Methodological challenges in audience research

Abstract

Over the past years, social media platforms and messaging apps have become an integral part of people’s daily lives, including when it comes to accessing information and news. However, within these personalized and dynamic information environments, standardized methods often fail to provide researchers with a thorough understanding of users’ actual practices. This chapter discusses three methodological approaches that help to tackle recent challenges in audience research: 1) observations and self-confrontations, 2) media diaries, and 3) augmenting human memory with digital trace data. Being inherently multi-method, all three approaches integrate forms of stimulated recall and qualitative interview techniques, thus providing researchers with rich and experience-based data. The chapter highlights the epistemological and technical advantages of these approaches, but also discusses relevant ethical concerns related to, for example, participants’ privacy and establishing informed consent. Finally, the chapter explores how these approaches can also be useful for journalism practitioners.

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Publication
The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies