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USA Edition | Today Is Tuesday, May 21, 2013 |
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Serving The Public Interest Without Fear Or Prejudice
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In fulfillment of our mission we pledge to be responsible, credible and journalistically sound so that we might deliver newsworthy information and materials including that which reveals government in its own words absent fear or prejudice.| Browsing News Analysis Section | Organized In Date Order | [ 5 items ] | |||
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Television News -- The Money Game
Programming, placement, content and scheduling decision making based solely on tactical metrics is deeply ingrained in the lore of broadcasting and advertising. While many in advertising believe that overnight numbers well serve their clientèle, recent studies suggest that short term management comes at the expense of long term goals for both broadcasters and advertisers.
Washington
Parade Of The Automatons
Thanks to technological advances in nearby Silicon Valley, electronic data acquisition and analysis tools drive modern business management. The range and scope of business metrics are immense. While business metrics can provide a wide array are strategic tools, some short term tactical measures and others long range and strategic, broadcast media has always favored tactical measures with very short time frames ( often overnight ) and narrow focus ( viewership).
Audience Metrics Cheapen Ideas And Distort Reality
Such tactical metrics tend to be narrow in scope and reflective of short term thinking. Rarely are non-demographic aspects of programming measured or assessed. Some of what is ignored are suitability for children, good taste, societal impact, and cultural enhancement or damage.
Programming, placement, content and scheduling decision making based solely on tactical metrics is deeply ingrained in the lore of broadcasting and advertising. While many in advertising believe that overnight numbers well serve their clientèle, recent studies suggest that short term management comes at the expense of long term goals for both broadcasters and advertisers.
Thus the statistical foundation and managerial model favored in today’s mass media world is largely devoid of knowledge about anything beyond short term demographics. Little or nothing is done to shore up long range corporate goals — not even longevity. Issues of immense importance to broadcast media companies are not assessed by audience metrics.
Among those issues for which no data exists are the long range impact of program content on viewer attitudes toward media in general, or the originating network or stations. Network television today is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that sees all content and all viewers as interchangeable abstractions.
Not even the network’s intense branding efforts are studied, for what passes for common knowledge in the business is that there is no brand loyalty — only endless grazing as millions of viewers constantly troll for something less boring.
Roots Of Audience Metrics
Frank Stanton, President, Columbia Broadcasting System
Metrics were used in broadcasting far before they were accepted in other businesses because audience measurement was the subject of a Doctoral dissertation written by Frank Stanton, a psychology researcher at The Ohio State University.
The science of audience measurement and interpretation was largely invented by Frank Station, who outlined the benefits of audience metrics in the mid 1930s. Along with Dr. Paul Lazarsfeld at Columbia University, Stanton is credited with developing the first automated radio listenership data acquisition device.
By the time Stanton became President of The Columbia Broadcasting System in 1946, broadcast ratings (a tactical metric that reflects audience size and makeup) had become an important tool for broadcasters seeking to reach the largest possible audience.
Today, ratings and demographics are the deciding factor in nearly all broadcast program content, style, and scheduling decisions. Thus have tactical metrics ( short term, single criteria ) replaced what had been creativity-driven decision making and strategic management practices ( achievement of long term corporate goals ).
In the absence of governmental regulation or industry standards, tactical metrics have driven most of what was good out of television broadcasting — and not just in the United States. The impact on television news has been devastating to broadcaster reputations, public perceptions of journalism and reporters, and American culture, sense of community, and values.