Using Commercial Audience Measurement Data in Academic Research

Surveys, although widely used to measure media exposure, are blunt instruments. In today’s complex media environments it is difficult to accurately recall usage. Audience measurement data, often collected by the media industries for commercial purposes, offer an alternative. However, unlike surveys, where individuals are the unit of analysis, audience measurement companies report data aggregated at the level of media outlets. Despite this limitation, audience measurement data may be analyzed for deciphering media use patterns in theoretically productive ways.