Table Of Content“Philip M. Napoli offers a rich and original synthesis of the many factors that help p
construct the audience, as well as the social, economic, and legal consequences h
i
of that process, and he has a real talent for creating a cohesive, interesting, and l
i
important story. Anyone with a serious interest in the operation of the media p
industries or popular culture should read this book.” m philip m. nApoli
JAMes G. Webster, Northwestern University, author of Ratings Analysis: The Theory .
and Practice of Audience Research n Audience evolution
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Today’s consumers have unprecedented choice in terms of the technologies and l
platforms that access, produce, and distribute media content. The development i new technologies And the trAnsformAtion
and overlap of television, the internet, and other media technologies is fragmenting
of mediA Audiences
and empowering media audiences more than ever. Building on his award-winning
book, Audience Economics, Philip M. Napoli maps the landscape of our current
media environment and describes its challenge to traditional conceptions of the
audience. He examines the redefinition of the industry-audience relationship by
technologies that have moved the audience marketplace beyond traditional metrics.
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Media providers, advertisers, and audience measurement firms now deploy more u
sophisticated tools to gather and analyze audience information, focusing on d
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factors rarely considered before, such as appreciation, recall, and engagement. e
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Napoli explores the interplay between political and economic interests in the
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audience marketplace and its effect on audience evolution. He recounts the battles e
waged between stakeholders over the assessment of media audiences and efforts e
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to restrict the functionality of new technologies. As Napoli makes clear, the very o
meaning of the media audience continues to evolve in response to changing l
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technological, economic, and political conditions. t
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“Philip M. Napoli introduces the reader to the technologies that are changing the n
audience marketplace, new media services that have and are being built with those
technologies, and the possibilities for measuring aspects of audience members’
responses to media products and the advertisements they make possible. He
describes new tools for audience measurement, along with the controversies
over their use, and the battles among industry interests over which new audience
measurement tools should be accepted. I think the time is right for just this type of
analysis. A well-researched text, and the scholarship is first rate and insightful.”
steve WIldMAN, Michigan State University
PHIlIP M. NAPolI is a professor in the Graduate School of Business at Fordham
University and director of the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center.
He is the author of Audience Economics: Media Institutions and the Audience Market-
place, which won the Robert Picard Award for Best Book in Media Management and
Economics, and Foundations of Communication Policy: Principles and Process in the
Regulation of Electronic Media.
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Cover image: iStock photo o
Cover design: Martin Hinze lu
m
ColUMBiA UNivERSiTy PRESS / NEw yoRk b
www.CUP.ColUMBiA.EDU ISBN: 978-0-231-15035-4 iA
90000
Printed in the U.S.A.
9780231150354
AUDIENCE EVOLUTION
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AUDIENCE
EVOLUTION
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND
THE TRANSFORMATION OF
MEDIA AUDIENCES
PHILIP M. NAPOLI
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2011 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Napoli, Philip M.
Audience evolution : new technologies and the transformation of media audiences /
Philip M. Napoli.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15034-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-15035-4 (pbk. : alk.
paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-52094-2 (ebook)
1. Mass media—Audiences. 2. Digital media—Technological innovations. I. Title.
P96.A83N35 2010
302.23—dc22 2010023906
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free
paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither
the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have
expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
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TO BELLA, WHO MADE ME LAUGH EVERY DAY
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
1. Contextualizing Audience Evolution 25
2. The Transformation of Media Consumption 54
3. The Transformation of Audience Information Systems 88
4. Contesting Audiences 117
5. The Implications of Audience Evolution 149
Notes 175
References 193
Index 239
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
I.1. The Process of Audience Evolution 5
2.1. The Fragmentation of the Media Environment 57
2.2. The Long Tail of Media Consumption 59
2.3. New Audience Information Flows 87
3.1. Audience Dimensions 91
5.1. The Decline of Exposure and the Rise of Alternative
Audience Conceptualizations 151
Tables
2.1. Components of Audience Autonomy 79
3.1. Definitions of Audience Engagement 97
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