Deconstruction of the Ratings Machine - How the audience is measured, weighted, valued, and thereby constructed.

The research project is designed to make an important contribution to the international knowledge surrounding how audiences are constructed and with what effect. The aim of the project is to delineate how the Swedish radio and TV audiences get measured, weighted, and valued by diverging actors bound up with the radio and TV market. At the center of scrutiny stands the professional everyday practices performed by media houses, advertising agencies, advertisers, and audience measurement agencies, whereby audiences get measured and valued, and thereby created.

Research outlining how audiences are measured are fairly well documented in international research. Meanwhile, research on how audience measurement data is actually enrolled, and set into practice in a consecutive process of valuation and decision making is missing. The project aims to fill this gap by providing a thourough close up study of the involved actors on different levels, and how their everyday action builds up the material prerequisite for a not insignificant part of the public sphere - the media.