In the USA, Ball State University in Indiana has added two leading media industry analysts to a team of researchers investigating how consumers use media.
Industry Research Fellows for the Center for Media Design (CMD) during 2004-05 are Jim Spaeth and Bill Moult, two of the founders of Sequent Partners, a consulting firm. In addition to working with the Middletown Media Team on the study itself, the pair will occasionally serve as professionals-in-residence, conducting lectures and making classroom presentations.'Moult and Spaeth are two of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the media industry,' said Mike Bloxham, the CMD's director of testing and assessment. 'They bring a depth of experience, insight and knowledge of the latest developments and challenges in the media and advertising industries that would be hard to match.'
The Middletown Media Team has spent the last two years taking a detailed look at media use in Muncie, commonly known as Middletown America. The study, inspired by the Middletown Studies of the 1920s and '30s by Robert and Helen Lynd, is an attempt to determine how digital and other media are being used on a daily basis in typical American homes.
The initial studies found that usage of television, radio, books and newspapers is substantially underreported. The research also revealed much about changing patterns of news consumption and of media multi-tasking.
Spaeth and Moult said the ongoing Middletown Media Studies will be valuable to advertisers and others in the advertising community.
'The studies should serve as not only a rigorous and objective reality check for the way consumers interact with the media, but also as a solid information foundation for leading companies to start thinking how communications for their brands can better fit into the lives of customers,' they said.
Before joining Sequent Partners in 2003, Spaeth spent seven years with the Advertising Research Foundation. Moult recently completed a term as president of the Marketing Science Institute, a non-profit organization that combines the resources and efforts of marketing organizations and leading researchers from marketing academia worldwide, to advance the science of marketing.
'We are committed to ensuring our work is as relevant to the industry as it is to academe,' Bloxham said. 'With Jim and Bill working alongside our team, we are confident we will achieve that and deliver something of real and lasting value that can be put to good use by both communities.'
