Page 442 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

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“log in” to the meter via an assigned button on the remote control. When that
household member finishes watching television, she or he must remember to
“log out.” Each person in the family has a different button assigned, and demo-
graphic information about each individual is gathered by Nielsen, so that when
one member of the family is watching TV—say a 13-year-old male—Nielsen
knows that a 13-year-old male is watching. By gathering this information from
thousands of households, Nielsen is able to produce the ratings reports that tell
advertisers and television programmers not only how many people are watch-
ing each television program, but also what the composition of this audience is,
in terms of characteristics such as age, gender, and income—characteristics that
advertisers consider important in making decisions about where best to advertise
certain products.

raDio anD wEB raTings
Radio still relies primarily on a system of paper diaries that samples of radio
listeners carry around with them for a week at a time. Radio ratings in the United
States are produced primarily by the Arbitron Company. Participants in the
Arbitron measurement system are expected to record in their diary all of their
radio listening, including the station channel and call letters. At the end of the
week, diaries are sent back to Arbitron via mail for tabulation and a new diary
is received. Once the tabulations are complete, detailed quarterly ratings reports
are produced that tell advertisers and radio stations how many (and what type
of) people were listening to each station at different times of the day and dif-
ferent days of the week. This rather antiquated system is in the process of being
replaced with an electronic system (called the Portable People Meter), in which
participants carry cell phone–size devices with them that automatically pick up
all radio signals the participant hears.
The World Wide Web also has a ratings system in place. The primary method
of producing Web ratings involves placing monitoring software on participants’
hard drives. This software keeps track of each Web site that is visited, and for
how long the site is visited. This information is then automatically sent, via the
Internet, back to the measurement company for tabulation. There are a few dif-
ferent companies involved in Web audience research in the United States, in-
cluding a subsidiary of Nielsen Media Research called Nielsen/NetRatings, and
a competitor called comScore. As with television and radio, participants in Web
site ratings measurement provide demographic information about themselves
so that the measurement company can produce ratings reports that indicate
how many different people of what age, gender, and income visited a given Web
site in a particular month and how long the typical visitor stayed on the site.

ProMinent ratings-related ControVersies
in teleVision PrograMMing

1969—NBC cancels the science fiction television series, Star Trek, after only three years
on the air due to low ratings. The show goes on to become a surprise hit in syndication,