Exploratory research as a method for making a people-metric panel in the media study of the television audience
The article considers methodological approaches and practical use of the exploratory research for making a people-metric panel for the measurement of television ranking indicators. The main task of the exploratory research is to design a social-demographic portrait of the audience, to assess the contribution to the television viewing of different age groups, and to identify control parameters for the selection of permanent participants in such studies. In 2020, in the Republic of Belarus, the practice for establishing a single national television and radio ranking measuring company was tested. The MediaIzmeritel company entered the media advertising market as using international standards (GGTAM) and research technologies (Kantar, UK). To make a panel of studies' participants equipped with technical devices for the passive measurement of television ranking (people meters), an exploratory research and a subsequent multivariate analysis of the data obtained are necessary. The article describes the innovative for Belarus practice of creating a single national media measurement company under the few works on exploratory research of the television audience. The author explains the design of such an exploratory study conducted in July-December 2020 with the face-to-face interview and CATI telephone survey; methodological aspects of making a television panel with a multivariate analysis of empirical data; theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the concept ‘audience', and the design of the panel matrix - the empirical structure of the peoplemetric panel.