Welcome 

This course guide was created for COM 3356: Media Audiences.  Below you'll find a range of resources to help you complete your research assignment. You can contact me about getting started; finding data, statistics, or analysis; finding out if you can get access to a specific resource; citing your sources; or anything in between. 

Media Kits

Media kits are informational packets made available by newspapers, magazines, and sometimes web sites, mobile sites and broadcast media that include information potential advertisers are likely to need to evaluate a property.  They typically include the editorial focus and calendar of the media, technical specifications for ads, advertising rates and most importantantly audience information.

   Use a search engine like Google to search for a media kit for your media outlet of interest. 

Trade Publications

You'll be able to read some trade publications online for free directly through their websites. For other publications, you'll want to use our Falvey library subscriptions:

 

Trade, scholarly, and news articles 

Try searching for your platform of interest along with search terms like users, audience, readers* (searches for readers and readership,) viewers* (searches for viewers and viewership,) demographics, and other industry-specific terms you encounter in your reading and research. Pay attention to references in articles to sources for data and statistics.
 

  • Articles & more 
    A starting point to search many of the millions of articles to which Falvey provides online access. 
  • ABI/Inform Complete
     A key subject database for business & economics.
  • Communication and Mass Media Complete
    A key subject database for communication & media studies
  • PsycINFO
    A key subject database for psychology
  • eMarketer
    e-Marketer is an international aggregator of data and reports on digital marketing from over 4000 sources. Access reports, data and news about media usage, social media, mobile, digital advertising, e-commerce, e-mail marketing, and search across a wide range of industries.

Data & statistics: audience demographics and consumer behavior 

  • Statistical Insight
    Indexing and abstracting (with select full text from 2007) of statistical resources from U.S. state government, business and research institute statistical publications. Tables for U.S. government and business reports.
          Watch for the subject heading media use surveys as a tipoff for useful resources. Note that if you're researching a news outlet, you'll likely see polls conducted by the outlet (as distinguished from polls or surveys about the outlet.) 
  • Pew Research Center 
    "Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research."
            Look for statistics on topics of interest in the Interactives section of the website. You can also look for data sources in articles that discuss your topic of interest. 
  • eMarketer
    Includes daily research articles, analyst reports, and a database of e-business and online marketing statistics, aggregated and analyzed from over 2,800 sources. Topics include market research and trend analysis on Internet, e-business, online marketing, media and emerging technologies.

Usage Analytics

Ratings & advertiser information 

Television: 

Get Nielsen ratings from TVbytheNumbers.com or Nielsen (note only clients have full access to their ratings).

The TVB is the trade association for commercial television and provides tips on media buying and a directory of commercial television stations by market. 

Radio:

The Radio Advertising Bureau is a  source for information about terms and trends in radio advertising.  It restricts access to demographics on radio formats to members and the case studies and reports on radio advertising efficacy should be used with caution.

 Cable TV:

The Video Advertising Bureau has a directory of cable networks searchable by network, programming and demographics.  The profiles provide detailed viewer profiles. 

Online/Digital:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau is a good source for general information and reports on online advertising.

APA Citation 

  • Purdue OWL Guide to APA Citation
  • For those trickier scenarios (how do I cite my class notes?  how do I cite a blog post?), try searching the APA Style Blog.  
  • Zotero
    Zotero is a free tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research. Just download web browser and word processor plugins to get started, or to cite quickly without saving your references, use the Zbib tool.