Promotional Information

This is an accessible introduction to the history, machinery and impact of audience ratings. It is the first comparative account, demonstrating new insights into the complexity of audience participation and the methodological problems associated with assessing ratings. It will be key reading for media professionals and students.

Table of Contents

Why the Ratings are Important; The Convention; The Panel and the Survey; The Audit; The Technologies of Counting; The Ratings Provider; The Networks (and Broadcasters); Advertisers and Planners; The Audience; The Critics; The Future of Ratings

Professor Mark Balnaves is Senior Research Fellow in New Media, in the Department of Internet Studies in the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts, Curtin University of Technology, Australia. Professor Tom O'Regan was the Head of the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at University of Queensland from 2005-2008, Director of the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy (1999-2002, Griffith University) and the Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (1996-1998, Murdoch University). In 2002 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. From 2002-2003 he was the Australian UNESCO-Orbicom Professor of Communication. Ben Goldsmith is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland.

About the Author

Professor Mark Balnaves is Senior Research Fellow in New Media, in the Department of Internet Studies in the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts, Curtin University of Technology, Australia.

Professor Tom O'Regan was the Head of the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at University of Queensland from 2005-2008, Director of the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy (1999-2002, Griffith University) and the Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (1996-1998, Murdoch University). In 2002 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. From 2002-2003 he was the Australian UNESCO-Orbicom Professor of Communication.

Ben Goldsmith is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland.

Reviews

Rating the Audience provides a useful and entertaining look at the history of audience measurement.
*Jonathan D. Levy, Federal Communications Commission, USA*

This is a really important intervention that explores a vital, although largely ignored, aspect of the media industry. It is painstakingly researched and powerfully conceptualized. It requires one to seriously re-examine everything that one thinks one knows about this crucial aspect of the shaping of media cultures.
*Professor Mark Jancovich, University of East Anglia, UK*