Greetings,
My name is Jack Powers and I'll be teaching Audience Research Tools and Sources for the next five weeks.
I know you've heard all this before, but I just wanted to reiterate that the course will work best if we have a high degree of active participation.
Obviously, we're all working and the course is asynchronous and I'm sensitive to the demands on your time. To that end, I'm flexible. If you can't complete an assignment or make comments in a timely manner, just send me an email and we'll work around your schedule.
The course is broken up into 5 modules. I'll post each week's module by Tuesday morning by 9:00 a.m. EDT with the hope that you'll be able to comment/post/provide feedback to others by that weekend. I'll be providing feedback throughout the week.
After I post each 'new' module, the old one will stay live so that you'll have a chance to retroactively go back to review/post/comment as your schedule dictates.
I'm not going to post all 5 modules at once simply because-- based on experience-- I've learned that the online classes are better when we're all working on the same module at the same time.
Each module will have an assignment, called a Blog Reaction. You'll have from the time the blog reaction assignment is posted on Tuesday morning to the following Monday morning by 9:00 a.m. EDT to complete it. Each one is only 200-250 words (one-page), so it shouldn't be too demanding.
I'll provide written feedback to the blog reactions as they come in and as my schedule will allow. In all cases, every effort will be made to provide written feedback by each Monday afternoon.
The blog reactions are worth 10 points each for a total of 50 points.
Class participation (as measured by written comments to other blog reactions and also by contributions made via VoiceThread) is worth 10 points per week for a total of 50 points.
The class, as a whole, is worth 100 points.
The syllabus has the grade scale.
About the Course
This course deals with the area of Audience Research and some of the practical tools available to us so that we can take on our own audience research projects.
You might want to think of this course as "applied audience research." This is to say that we won't be spending a lot of time on the theory/background/history of the process. Instead, it's designed to get you to begin examining how audience research might help you now or in the future.
We'll talk about the difference between 'exposure' research and 'engagement' research, a brief overview of the qualitative and quantitative techniques used in audience research, the DOs and DON'Ts of survey design, etc.
You'll get the chance to design your own survey proposal (with an instrument) specific to your area.
About me
I've been engaged in media research in some capacity for over 20 years now and I've been teaching audience research, mass media research methods and statistics for more than a decade. Mostly, I'm intrigued by television/media and human behavior. In the past, I've worked on projects funded by ETRI (Electronic Telecommunications Research Institute)-- a government-funded research organization in Korea-- that examined whether digital mobile television and handset convergence made the American market ripe for "live broadcast TV service" via smartphone. (Our research suggested that Americans preferred 'on-demand' programming in short formats for their handheld devices over 'live programming).' I've also had the good fortune to work with and publish multiple research projects with George Comstock, who was the scientific advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General and who is the lead author on the U.S. Surgeon General's Report regarding television and violence. (As an aside, George Comstock was one of the researchers who helped design the Smokey The Bear campaign in the 1980s to help prevent forest fires. Smokey had existed since the 1940s, but they brought him back to life with a new campaign in the '80s).
More specifically, I'm a quantitative researcher who engages in data analysis using inferential and descriptive statistics. Even so, I do engage in qualitative research (interviews, focus groups, etc.) when the project calls for it.
I have a PhD in Mass Communications from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. My internal area of concentration was television/media and behavior and my outside concentration was information science.
More than anything else about my job, I love to teach.
Hopefully, that will come through over the next five weeks.
Finally, on the personal front, I'm a mega-TV junkie who studies/follows the entertainment biz closely via trade journals (Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, etc.), web sites (Deadline.com, TheWrap.com, TVline.com, TVbyTheNumbers.com, etc.), traditional media sources (NYT, Washington Post, LA Times, TV Guide, EW, etc.).
There's nothing original about my favorite TV shows as seemingly everyone loves them, but here are some, anyway-- Breaking Bad, Modern Family, The Simpsons, House of Cards, Homeland, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Late Show with David Letterman, OITNB, True Detective, Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Seinfeld, Chopped, Top Chef, MLB Network (Quick Pitch and Intentional Talk are my favorites) and many others.
Maybe it'll give you a little insight into me if I share the shows that I "DON'T" care for-- The Big Bang Theory, 2 1/2 Men, How I Met Your Mother, pretty much any comedy on CBS, The Walking Dead, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, The Kardashians, SportsCenter (pretty much everything on ESPN except when they show a game I want to see).
Anyway, welcome aboard.
I'm looking forward to a good five weeks.
Jack
Hi Jack,
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much for layout out your course expectations/objectives, structure and content so clearly. I very much appreciate it!! Here are some of my initial thoughts/reactions:
The Survey:
Would you like to gather any additional survey participants from us? I believe we would each be able to easily gather relevant executives to take the survey from each of our respective organizations/fields.
Naturally, once the survey data is collected, I would like the opportunity to analyze the findings with the rest of my cohort (in tandem with your white paper process at IC). Please confirm that would be ok.
The Audience:
I'm excited to dive into the subject of audience research and measurement, especially across different channels (i.e. offline, digital, and cross-media), but I'm also looking forward to the "applied" audience research you described in your blog - this to me represents some great opportunities to learn about specific tools in the marketplace, and how the product of research can be used to create targeted audience segments. You eluded to cross-channel media consumption in your blog... and something I've been thinking a lot about recently is combining such quantitative audience research with individualized Facebook data (i.e. profile info, opt-in page likes and engagement), and other consumer/audience data sets (including set-top box data). Will this be part of the course/blog?
Similarly, can we assume that we'll be learning about "audience avails" (measuring the potential size and profile of online audiences) as a measurement and valuation technique? And exploring the opportunity to synchronize audience research and audience targeting across channels/media?
Logistics:
You mentioned that you will likely be checking in to answer blog reactions/questions once a week, by Monday - so I will likewise make a habit of checking for responses once a week at that time.
Television Likes and Dislikes:
I think I agree with your assessment of the CBS comedy formula, although I must admit I rarely watch television. And I still haven't made it through the first episode of Downton Abbey.
Hi, Rob--
DeleteThe answer as to whether or not we want to add additional survey participants is an unequivocal yes. We'll just have to make sure to differentiate those who completed the survey via convenience sample and those who completed the survey via random sample (and these will be two excellent groups to compare for significant differences).
I wish we could access set-top data, but this sort of data is generally proprietary.
I'm working with a computer programmer that will allow me (and us) to access facebook data in particular sub-groups. Specifically, we're looking at how higher education institutions utilize social media. It's in beta right now, but the early results are good. We'll definitely be talking about that in this course.
We'll also be sharing some audience research information from Warner Bros. (television and film) and talking about how Nielsen generates its audience sizes (for web sites and television shows across platforms).
Welcome aboard!
Thanks Jack
ReplyDelete