Media Audience Research

Please contact journalismnow@thomsonfoundation.org if you are having difficulties enrolling into this course

This course carries 6 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits.

 

COURSE OVERVIEW

Modern technologies help journalists not only find new stories to tell but also bring relationship with their audiences to a new level. Media audience research gives us the opportunity to learn in detail what our readers or listeners like, their habits and interests.

 

This course covers various topics around quantitative and qualitative research. It will guide you through some important issues about representative samples and give you useful tips for creating surveys. We will discuss different formats you can use for questionnaires and the importance of formulating your questions.

 

 

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

-       Practical skills to conduct your own audience research

-       Different research approaches and techniques

-       How to deal with marketing agencies

 

MEET YOUR INSTRUCTORS:

 

 

ANNA VISSENS, Your course Instructor is Anna Vissens, who has been working for the BBC for over 15 years. In 2006, she was appointed social media editor of the BBC Russian service. A year later, Anna received an award for best BBC World Service producer in recognition of her success in building new audiences and developing effective social media strategies.

 

 

 

Joining Anna is a strong team of media experts, including:

-       CHARLOTTE KILBANE who is the News Editor of Eye Witness News in South Africa.

-       ANDY JONES who is the Insight Manager at BBC World Service

 

COURSE OUTLINE

-       Section 1 takes you through the differt approaches to audience research whether traditional or digital and explains why it is important.

-       Section 3 looks in detail at the different methodologies that can be used whether independently using surveys and digital analytics or through an audience research agency and helps you assess their merits.

-       Section 4 shows you how to apply the most relevant methods to your case based on your needs and to analyse and evaluate the results.

 

TIME COMMITMENT

You can complete this course within 6 hours across multiple sessions.

The course includes practical exercises that may require that you conduct your own research to apply the learning.