ABSTRACT
When it comes to audience research, the old cliché that you can’t believe everything you hear applies with a vengeance. Some users of ratings data don’t acknowledge that audience information is produced and analyzed in ways that affect its meaning. Whether this is the fault of a journalist who doesn’t know the subtleties of audience measurement, or a researcher who spins the data to deliberately mis-state a case, the user of ratings information needs to know where the estimate comes from in order to interpret it correctly. Basic questions about which population is being measured, sample characteristics, and data collection methodologies must be asked before data can be thoroughly understood.
