Television audience research in the age of convergence: challenges and difficulties

Abstract

This paper presents work in progress and deals with the challenges and difficulties researchers are facing doing television audience research in the age of convergence. I give a short overview of different dimensions within television audience research, based on how television is defined, and how these dimensions are evolving in the age of digitization and convergence. Next, I discuss three practical complications I encountered while doing empirical research into contemporary television viewing practices: the challenge of taking all dimensions of television into account, the challenge of doing ethnographic research and the challenge of selecting a proper sample for television audience research.