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Importance of Audience Research

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IMPORTANT OF AUDIENCE RESEARCH ON MASS MEDIA BROADCASTING

A SEMINAR PAPER

ON

COM 425: INSTRUCTIONAL COMMUNICATION

PRESENTED BY

NAME: AKPAN, JULIET RICHARD

REG. NO. 06/CE/AR/CA/039

COMM. ARTS,

FACULTY OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF UYO, UYO

TO

THE COURSE LECTURER,
MR. NSIKAN SEMAM

NOVEMBER, 2010

IMPORTANCE OF AUDIENCE RESEARCH ON MASS MEDIA BROADCASTING

ABSTRACT

For any activity to be carried out well, some form of feedback is needed. Try walking with your eyes shut, and you will soon bump into something. Even without your thinking about it, the feedback from your eyes is used to correct your steps. In the same way, any organization that does not keep its eyes open is likely to meet with an accident.

In the media industries, the equivalent to walking is broadcasting the programs. The equivalent of watching where you are going is audience research.

INTRODUCTION

Andrew Hart is among many writers, theorists and researchers who identify and value the existence of the audience in relation to the media. At the most basic level, audiences are vital in communication. It is for the audience that the media are constructing and conveying information, and, if it were not for the audiences, the media would not exist. The exact relationship between the media and their audiences has been the subject of debate since the media were first seriously studied and emphasizes the importance of the audience and of their relationship with the media. It is against this backdrop that this work is set to examine the extent to which the media audiences influence its contents.

DEFINITION OF AUDIENCE RESEARCH

"Research" in a media organization can mean checking sources for news programs, and it can mean conducting market research for advertisers. "Audience research," however, means only one thing: research that seeks to answer questions about the

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