Rating the audience : : the business of media / / Mark Balnaves, Tom O'Regan, Ben Goldsmith.

• VerfasserIn: Balnaves, Mark,; O'Regan, Tom,; Goldsmith, Ben, 1967-
• TeilnehmendeR: O'Regan, Tom,; Goldsmith, Ben, 1967-
• Place / Publishing House: London ;, New York, NY : : Bloomsbury Academic,, 2011.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (289 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

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 p

Table of Contents

Cover; 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

Summary5. 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 EconomicsStandardization; 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 DataDeprofessionalization 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