Teleauditooriumi jagunemine vaatajahuvide, elulaadi ja väärtuste alusel

Date

2010

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

Description

Thesis „Television Audience Segmentation Based on Viewers' Interests, Lifestyles and Values“ sets out to explore Estonian television audiences' preferences regarding the programming typically offered by Estonian television channels, and to find preference patterns which could be used as a basis of creating an audience typology. The method of audience typology is a means of analyzing the audience, during which people with similar viewer behaviour are converged into groups, which can be described using a number of characteristics or distinctive groups. Regarding the theoretical approach to audiences, viewing based typology is one ways to treat the audience in the framework of a structure and an agent – on the one hand, the thesis explores how people describe their preferences regarding how they watch television programs; on the other hand, we take a closer look on the viewers themselves, their characteristics, lifestyles and attitudes. Programs and audiences mutually influence and shape each other, and a certain logic to viewers' behaviour can be seen in this process, something that could be understood better via studying the viewer types. In this thesis the audience is regarded as an entity that makes active choices, that acts, but I have abstained from considering the choices as absolute. The theoretical models of program choice show that even though people might make choices based on their long-term preferences, these are not the sole determinants. Television watching is a situation-based activity, influenced by specific circumstances and mood, highly dependent on the program options currently available, and the decision to stay with the selected program, made in the environment of multiple choice of channels, may no be made consciously. This decision is, however, influenced by viewing habit, general attitude towards the channel and the viewer's own taste preferences concerning the content. All this is assumed to be reflected in the decisions made regarding the relevant typical programs, and this is the object of research of this thesis. The empirical material has been collected via questionnaire titled “Meediateemaline arvamusuuring 2010” (“Media related opinion survey of 2010”); carried out in March 2010. Survey was ordered by ERR research centre and executed by Turu-uuringute AS, interviewing 1011 Estonians. The analysis was carried out using the quantitative data analysis methods. As a result, 8 viewer types are described, which differ from one another based on the general orientation of the program choice (rationally vs emotionally oriented), viewing frequency and the general pattern of program preferences. The types are profiled as social-demographic groups, also which have been analysed in relation to groups' preferences of other media use (printed media, radio, Internet) and within the dimension of their interests, hobbies and values. Based on this survey, following viewer types can be found among the Estonians: 1) entertainment oriented, home-centered heavy user (12,1%) 2) domestic drama oriented, provincial traditionalist (15,4%) 3) public sphere oriented, senior citizen (10,8%) 4) experience oriented, foreign program viewer (9,7%) 5) solid observer (15,8%) 6) social life oriented, thrill seeker (13,3%) 7) an intellectual inclined towards the new media (12,7%) 8) random visitor from the Internet (10,2%) These viewer types expose interesting differences in their attitudes towards specific programs, types of programs and channels. The viewer types are a kind of target group for producers and media institutions, whose peculiarities have to be considered in concept creating and presenting a show in a program. Audience researchers can find tools for even more thorough assessment of the preferences of the viewer types, explaining their expectations on channels, shows, and also on different broadcasting types, especially on public broadcasting. This knowledge would make the assessment of real program offering, based on the expectations of different groups, more adequate, and the development of suitable offer more justified.

Keywords

magistritööd

Citation