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This article examines the unfolding re-institutionalisation of audience measurement as the streaming culture reshapes the television industry in China. Following a brief introduction of the institutionalisation of the ratings culture, I examine how streaming platforms are reconfiguring audience measurement by tracing how various metrics are defined, used and valued by different platforms, in different contexts and across time. The analysis reveals continuing and new forms of informalities despite signs of convergence towards the use of algorithmic metrics, which are closely connected to streaming service providers' self-serving interest in a multi-sided market. Next, I discuss how the disruption of the state's near-monopoly in audience measurement in the traditional television industry breaks the regulatory inertia. I explain the dual-approach to institutional intervention by the state – the regulation of metric commodities through mandated calibration, and the launch of an official system as market alternative and policy instrument. I argue that the state intervention – through governance of and with algorithms – constitutes adaptive cultural governance serving 'mass' audience construction, and the regulation doubles up as a market response to serve the state's intention to reclaim power in and over the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case studies reporting real-world experiences with survey falsification are uncommon. In this article, we document the experience of a panel survey in India that produced TV viewing estimates ("TV ratings") where external parties were illegitimately trying to influence respondents' behavior. The usual method to detect possible falsifications was that of analysts poring through data to find suspicious viewing patterns. Here, we develop a method using multilevel models and illustrate its use in the detection of an actual incident. We report how the model-based method was used to direct on-ground investigations that ultimately supported our analytic inferences. The model-based method offers four advantages over the usual method. First, by approximating an interpenetrated sample, the model simultaneously controls for several household characteristics. Second, Empirical Best Linear Unbiased Predictors (EBLUPs) of random effects can be examined separately at both the household and interviewer level, thus suggesting where further investigation efforts should be directed. Third, the method is faster and more objective than the usual method. Fourth, the method is easily implemented and can provide regular quality control for survey organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past three decades have seen rapid development in the field of audience measurements in media companies. From once relying on measures of exposure such as circulation numbers and readership, technological developments have made present day media companies and journalists capable of understanding audience preferences in new and advanced ways. As a result, journalists are often strongly encouraged to take audience preferences into account when selecting and prioritizing journalistic content. This study uses participant observation to examine the process of implementing an audience analytics strategy for the digital newsrooms of a Danish regional daily and its sister publications. It focuses on the process of operationalizing and negotiating editorial and commercial goals through quantitative measures and discusses which news values are reflected in the chosen combination of web metrics made visible to the journalists on newsroom dashboards and in daily performance emails. The study suggests that "expected reception" should be included as a news value significant to journalism in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the role of techniques of measurement and quantification, or 'commensuration', within the videogame industry. We argue that commensuration is performed as a discursive technique by institutional actors in the videogame industry to shape the form of, and ultimately derive value from, videogame markets – doing so by influencing collectively held perceptions concerning public policy and financial investment. This article draws on two case studies. First, the use of commensuration techniques by the Entertainment Software Association in lobbying the US government on behalf of large publishers, hardware manufacturers and videogame holding companies within the videogame industry. Second, the use of metrics and enumeration by videogame software companies in their financial reporting to craft narratives of user scale, engagement and ultimately value, particularly as it relates to articulating the value of their data-driven advertising services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from a new technology that passively and continuously measures TV viewer presence and attention, enabling the first distinction between true ad exposures from ads that air to empty rooms. New technology measures TV viewer tuning, presence, and attention, enabling the first distinctions between TV ad viewability and actual ad viewing. We compare new and traditional viewing metrics to evaluate the new metrics' utility to advertisers. We find that 30% of TV ads play to empty rooms. We then use broadcast networks' verifiably quasi-random ordering of ads within commercial breaks to estimate causal effects of ads on new viewing metrics among four million advertising exposures. We measure ad metadata and machine-code content features for 6,650 frequent ad videos. We find that recreational product ads preserve audience tuning and presence. Prescription drug advertisements decrease tuning and presence, more so for drugs that treat more prevalent and severe conditions. We also investigate whether new viewing data can inform advertiser objectives, finding that attention helps predict brand search lift after ads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Out-of-home audience measurement aims to count and characterize the people exposed to advertising content in the physical world. While audience measurement solutions based on computer vision are of increasing interest, no commonly accepted benchmark exists to evaluate and compare their performance. In this paper, we propose the first benchmark for digital out-of-home audience measurement that evaluates the vision-based tasks of audience localization and counting, and audience demographics. The benchmark is composed of a novel, dataset captured at multiple locations and a set of performance measures. Using the benchmark, we present an in-depth comparison of eight open-source algorithms on four hardware platforms with GPU and CPU-optimized inferences and of two commercial off-the-shelf solutions for localization, count, age, and gender estimation. This benchmark and related open-source codes are available at http://ava.eecs.qmul.ac.uk .

Out-of-home audience measurement aims to count and characterize the people exposed to advertising content in the physical world. While audience measurement solutions based on computer vision are of increasing interest, no commonly accepted benchmark exists to evaluate and compare their performance. In this paper, we propose the first benchmark for digital out-of-home audience measurement that evaluates the vision-based tasks of audience localization and counting, and audience demographics. The benchmark is composed of a novel, dataset captured at multiple locations and a set of performance measures. Using the benchmark, we present an in-depth comparison of eight open-source algorithms on four hardware platforms with GPU and CPU-optimized inferences and of two commercial off-the-shelf solutions for localization, count, age, and gender estimation. This benchmark and related open-source codes are available at http://ava.eecs.qmul.ac.uk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital trace data from giant platforms are gaining ground in the study of human behavior. This trend accompanies contestations regarding representativeness, privacy, access, and commercial origin. Complementing existing discussions and focusing on knowledge production, we draw attention to the different measurement regimes within passively captured behavioral logs from industries. Taking an institutional perspective on measurement as a management technology, we compare platforms with third-party audience measurement firms. Whereas the latter measure to provide "currency" for a multi-sided advertising market, the former measure internally for their own administrative purposes (i.e. prescribing behavior through design). We demonstrate the platform giants' two-fold enclosure of first the user ecology and subsequently the previously open market for user attention. With platform trace data serving as a lifeline for scholarly research, platform episteme extends itself to enclose knowledge production. We conclude by suggesting ways in which academic quantitative social sciences may resist these platform enclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As news organizations struggle to overcome losses in revenue and relevance, academics and professionals have pinned their hopes for salvation on increasing 'audience engagement'. Yet few agree on what audience engagement means, why it will make journalism more successful, or what 'success' in journalism should even look like. This article uses Williams and Delli Carpini's 'media regimes' as a theoretical framework to argue that studying the current open-arms approach to the news audience – and the ambiguity surrounding it – is vital to understanding journalism's transition from one rapidly disappearing model to one that is yet to fully emerge. In doing so, it offers a definition of audience engagement that synthesizes prior literature and contributes an important distinction between reception-oriented and production-oriented engagement. It concludes with a call for more research into audience engagement efforts to better understand what journalism is and what it might become. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the financial crisis affecting UK newspapers, one area of optimism is their online overseas audiences. These foreign visitors often outnumber their domestic equivalents, and some newspapers have made the 'long-distance' market a key component of their commercial strategies. Overseas news audiences are, however, under-researched, an omission this study aims to help remedy via an investigation into the audiences for 7 UK newspaper brands (and a public-service broadcaster) across 10 countries using data from a leading source of Internet audience measurement, Comscore. The study uses an innovative, multidimensional model (derived from work by Zheng et al.) to analyse audience engagement across the dimensions of visibility, popularity, depth, loyalty and stickiness. The results reveal that there are significant differences in how audiences behave from country to country, dependent on language and culture. The study has implications for how news organizations serve their overseas audiences and suggests new directions for research into audiences for globalized online journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at exploring the models of organization of TV audience measurement systems and applied methodologies with regard to transparency, reliability and overall usefulness in media planning. TV audience measurement has a long tradition in Europe. Broadcasters and advertisers (and advertising/media buying agencies) have always been interested in capturing viewership of TV programs. Both have been using the measured data in decision making, the former for the purpose of program scheduling and air-time sales and the latter for choosing the right media outlets and TV programs for their advertising campaigns. TV rating as a percentage of homes watching a particular TV program have been coined as generally accepted “currency” used in air-time sales. This measure has also been used to calculate GRPs (total rating points achieved in a defined period of time) while shaping media plans and evaluating the effects of advertising campaigns. While it seems that the underlying logic is quite sound and the measured data may be used for evidence-based decision making, one may still question its usefulness in regard to the applied methodologies as well as the overall transparency and reliability of the model of organization of an audience measurement system (AMS). Three models of organization of AMS have been applied in Europe, including own service (OS), media owned company (MOC) and joint industry committee (JIC). The paper discusses advantages and disadvantages of the named models, while focusing on the panel sizes, research methods and defined universe resulting from different models of organization of AMS. Based on two case study analyses (the Czech Republic and Serbia) we claim that JIC as a model of organization of AMS contributes to provision of measured data of higher quality judging by the reliability of data, transparency and equal access to all interested parties of the market.

The growth in popularity of on-demand content consumption, boosted by large global agents such as Netflix, Amazon and HBO, has brought audience fragmentation even further. Exponential growth in the content available to users (which reduces viewer concentration based on a limited selection), its commercialisation through a subscription-based business model (removing advertising from content) and the boom in consumption on different receivers, many of them mobile or outside the home (thus complicating people meter monitoring), has generated a new ecosystem where success can no longer be assessed using traditional audience measurement systems. This article discusses audience behaviour in streaming platforms and the new dimensions used to measure the success of a television series, above and beyond data provided by television audience measurement (TAM) techniques. From this analysis, the article reviews the transformation in the concept of popularity and how new audience indicators affect the structure of the content distribution medium, which adds further dimensions (engagement, customer retention, talent acquisition, new subscriptions and branding, among others) to more traditional elements (advertisers and international sales). Finally, we examine whether a single concept of audience, valid for all consumption models and audiovisual operations, can be established. Money heist is used as a case study, as it provides a good example of two ways of understanding audience: one linked to its commercial success in the Antena 3 Televisión channel's scheduled programming and the other arising from its inclusion on Netflix, the platform that gave it worldwide popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines shifting approaches to audience measurement in the context of platformization of cultural production and the turn to data-driven fandom in the evolving screen ecology in China. Focusing on the video streaming service iQiyi, the article considers its pivot away from view counts to an algorithmic measurement regime. It critiques the platform's legitimacy-building strategy, in which the problematization of data manipulation is not only flawed, but also evasive and hypocritical. It reveals how the shift in audience measurement is closely connected to iQiyi's approach to platformization. Specifically, the article delineates how operationalization with data through a satellite platform serves the new regime by mobilizing and commodifying data-driven fandom, thereby consolidating platform power in the broader screen ecology. It analyzes how the economic and cultural logic of the approach is underpinned by (1) the metric of celebrity impact; (2) the metric of fan value; (3) perishable data and accelerated temporality by design; and (4) metrics-informed decision-making. The article concludes by outlining the implications for research on the co-evolution of audience measurement and platformization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for an expansion of existing studies on the meaning of metrics in digital environments by evaluating a methodology tested in a pilot study to analyse audience responses to metrics of social media profiles. The pilot study used the software tool Facebook Demetricator by artist Ben Grosser in combination with follow-up interviews. In line with Grosser's intentions, the software indeed provoked reflection among the users. In this article, we reflect on three kinds of disorientations that users expressed, linked to temporality, sociality and value. Relating these to the history of audience measurement in mass media, we argue that there is merit in using this methodology for further analysis of continuities in audience responses to metrics, in order to better understand the ways in which metrics work to create the 'audience commodity'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trípodos is the property of Universitat Ramon Llull, Facultat de Comunicacio Blanquerna and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The British Broadcasting Corporation occupies what is often considered to be a unique position within UK culture as both a respected national institution that is a pillar of enlightenment values and, increasingly, an agile, entrepreneurial business that has to deliver 'value-for-money'. This study will contribute to the existing body of literature examining the impact of a neoliberal marketisation discourse on BBC policy by focusing specifically on the provision of arts programming as a key indicator of how the logic of the marketplace has permeated the BBC's commissioning culture. In doing so, it argues that the loss of the topical arts magazine and discussion formats from BBC television, in contrast to radio, is symptomatic of the ways in which arts broadcasting has been reimagined both in the corporation's internal production culture and in its public pronouncements as a product for consumers rather than a service for citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Anagramas is the property of Editorial Universidad de Medellin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Studies in journalism and cultural sociology have long identified differences in the types of news consumed by people from diverse sociodemographic backgrounds. Relying on population surveys, they have primarily found readers or viewers of popular news types such as tabloid newspapers to be vastly different from those of so-called serious types, notably broadsheets. This article contributes to this debate in two ways: first of all by studying social stratification of online rather than offline news users, and secondly by using digital trace data rather than self-reported questionnaires to document patterns of consumption. Taking Danish news websites as a case in point, the article analyses the relationship between news use and three key sociodemographic characteristics: age, gender, and education. Departing from theories of social stratification, the article formulates three hypotheses about the distribution of Danish news users and then analyses web usage across a national sample using commercial audience data. The results show that Danish news users display more similarities than differences across sociodemographic groups, suggesting that social stratification is less prevalent than prior research indicate. In conclusion, the article discusses these somewhat surprising results in relation to the study design and theoretical contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication researchers examining how audiences are commoditised in the audience marketplace by commercial media providers and advertisers have been using audience economic models that were applied to commercial television, radio and print audiences. New digital technologies are transforming the way audiences are commoditised and previous models of the audience marketplace are not applicable to the new audience marketplace. This paper examines how audience economy and audience marketplace theories evolved and describes how programmatic advertising—the automated trading of the audience commodity—differs from previous audience theories requiring a need to re-examine these theories. New digital technology is being used to not only find audiences online but also uses data to create profiles of individuals audience members. The datafied audience plays a central role in the programmatic trading of the evolving audience commodity and the new audience marketplace that has emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Catalonia, the smaller media publishing in the Catalan language – usually calling themselves proximity media instead of local media – is a significant and particularly dynamic sector of the media industry's environment. In a constant struggle to be visible against the backdrop of the state-focused Spanish media measurement systems, different approaches have been tested to portray a more accurate picture of the importance of these media, to increase their advertising revenue and also to assess the impact of Catalonian media and culture. This article analyses the effect produced in the audiences of the local media integrated in the Associació de Mitjans d'Informació i Comunicació (Association of Information and Communication Media) by the changes observed in the Communication and Culture Barometer published by the Communication and Culture Audiences Foundation (FUNDACC). The objective of this article is to delineate the challenges that these media have to face to be market-significant from an audience measurement standpoint and how the media measurement institutions are a key player in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newspapers’ democratic functions have not been fully assumed by the media capturing the revenues newspapers used to enjoy. It is, therefore, important to understand the determinants of newspaper use. Earlier studies found age to be the principal determinant, but did not account for newspapers’ online editions. This article investigates to what extent digital distribution has disrupted previously observed cohort effects, bringing younger audiences back to newspaper content. The annual time spent with UK newspapers by their younger, middle-aged, and older British audiences was calculated for 1999/2000—before, or just after, newspapers started to go online—and for 2016, when digital distribution had come of age. The results show (1) the time spent with newspaper brands fell by 40 per cent, even as online platforms made access easier and cheaper; (2) the proportional decrease in time spent was greatest for the youngest age group and smallest for the oldest; and (3) there are important variations between individual newspaper brands, a result, we propose, of differences in their multiplatform strategies. Digital distribution has, therefore, had little impact on previously observed cohort effects but has enabled changes in media use that have shaped the attention given to newspapers and will continue to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines recent innovations in how television audiences are measured, paying particular attention to the industry's growing efforts to utilize the large bodies of data generated through social media platforms – a paradigm of research known as Big Data. Although Big Data is considered by many in the television industry as a more veracious model of audience research, this essay uses Boyd and Crawford's (2011) 'Six Provocations of Big Data' to problematize and interrogate this prevailing industrial consensus. In doing so, this article explores both the affordances and the limitations of this emerging research paradigm – the latter having largely been ignored by those in the industry – and considers the consequences of these developments for the production culture of television more broadly. Although the full impact of the television industry's adoption of Big Data remains unclear, this article traces some preliminary connections between the introduction of these new measurement practices and the production culture of contemporary television. First, I demonstrate how the design of Big Data privileges real-time analysis, which, in turn, encourages increased investment in 'live' and/or 'event' television. Second, I argue that despite its potential to produce real-time insights, the scale of Big Data actually limits its utility in the context of the creative industries. Third, building on this discussion of the debatable value and applicability of Big Data, I describe how the introduction of social media metrics is further contributing to a 'data divide' in which access to these new information data sets is highly uneven, generally favouring institutions over individuals. Taken together, these three different but overlapping developments provide evidence that the introduction of Big Data is already having a notable effect on the television industry in a number of interesting and unexpected ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The changes in the television landscape have given rise to new forms of production and consumption which present challenges to the monitoring of the audience. This article delves into the transformations regarding how to measure the audience through the case study of the series produced by RTVE, Si fueras tú, the first native, interactive and transmedia fiction series. Methodology. An analysis of the official media and platforms which make up the transmedia universe of the fiction series is carried out. Subsequently, the possibilities of interaction and the activities of the audience in each of them are studied. Results. The data show that Facebook and Instagram comprise the greater part of the activity in the transmedia universe. Moreover, the weekly routine in the combination of platforms and the integration of the active audience is identified. Discussion and conclusions. The impossibility of measuring in a standardized way the transmedia audience is proven while further challenges are mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provided is an overview of early developments relating to the public opinion research industry in Canada prior to the arrival of the American pollster George Gallup's Gallup Poll, which first began appearing in Canadian newspapers in 1941. In particular, this article puts forward (1) an overview of the early use in Canada of survey research techniques, (2) how government agencies and academics were involved in collecting and processing quantitative data relating to Canadian attitudes and behaviours, and (3) how the private sector, including advertising agencies and market research firms, were developing ways to conduct public opinion research relating to consumers and media, including print media and radio. Together, these activities provided a foundation for what would become a fully developed marketing and public opinion research industry in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All media companies face the issue of dramatic market changes and consumers' habits. The new technologies, the competition represented by the e-commerce companies and the huge number of nonjournalists content producers have major impact on the mass media industry. Strategies and business models must led to the best use of resources, keeping the constant market shares, and thus increasing profitability. Flexible strategies, market knowledge, loyal readership, the ability to innovate and adaptability to change are the elements that prepare businesses for an era of personalized information, as mass-media are ones of the few industries whose products are exclusively intangible-conceptual and non-material. The economic goals that media industry management needs to achieve are as important as the responsibility towards society and customers. The major focus of mass media management is finding the model to ensure the optimal balance between the costs involved by producing quality content, gaining trust and readership loyalty, managing digital and technology successfully as mandatory elements for revenue growth and business stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]