[ecrea] call for book chapters: Television audience measurement worldwide

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS
Television audience measurement worldwide

Proposals are invited for book chapters analyzing 
television audience measurement in a global 
perspective, from a sociological or historical 
point of view. Edited by Jerome Bourdon 
(University of Tel Aviv), and Cécile Méadel 
(Center for the Sociology of Innovation, Ecole 
des Mines and CNRS, Paris), the book will be 
published in both French (with the Presses des Mines, Paris) and English.

Background: Audience measurement has been much 
debated but, for the most part, the procedures 
and methods actually used for producing the 
numbered public have been neglected by Academic 
researchers. Before we accept and quote audience 
figures wholesale, reject their validity, or 
blame them for a degradation of quality, we 
have to understand the elaborated machines which 
produce them and make them available, in 
different forms, to media professionals, but also 
to the political world and to the media 
themselves. Statistical (e.g. methods of 
sampling), and technical (e.g. phone survey, 
peoplemeters) knowledge must be understood not as 
inherently true or false but as a form of 
mediation between different actors, at given 
points of national and global media histories.. 
Although commercial media and the advertising 
industry (which does not always speak with one 
voice) have become central, other actors should 
not be neglected (parliaments, ministers of 
communication). Case-studies of specific media in 
different national contexts are welcome, but so 
are historical approaches, the study of the 
global diffusion of professional knowledge, and 
the analysis of specific technology (e.g. 
peoplemeters). Transnational comparisons  will be given special consideration.

Scholars interested should send a 500 words 
abstract, in English or in French, to Cécile 
Méadel, Email: (cecile.meadel /at/ ensmp.fr),
and Jérôme Bourdon, Email: (jerombourdon /at/ gmail.com)
before September 15th, 2010.
Notification of acceptation for proposals will be 
sent no later than October 1st, 2010.
First drafts are expected by December 15, 2010.
A joint seminar of authors is planned to take 
place in Paris, France, in mid-January 2011, in 
order to discuss and improve the drafts.



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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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