasters, those with work autonomy and organizational support have a great deal of job satisfaction and say they are producing a high quality of journalism. Of the sample, 19 percent (N = 155) who said they intend to leave TV news within five years had significantly lower levels of job satisfaction, organizational support, autonomy, and perceptions of work quality. The primary reasons for leaving the industry include salary, family issues, and concerns about the quality journalism they are producing.