ABSTRACT

The new methodological possibilities offered by the various 'scraping' techniques demonstrate new potentials for mapping audiences at a global scale. In discussing the significance of these developments for audience research, this chapter interrogates the interface between the user-led transnationalism of the World Wide Web and the re-appearance of audiences as 'Big Data' formations. For audience researchers, probably the most discussed 'point of convergence' in the Internet era is that which has occurred between fan subcultures and mainstream audiences. The understanding of the central 'Big Data' platforms in social media becomes subject to material conditions, cultural norms and social rituals where local specificity is intrinsic to their operation. It now seems that the most likely trigger for a reappraisal of user-led transnationalism is the rapid emergence of a new quantitative digital research paradigm based upon 'data mining'. The convergence of 'data mining' and 'predictive analysis' clearly marks a revival of numerology for the purposes of divination.