Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences. Philip M. Napoli. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2010. 272 pp.
Philip Napoli’s new book, Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences, is a good combination of a critical approach to audience measurement as well as a thorough review of the development of audience information systems. His key argument is that technologies foster the collection and compilation of audience information beyond the traditional exposure model, and allow new dimensions of audience information be incorporated into business use.
Napoli, a professor in the Graduate School of Business at Fordham University and director of the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center, focuses on the institutionalized audience, in which the audience is understood and used as currencies in the formal procedures and practices of institutions such as media organizations and advertisers. “The concept of audience is constructed and defined to reflect the economic and strategic imperatives of media organizations,” he says.
The book consists of six parts: (1) introduction, (2) contextualizing audience evolution, (3) the transformation of media consumption, (4) the transformation of audience information systems, (5) contesting audiences, and (6) the implications of audience revolution. Throughout, Napoli reminds readers that new and alternative dimensions of audience, such as engagement and appreciation of content, should be considered for a more complete picture of the audience’s interaction with the content beyond the traditional exposure model. He also suggests that the new dimensions may increase acceptance of audience research results by content producers.
The book builds on his previous Audience Economics: Media Institutions and the Audience Marketplace (2003). In this work, Napoli recognizes two key phenomena causing the change in media industries’ conceptualization of audience related to technologies: audience fragmentation and audience autonomy. The proliferation of media platforms and outlets has resulted in diverting audience attention to more media channels. Various interactive technologies empower audiences to make choices and create user-generated content.
The process of rationalization of audience understanding in the media industries highlighted in Audience Evolution is of high relevance to practitioners and researchers. By using “scientific methods” to collect audience information and then base business decisions upon them, media industries have moved from an intuitive model based on executive judgment to a more rational and objective model. There are, of course, negative consequences of such a model, such as stifling creativity and encouragement of homogenization.
I like Napoli’s discussion of the political economy of the audience measurement industry, in which various established media and stakeholders resist changes for their own interests and do not support new measurement initiatives. “Flaws in established systems may in fact serve to tilt the competitive balance in the marketplace in a direction that benefits certain stakeholders in the detriment of others,” Napoli observes. The whole system is a negotiation among various stakeholders, rather than a means to seek truth. I also shared Napoli’s concern about the policymakers’ reliance on flawed audience measurement and, thus, its impact on policymaking. In light of recent efforts in Congress to eliminate public broadcast funding, for example, concern about audience conceptualization and measurement is increasingly relevant. I would add that new media, in order to gain legitimacy and acceptance from advertisers, play a key role in pushing for the changes and additional metrics in the audience information systems.
Napoli also notes the expansion of the narrative experience of media content on the web and in other social media as another interesting audience phenomenon. By offering media content in different formats and on multiple platforms, audience engagement in media content can reach a new level. How success is to be judged under the emerging new audience information system will be one of the most intriguing questions for researchers and practitioners alike.
The impact of audience evolution or, more specifically, audience research evolution, is well beyond the media industries themselves. As Napoli points out, more regulation in audience research may loom, as more personal and private data are collected. How such data are used may well contribute to policymaker decision making in evaluating new media regulations—as recent concerns over geographic tracking of smartphone users illustrate. Napoli’s advocacy of “preserving and promoting a media system in which audience members and media organizations are on equal footing in terms of their ability to access audiences” in media policy development represents his ideal media environment.
This book will be of high reference value not just to audience researchers, but also to those who want to know the practices of the media industries and the audience research industry. The implications of audience research are not well understood by content producers, and Audience Evolution is an objective and comprehensive guide on the whole process of why and how audience research is being used by various industry stakeholders. It contains both original research materials from interviews with professionals, participant observation in industry events, and other documentation analysis, and good reviews of past literature on the topic.
LOUISA HA
Bowling Green State University