Significance of mass media research

Research may evoke pictures of scientists working in a laboratory. So the very meaning of research needs to be clarified before proceeding to the significance of mass media research.
Research refers to scientific method of investigation. Research uses concepts like objectivity of approach and the acceptability of the results hence it is called as science. Objectivity indicates to observe things as they are and Acceptability is judged in terms of the degree to which observations and experiments can be reproduced. The findings should not be altered by the mere alteration of the investigator, and then only it is termed as objective. Research is also called as science because it is less prone to errors.

There are two major types of research:
1. Natural science research
2. Social science research

All the academic field of study needs research and a media study is not an exception. Media research is a part of communication research and falls under social science research. Media research does the scientific study of mass communication and media and its interaction with the people as individual and as group.Survey conducted to investigate what segment of consumers read which periodicals and/or listen to or watch which radio or television programs is Media Research. Media research mainly concerns media content and activities of media professionals, media owners and audiences. Media research may be media centric or society centric.
Every time “who, what, when, where, or why” question when using the mass media arises, you have raised a question that can be investigated.

For instance, why is a certain magazine popular amongst youngsters and why more people tune into the eight o’clock news of only certain television channel? How has the use of internet shaped the traditional media viewing practices, why are some television soaps more popular than the other? All such questions raised can be answered through media research. Therefore, mass media research is all about trying to find answers to mass media questions.

Different types of media form use varying research techniques to investigate. Some of them have been discussed here below.

Print Media: In print media, these types of research that have gained most attention in the past several years:

Readership: the most widely used of all print research procedures including research in areas such as reader profiles, item-selection studies, reader-nonreader studies, editor-reader comparisons, and psychographic and lifestyle segmentation studies.
Circulation: research about who reads the newspaper or magazine, how can circulation be increased, and what the readers want to have included in their newspaper or magazine.
Management: research concerning goal setting by management, employee job satisfaction, and effects of competition and ownership on newspaper content and quality.
Readability: research on all the elements and their interactions that affect the success of a piece of printed material.
On-line media usage: research concerning the Internet and how it affects newspaper and magazine reading.

Advertising and Public Relations: Just as with the other media, research in advertising and public relations includes a variety of topic, some of which include:

Copy Testing: research on the effectiveness of advertising.
Reach and frequency: how many people are exposed to advertising?
Internet-related: research on how the Internet affects advertising and public relations.
Campaign assessment: research on the success of an advertising campaign.
Public relations: applied, basic, and introspective research to examine specific practical issues.
Public relations audit: a comprehensive study of the public relations position of an organization.
Social audit: a small-scale monitoring program to measure how well a company is living up to its public responsibilities.
Internet: The Internet has quickly become a mass medium, and it is changing every day. However, one thing is certain about the Internet, and that is it will provide a countless number of research possibilities for mass media researchers. Consider some of the possibilities:
On-line research: respondents answer questions using Internet-based questionnaires.
Web site research: what makes a good web site? How can more people be attracted to a web site?
Music testing: radio stations and music companies test short segments of songs.
Advertising testing: respondents provide reactions to audio, video, and print advertising.
Broadcast media: Ratings and non ratings research is used in broadcast media. This type of research provides information about what the audience likes and dislikes analyses of different types of programming, demographic and lifestyle information about the audience.

Out-of-home media: They are also known as place-based media. This includes billboards, outdoor boards, transit posters, theater and video ads, product placements in movies, aerial advertising. Research helps in coming up with effective placement of ads in this form media.

Mass media research in the contemporary society

Mass media industry has grown by leaps and bounds and is now considered as big bucks churning industry. At the end of the business is what matters to the people who own media houses. Therefore it all boils down to numbers be it the audience size, profits or unit sales. In order to extract such statistics, researches have become inevitable.
On the other hand, the proliferation of new media technologies and devices is empowering people in more than just one way. These changes create an increasingly challenging environment for capturing a greater share of market and monetizing your audience effectively.

To extract more value from the content and optimize ad sales yield. To measure the quality of the audience, not just the quantity and to adapt to the dynamically changing marketplace in advance of the competitors. To help understand viewers or listeners - and the industry - in new and more profitable ways. To understand consumers so that their next move can be anticipated, mass media researches are significant.