WEBINAR

Understanding Needs States: How Newspaper Companies Can Use the Media Choice Model to Increase Viewers, Readers, and Profits
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Monday, September 25, 2006 This webinar has ended.
Who will benefit from this Webinar? Newspaper company managers and executives, broadcast news directors, advertising executives, media planners, media researchers, public relations professionals, digital news site creators and managers. What is the value for you? The ideas presented will explain people’s communication needs and allow you to better design news and advertising products people want, when they want them, with the media features they want. Based on exhaustive research and practical application of research findings, the Media Choice Model is a guide for media professionals who must find their way through the new media landscape. What are the goals of the Webinar? Goals for the presentation will be: to explain the fundamental structural changes taking place in media today to describe the reasons behind the shift in power from media producers to media consumers to show how the Media Choice Model may be applied in the news business to explain and predict the media behaviors of consumers. to offer new perspectives on how to conduct research, how to think strategically about consumers, and how to leverage research knowledge to address real-world problems and opportunities.

Speaker Bios
Esther Thorson
Esther Thorson, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Missouri, and Director of Research for the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (Univ. of MO) has published extensively on consumer response to advertising and other forms of promotion. She has published theoretical work about the impact of emotion generated by ads, on how different advertising appeals impact consumers, and the variables that drive attention to advertising. In addition to her position as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, in 1994 she became Director of the Center for Advanced Social Research, which, under her direction, has become one of the largest academic research centers that work with news media organizations. CASR is presently working with such news organizations such as the Los Angeles Times, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pulitzer Technologies, the San Jose Mercury News, WCCO-TV, and the Philadelphia Inquirer to provide content analyses, depth interviews, and phone survey data that help the organizations better understand the nature of the news product, the news process that produces it, and the responses of viewers and readers to it. Thorson is also directing evaluation projects that bring brand advertising approaches to health campaigns, and health reporting. In Kansas, Thorson evaluates Kansas Health Foundation campaigns. In Missouri, she evaluates efforts by the Missouri Department of Transportation to foster safer driving. In California, Thorson has been involved with Berkeley Media Studies Group in developing and evaluating more public health-friendly modes of reporting crime and violence. In collaboration with Charles Atkin of Michigan State University, Thorson has been conducting phone surveys, content analyses, and focus groups that relate to how youth and adults are responding to advertising of liquor on television and in billboards. Thorson has also worked with Marshall Kreuter of the Centers for Disease Control on projects concerning how community health social capital varies across communities, how it affects public health, and how it is related to news coverage and use by citizens.

Margaret Duffy
Margaret Duffy teaches courses in strategic communication, research methods and media management. Her research focuses on new and interactive media, especially with regard to advertising and the news. Another research interest is health communication and she is the primary investigator for the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (marrtc.org). Under the auspices of the grant, the MARRTC communication team disseminates information about arthritis and related conditions, seeks to improve reporting on medical research understanding about arthritis among those with the condition as well as medical professionals and policy-makers. Duffy has extensive professional experience and was an executive for GTE (Verizon) in marketing, advertising and public. In 1995 Duffy earned her Ph.D. in mass communication with an emphasis in organizational behavior from the University of Iowa. She consults frequently with clients as diverse as the Department of the Army and the Estee Lauder Corporation. She has presented research and conducted training with agencies and news groups in the U. S., China, the U. K., Thailand and South Africa.

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