Media Research Lab Productive Tool for Department Faculty

Dr. Terry Daugherty is an assistant professor of advertising at The University of Texas at Austin and director of the Media Research Lab in the Department of Advertising. Daugherty is exploring the strategic, social and technological issues at the core of the media phenomenon and giving researchers across the country the tools to investigate media consumption, measurement variables and the effects of traditional and non-traditional media.

"I've always been fascinated with media, how it has evolved, how we are engaged by it and how we rely upon in our daily lives," said Daugherty who has worked in the media advertising industry. "The mass media are not only delivering new communication vehicles today-the cell phone is now considered an advertising channel-they're changing how we consume media, including 'old media.'"

For example, a growing number of Americans today are engaging in simultaneous media consumption because of time pressures, numerous media options, and personal choice, such as listening to music or watching TV while surfing the Internet or reading a magazine.

Families and friends no longer gather 'round the living room television to catch "The Cosby Show," "Seinfeld," "Cheers" or "Friends" at 8 p.m.

Today, Americans live in a time-pressed society where multi-tasking is de rigueur and goes beyond watching TV during dinner. While mass media have evolved over the past 50 years-remember when there were three networks and FM radio delivered high fidelity sound-societal and technological trends over the past five years have fast-forwarded that evolution.

Not only do these technological and societal changes present challenges to the average person, they can confound the metrics-driven media industry-advertisers, marketers, public relations professionals, journalists and more-those trying to communicate a message to consumers and track the results.

"The distinctions between print, broadcast and mobile are disappearing," said Cindy Wells, manager of interactive media solutions at Tribal DDB, an interactive media agency. "The industry is evolving and everything will become a digital touch point. For example, the billboard will be digitized; consumers will be able to take TV shows on the go all through the device that is most convenient to the consumer."

"What researchers don't know is the effect multitasking has on the absorption of media messages, whether product placement in music lyrics, video games, television and film is effective, how mass media is best able to communicate health information and how people engage in video games, among hundreds of other questions."

"The answers to these questions have major implications for the multi-billion dollar media industry," said Daugherty. "There's immense pressure in the industry to justify return on investment for advertisers, and there are currently no standard measures to evaluate many of the tactics being used in this changing environment."

The goal of the Media Research Lab-the only one of its kind in the country-is to provide researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, and other academic institutions and corporations across the country, with the infrastructure to quantify these changes and answer those questions so that media of all kinds can identify new and meaningful ways to connect with their audiences.

Online since spring 2006, the lab has been used for more than 35 teaching and academic research projects at The University of Texas at Austin, as well as at the University of Southern California, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Georgia, among others.

There are two components to the Media Research Lab: the physical lab itself and the consumer online panel.

The physical lab features collaborative space for planning research, dedicated research stations for conducting experiments and data collection, continuous response measures for collecting immediate feedback, an eye tracking system for monitoring visual behavior for a variety of media and physiological measurement tools for monitoring biological responses to media consumption.

The second component of the Media Research Lab is the consumer online panel, an opt-in, informed consent, privacy-protected resource of more than 20,000 consumers around the world, who participate in real-time, Web-based research.

"The goal is to increase the number of panel participants to 50,000 over the next three years and to offer our expertise and resources beyond academia to the media industry itself," said Daugherty.

"Mass media will continue to evolve and consumers will adapt. It's exciting to speculate what's next. Thanks to the unparalleled resources in the lab and the panel, researchers-from any organization-have the tools to track and analyze mass media and recommend strategies on how best to engage consumers."

For more information see a related story by Erin Geisler at http://www.utexas.edu/features/2007/media/

9/6/2007