Browsing by Subject "Audience research"

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Engaging voices or talking to air? A study of alternative and community radio audience in the digital era
(2014-05) Guo, Lei, active 21st century; Chyi, Hsiang Iris, 1971-; De Uriarte, Mercedes Lynn
In November 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the implementation of the Local Community Radio Act of 2010, which marks the largest expansion of community radio stations in U.S. history. The act responds to the decade-long community radio movement in which many civilian groups advocated that community radio—an “old-fashioned” yet affordable public medium—still plays a significant role in fostering the expression of diverse voices and citizen participation in this digital era. Despite the successful advocacy effort in the policy-making arena, the real impact of community radio remains a question. Who listens to and participates in community radio? Does the connection between community radio and community exist? This dissertation investigates audience interaction and participation in the U.S. community radio sector, seeking to empirically and theoretically advance audience research in community radio and alternative media in general. Methodologically, this dissertation is based on case studies from two community radio stations KOOP and KPFT in Texas through multiple methods including 5-year ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews with 70 individuals including staff, programmers and listeners, a web-based listener survey with 131 respondents, and a textual analysis of producer-audience communication platforms such as blogs and social networking sites. The results demonstrate the limitations of audience interaction and participation caused by resource constraints and community radio programmers’ tendency to speak with themselves. Therefore, I recommend that community radio broadcasters should consider developing systemic approaches to evaluate and facilitate audience participation, which requires an understanding that the value of community engagement lies beyond audience size or the amount of listener donations. This dissertation concludes that community radio remains relevant in this digital era. This affordable and accessible form of alternative media to some extent bridges a digital divide. The medium also facilitates the development of a genuine relationship between radio programmers and listeners, thus the formation of virtual and real communities. These are the very elements that make meaningful dialogues possible in any communication environment.
How fast is too fast? : examining the impact of speed-driven journalism on news production and audience reception
(2014-08) Lee, Angela Min-Chia; Coleman, Renita
New media technology is altering many aspects of mass communication processes. One of the most profound changes, especially in the newspaper industry, lies in the rise of speed-driven journalism, with growing emphasis on what is new or happening now. With more newspapers adopting this speed-driven news practice, the nature of its impact on journalists and audiences necessitates empirical examination, and this dissertation seeks to contribute to the professional and academic literature from a two-part, mixed method approach. Through interviews with journalists, study 1 sought to understand journalists' view of how speed-driven journalism affects their professional norms, routines and output, and how social media factors into the speed-driven online media landscape. The interviewees were also asked to discuss their view on how speed-driven journalism affects news audiences in terms of news credibility, news use, and paying intent. Based on findings from study 1, an experiment on news audiences was conducted in study 2 to assess the impact of speed-driven journalism on news credibility, future use, paying intent, readability and selective scanning. Key findings from both studies include: (1) Whereas most interviewees in study 1 believed that speed harms news credibility but boosts news use, the experiment in study 2 revealed that speed neither harms news credibility nor promotes future use. (2) Speed-driven journalism has no effect on selective scanning or audiences' paying intent. (3) In terms of readability, news stories presented in the live blog-like format are deemed harder to follow when compared to those presented in the traditional format. This dissertation advances the hierarchy of influence model by uncovering the effect of perceptual disconnect on speed-driven news practices at the social institutions level. That is, journalists are wrong at times in their assessment of how audiences engage with and are affected by new media technology, but nonetheless proceed to produce news and content based upon their mistaken judgment.