Abstract:

What it attempts to do is to draw attention, in the light of a summary description of some of the experiments carried out by SOFRES over the past two years in the area of qualitative data retrieval and processing for media studies, to the most pertinent questions concerning qualitative data and the use to which they could be put if they were given wide currency, either as a feature of existing collective surveys (such as those performed in France by the C.E.S.P.) or as the basis of complementary studies specifically designed for the purpose, with a view to going beyond the mere determination of the number of contacts between a vehicle and its readership. The paper deals only with two broad areas of research: Firstly, attempts to achieve a precise determination of the circumstances characterising a reader contact. Secondly, attempts to determine the nature of the relationships that develop between the vehicle and its readers. Less progress has been made in this direction than in that of media time-budgets, but the findings thus far are nevertheless sufficient to form the basis of a consistent methodological approach to such problems.