Audience Research - What is audience research?
What is audience research?
Audience Research, also known as visitor studies, evaluation or market research, is a discipline of museology that seeks to uncover information about visitors to cultural institutions, such as demographics, behaviour, satisfaction, leisure habits and learning outcomes. Audience research has a long history of practice in museums, and there is a large body of literature and methodologies developed for use in a wide range of contexts. This paper, Evaluation, Research and Communities of Practice: Program Evaluation in Museums outlines the process of audience research in museums.
The following is a starter reading list for audience research:
- Argyrous, G. (1996). Statistics for Social Research. South Yarra: Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd.
- Cavanagh, B. (2001). Evaluating museum education programs. Museum Methods Sheet 7.3.Canberra: Museums Australia Inc.
- de Vaus, D. (1991). Surveys in Social Research (3rd ed.). London: UCL Press.
- Diamond, J. (1999). Practical Evaluation Guide: tools for museums and other informal educational settings. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
- Dierking, L. & Pollock, W. (1998). Questioning Assumptions: An Introduction to Front-end Studies in Museums. Washington: Association of Science-Technology Centres.
- Ferguson, L. (2001). An Introduction to Audience Research. Museum Methods Sheet 7.1. Canberra: Museums Australia Inc. Available online at http://www.amol.org.au/craft/publications/mus_methods/section7.asp
- Fink, A. (1995). How to Sample in Surveys (Vol. 6). California: Sage.
- Fink, A. (1995). How to Analyse Survey Data (Vol. 8). California: Sage.
- Francis, G. (1999). Introduction to SPSS for Windows (2nd ed.). Sydney: Prentice Hall.
- Frazer, L., & Lawley, M. (2000). Questionnaire design & administration. Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
- Kelly, L. (2001). Focus groups. Museum Methods Sheet 7.4. Canberra: Museums Australia Inc.
- Krueger, R. (1988). Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. California: Sage.
- Loomis, R. (1987). Museum Visitor Evaluation: New Tool for Management. Nashville: American Association for State and Local History.
- McManus, P. (1991). Towards Understanding the Needs of Museum Visitors. In Lord, G & Lord, B.(Eds.). The Manual of Museum Planning. London: HMSO.
- Meehan, C. (2001). Designing questionnaires. Museum Methods Sheet 7.5. Canberra: Museums Australia Inc.
- Scott, C. (2001). Exhibition evaluation for museums and galleries. Museum Methods Sheet 7.2. Canberra: Museums Australia Inc.
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4 comments
Lynda Kelly
6.03 AM, 01 March 2010
Thanks for posting this link John - looks good.
JohnG
5.02 PM, 22 February 2010
Another very useful and comprehensive resource on audience research is Know your Audience - A Practical guide to Media Research by late ex-ABC research manager Dennis List, available from Dennis's website, http://www.audiencedialogue.net/techniques.html and in book form.
Ondine Evans
9.06 AM, 12 June 2009
The link should now work. Thanks for alerting us to this, Linda!
linday
9.06 AM, 12 June 2009
Hi Lynda The link to your paper is broken [http://australianmuseum.net.au/Audience-Research-What-is-audience-research] : Evaluation, Research and Communities of Practice: Program Evaluation in Museums - and I want to cite it in a student reading! Help, please! Thanks and cheers - Linda
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