The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is a multi-faceted organization whose mission is to educate, inspire and evoke a sense of wonder about the universe, our planet and space exploration. As a popular, Vancouver science centre, it faces the same range of challenges and issues as other major attractions: how does the Space Centre maintain a healthy public attendance in an increasingly competitive market where visitors continue to be presented with an increasingly rich range of choices for their leisure spending and entertainment dollars?This front-end study investigated visitor attitudes, thoughts and preconceptions on the topic of space and astronomy. It also examined visitors’ motivations for coming to a space science centre. Useful insights were obtained which will be applied to improve future programme content and exhibit development.

O trabalho trata da avaliação da exposição “Na Natureza não existem Vilões” do Museu do Instituto Butantan. Realizou-se uma pesquisa histórica e uma pesquisa de público para se saber a opinião e o nível de aprendizado obtido após a visitação. Como conclusão, sugerem-se modificações na exposição para tornar a comunicação das mensagens propostas mais eficiente. / This paper evaluates the exhibit “There are no villains in Nature” of the Butantan Institute Museum. A historical research and an audience poll were carried out in order to find out the visitors’ opinion of the exhibit and what they learned during their visit. A proposal of changes in the exhibit, to make its message more effective is presented at the end of the discussion.

This project uses a qualitative research approach to understanding Mormon women's uses and gratifications of magazines. The first study provides a retrospective look at the uses and gratifications of readers of the Relief Society Magazine (1915–1970) in order to understand where media targeted to Mormon women has been. Through interviews, focus groups and questionnaires, the study finds the main reasons Mormon women read the Relief Society Magazine was to provide (a) a handbook for daily life, (b) a community, (c) intellectual stimulation, (d) an aspirational ideal, and (e) an escape from daily life. When the magazine ceased publication, readers felt a sense of loss and recognized a need to move on. The second study researches Mormon women's current uses and gratifications of media, with a focus on magazine use. Through focus groups and questionnaires, the main uses and gratifications of current media among Mormon women include (a) interaction, (b) cognition, (c) and diversion. Mormon women's media use is also influenced by warnings from others about the dangers of particular media or too much media use. This project then presents the concept and design for a new magazine targeted to Mormon women and seeks to fulfill the needs and gratifications found in the research discussed here.

Esports is a growing cultural phenomenon with a large number of stakeholders such as professional players, audiences, sponsors, game developers, and competitive events like tournaments, championships and leagues. This thesis studies spectator experiences in e-sports; exploring the factors that make for an enjoyable spectatorship experience. The study takes a qualitative approach involving questionnaire and interviews. A total of 30 questionnaire responses and 4 interviews were used to identify 5 factors that make for a good viewing experience. They are moments of great skill, live commentary, favorite teams/players and social aspects, watching the game in person, and intense matches. The research findings provide insights that can inform the development of strategies to optimize and enrich the spectatorship experience, thus contributing to the continued growth and success of esports as a form of entertainment.

Diploma thesis "Analysis of the Czech Media Market in 2009 - Constructing the Audience for Sale" aims to describe what kind of information do the Czech non- expert media use when constructing their audience for sale most often, what are the sources of such information and methods used for gathering them, and to what extent are those information, and the constructs themselves, verifiable, credible and relevant. Content analysis of publicly accessible materials the media provide about their audiences will be applied. In the first part of the diploma thesis we will define the audience within the media studies discourse and from the perspective of the advertisers. We will also apply the theory of social construction of reality to describe the process of the construction of the audience for sale. Brief overview of reported media audience characteristics and research and shielding institutions in the Czech Republic will follow. In the last part of the diploma thesis we will summarize the findings from the analysis and apply them on the prediction of the future development of the construction of the audience for sale. Complete list of media included in the analysis as well as raw data can be found in the appendix.

The advent of social media has witnessed a transformation in how audiences interact with marketers online. While previous research has shown that media consumers generally hold a negative view of advertising, today’s media consumers are engaging with brands more than ever. This study examines what it means to be an active fan of marketers in social media to the modern media consumer through an investigation of how audiences relate to brands in the social media space. Centered around audiences’ uses and gratifications of three successful brand communities within Facebook through qualitative (field observations and individual interviews) and quantitative (surveys) methods, this study intends to gain further knowledge about the role of social media and its impact on forming new cultural trends. The findings suggest that while the uses and gratifications of Facebook brand pages and what becoming a fan of a brand on Facebook signifies to social media users vary, the prevailing motivation for and function of brand community membership is the construction of one’s digital identity in association with the brands of one’s choosing. Furthermore, despite being aware that Facebook brand communities are marketing platforms, fans were largely receptive to and held a positive attitude towards the brands. This critical study of brand fans on Facebook presents the importance of studying social media’s uses and implications in order to better understand new audience cultures within the interactive media landscape.

This dissertation aims to be a social history of 8-bit computer gaming culture in Czechoslovakia. It focuses mostly on the 1982-1989 period, i.e. from the beginnings of organized computer hobby scene until the end of the so-called "normalization" era. It draws from archival texts, mainly computer club newsletters, and oral history interviews. The resulting corpus is used both to reconstruct the social context surrounding computer game play at the time, and to identify social practices, norms and values connected with computer game playing. Theoretically, the dissertation draws from the social history of media, audience research in the vein of the British cultural studies, and game studies. The dissertation claims that in the earliest days of Czechoslovak computer hobby, the hobbyists were a prime example of active audience. As there was virtually no hardware and software market behind the Iron Curtain, hobbyists had to improvise ways of importing hardware and distributing software, often forming computer clubs to facilitate this. Computer game programming and play were integral parts of hobbyist experimentation. Around 1985, Western commercial games started to enter Czechoslovakia via efficient unauthorized distribution. Computer games have, however, become a hobby of its own a started to spread...

Inclusive public dialogue about issues of concern to science and society can democratise and widen the knowledge base for decision-making so scientific research and developments are made accountable to citizens’ priorities. This participatory model of science communication is not yet widely practiced. More research is needed into how to make such communication effective. Formative audience research can inform a communication strategy’s design to meet its objectives effectively and enhance its relevance to participants’ needs and communication preferences. However, audience research designs based on transmission models are inadequate for the participatory objectives of public dialogue. They must therefore be adapted. This dissertation proposes how audience research should be designed and conducted when the objective of communication is public dialogue about science, such as biotechnology. The methodology involves building an evaluation framework from the literature and applying this to a case of applied research. Four sub-questions are addressed. First, audience research and participatory development communication literature is reviewed to propose how audience research should be designed and conducted for public dialogue broadly. Second, literature on public engagement about science is analysed for the challenges in public dialogue about science and the implications for audience research. Third, a set of guidelines is presented for evaluating the appropriateness of audience research for public dialogue about science. Finally, these guidelines are used to evaluate a case of qualitative audience research commissioned by the Public Understanding of Biotechnology (PUB) programme, judging the appropriateness of its design to the communication objectives and extracting further lessons for audience research. The findings present a “double-dialogical” approach to audience research, where the research methods and the information elicited reflect dialogical objectives. This approach emphasises listening over telling, building relationships over interrogating targets, and optimising inclusivity and diversity in identifying participants, framing issues, and selecting channels and spaces for deliberative dialogue, wherein participation and information dissemination play complementary roles. Following these principles, audience research can build democratic foundations for public dialogue about science while recognizing the following challenges: the specialized and technical nature of science, the complexity of issues, the power of commercial interests, the need for social accountability, low motivation and interest amongst publics, and the resistance of technical experts and decision-makers towards dialogue. A framework of guidelines is offered for designing and evaluating audience research for public dialogue about science, structured around 5 interrelated elements: WHY – clarifying the objectives of communication and audience research; GENERAL – overall research design considerations; WHO – conceptualizing and investigating dialogue participants; WHAT – framing issues from multiple perspectives; and HOW – identifying spaces and channels for public dialogue. Applying the framework to the case study demonstrates the guidelines’ usefulness for evaluation purposes, grounds the study in an actual case of audience research and extracts lessons for future applications. The framework succeeds in judging the appropriateness of the study’s design for its purpose. The study contributes to the search for effective means of public engagement by proposing practical guidelines for the first steps of such a process, a methodological praxis for audience research that can be useful in scholarly and practitioner communities and can be refined and adapted for various contexts. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Information Science / unrestricted

The aim of this diploma thesis is to prove the applicability of sociological methods in the research of audiovisual production. The theoretical part of this thesis is based especially on the approaches of the authors G. H. Gallup and R. L. Nafziger and further the methods used in the given type of research are described. Based on the proven empirical research, the subject of which is a trailer for the upcoming film Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits and which used qualitative and quantitative methods, which were also described in the theoretical section, the thesis demonstrates the applicability and effectiveness of the use of these methods in research of audiovisual production. In the final section of the thesis, recommendations for optimizing the film trailer in terms of more effective targeting of selected audiences are proposed.

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