El “cambio de ola” en la investigación de audiencias

The updating of the communication paradigm in the digital era urges media to examine in deep its productive processes as well as its strategies to approach an audience that demands new enriched experiences, also in the consumption of informative products. Digital audiences position journalism in a new scenario of changes that forces it to look forward and face technological challenges, without losing perspective on the professional fundaments. The evidence of mobile use and the social dimension as driving force of consumption (Reuters Institute Digital Report, 2017) persuade industry that those who don’t experiment lose the possibility of continue in the sector with success guarantees (López, Rodríguez and Soengas, 2016).

In large part, these changes are encouraged by the media need for improving the connection and earning loyalty with their public, especially in an environment which reinforces the role of users in the epicentre of productive process. Since there, they determine the reorganization of editorial departments, each time more concern with tracking public movements –what makes urgent the improvement and introduction of new instruments of measurement departing from big data–. In this “change of wave” that audience research is living, media explore how to get closer to the public while the conversation is privatised and the value of “the social” is readapted.