Category Audience Research Methods

Graham Mytton; Peter Diem; Piet Hein van Dam

New Delhi et al.: Sage (2016) 3rd ed., xvi, 281 pp., glossary p.260-72, bibliogr. p.273-5, index

ISBN 9789351506430 (pbk); 9789353280178 (online)

Other Editions: 1st ed.: Handbook on Radio and Television Audience Research. Paris: UNICEF and UNESCO, 1993; 2nd ed.: Handbook on Radio and Television Audience Research. London: BBC World Service, UNICEF and UNESCO, 1999

"This book outlines all the methods for conducting research—both active and passive as well as quantitative and qualitative—in all forms of media, including new media such as the Internet, mobile phones and social media. It explains the ways in which media audiences are measured, understood and ... more

"This essay analyses the role of audience research as a change agent in media development interventions in Afghanistan. It analyses how audience research in transnational contexts involves a complex set of intercultural negotiations and translations that contribute to the enduring relevance and sust...ainability of the highly popular Afghan radio soap opera New Home, New Life. This is a ‘development drama’ that has been broadcast across Afghanistan since 1993. It is based on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers and produced by BBC Afghan Education Projects (BBC AEP). Audience research has been vital to forging a dynamic relationship between the creative teams who make the drama, the donors who pay for it, and the audiences who consume it. The article addresses three broad themes. First, we outline how data gathered in formative audience research, prior to the creation of the drama, provides the creative team with the dramatic raw material for the radio serial. The extensive qualitative data gathered by Afghan researchers in local milieux is translated so as to enable culturally diverse teams of writers and producers to ground the serial narratives in the lived experiences of its audiences, and to introduce multiple local perspectives on development issues. Second, we show how evaluative audience research, data gathered in the postproduction phase, plays a key role in providing critical audience interpretations of New Home, New Life’s dramatic themes. In so doing, it creates feedback loops that allow audiences to become active participants in the ongoing creation of the drama. The research designs and devices, developed over the last two decades to document the changing life-worlds of Afghan citizens-cum-audiences, are part of an ongoing set of transcultural encounters that contribute to strengthening the social realist appeal of the drama and to calibrating how far any given storyline can be pushed in terms of cultural propriety. Third, we examine how during periods of military conflict, when routine audience research becomes dangerous or impossible and audience feedback loops are disrupted, the writers and producers have to rely on their own personal and political experiences, often with unpredictable ideological consequences. We draw attention to the limitations and challenges of making dramas for development in highly charged politicised and postcolonial contexts. While, development dramas may be a cheap and effective way of dealing with certain informational needs, such as landmine awareness, they cannot redress social and structural inequalities or, as Western donors wish, eradicate opium cultivation." (Abstract) more

"This is the 'concise edition' of 'The Guide to Researching Audiences'. It is a shorter version of the main Guide, designed to provide an easily accessible summary of the key principles of audience research and some practical information. The full version of the Guide contains more detailed informat... more

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