Final Essay

With all of the technological advancements, I think that media researchers have developed tools that have helped them research mass media audiences more easily. One of these technological advancements is the internet and the ability it provides people to share ideas all around the world, particularly through social media. I think that with the popularity of social media, media researchers are learning more and more about consumers by looking into what people like and are talking about through such media platforms. I think that the days of public opinion polling where people would be called over the telephone to answer a few questions are over. I believe that the internet is the new strategy of researchers to learn more about audiences and

People use social media to post their feelings about particular things and it also allows people to express what activities they are doing on any particular day or time. For example, Facebook would be a great place for researchers to look at since Facebook offers users the option to update their status, meaning “what’s on your mind?” as well as the option to express what kind of activities a person is doing (watching, eating, reading, etc.) and to “check-in” places. I think that this type of information is more genuine than that a researcher would get from traditional polling because people post things on Facebook during the time they are actually thinking of something or doing an activity, and not because they were asked to answer a

For example, accessibility. Not everybody has internet access and therefore they can not express their opinions on different subjects through such medium for the world to see. I think that media research obtained from the internet, particularly through social media, only accounts for a certain audience, specifically millennials. Millennials account for the majority of social media users that actively engage in these media platforms. While their voices may be heard, other generations or populations may not. As a result, like with traditional public opinion polling, the other population or generations opinions may be sometimes inaccurately represented by the sampled majority of