Digital Media Metrics

Catalog description

Analysis of audience data for traditional and new media to create metrics for advertising, content marketing and audience analysis. COMM (IST) 310 Digital Media Metrics (3) The emergence of a converged marketplace where all media are now digital, including broadcasting, websites and social media, has created enormous new opportunities for advertising, promotions and content distribution. The proliferation of media has made the marketplace much more competitive, but simultaneously the availability of data too has increased significantly making possible the much more precise and segmented distribution of messages and content. For media practitioners in this new environment, a familiarity with audience data, metrics and dimensions is essential. This course is an introduction to the methods for collecting, analyzing and utilizing audience data for traditional and new media. The class will cover the fundamentals of traditional media audience analysis, web metrics, and social media metrics, specifically as they relate to audience measurement, advertising campaign evaluation and content distribution. Students will learn the methods of data collection, analysis and use for traditional broadcast media, and the transformation of these practices in the newly digitized and converged multiplatform, multiscreen environment. The course will also cover the basics of data capture for new media (at an appropriate technical level), and the use of this data for the design of metrics appropriate for various purposes such as monitoring traffic, conversions and revenue generation. The use of metrics in pricing models for advertising, sales generation and content distribution will also be covered. Students will be introduced to data sources for digital media audience analysis, with a special focus on Google Analytics. Students passing this class would be able to pass the Google Analytics Individual Qualification test.