Bring back the Audience: A Discussion of the Lack of Audience Research in the Field of Media Development

Authors

  • Martin Scott University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK)
  • Christoph Dietz

Keywords:

audience research, media assistance, evaluation, Global South

Abstract

This paper strives to highlight the significant lack of audience research in the field of media development and the consequences of this gap – both for project design and policy making – but also for broader efforts to integrate media into governance debates. Whilst this lack of evidence has been noted before, a number of recently published scoping reviews of the relevant literature now enable us to discuss, in detail, the extent and nature of this gap in our knowledge.

Author Biographies

Martin Scott, University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK)

Dr. Martin Scott is a lecturer in Media and International Development at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK). He is the author of Media and Development (Zed Books, 2014) and has written a number of academic articles and book chapters on the subjects of celebrities and development, representations of Africa, mediated cosmopolitanism and the role of popular culture in politics.

Christoph Dietz

Dr Christoph Dietz is deputy executive director of CAMECO, a consultancy for faith-based and community media in the Global South, where he manages projects from Latin America. He has established the media development literature database http://camecolibrary.faust-web.de, and he is coordinator of the Forum Media and Development (FoME), a network of fifteen German organizations active in international media assistance, see http://fome.info.

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Published

2016-12-21

How to Cite

Scott, M., & Dietz, C. (2016). Bring back the Audience: A Discussion of the Lack of Audience Research in the Field of Media Development. Global Media Journal - German Edition, 6(2). Retrieved from https://globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gmj/article/view/46