Tell them you love PBS-especially Nova and the British Comedies. That would make me very happy.
carlotta, can you throw a Nielsen bone at *Supernatural *, Thursdays at 9:00pm on the new CW network? It’s going up against *Grey’s Anatomy * this season. I love me some *Grey’s * as well, but they don’t need the bone!
I’m almost positive this is a violation of your agreement with Nielsen.
I am quite positive that trying to game the system results in bad data, and that inevitably results in bad programming, period.
–Cliffy
Cliffy, I disagree. If anything, Nielsen is getting a better deal this way. Instead of data on one person’s viewing habits, they now have several dozen. This is all stuff we’re watching anyway - it’s not like we’re telling her to keep it on CSPAN.
Another vote for Veronica Mars.
Really? Because I’m thinking that this is probably the only thing we can do to prevent CSI: Boise.
That’s absurd. If Nielsen wanted you data, they’d have sent you a diary. If you want good shows on the air, you should be thinking of ways to make the rating system better, not more fucked up.
–Cliffy
Crap! I just came back into this thread and saw that I wrote Deadwood was on at 9am. What a moroon.
Of course you know it’s on at 9pm right?
::blinking::
Ex-SQUEEZE me? He TOLD you you couldn’t participate? Since when is he hte boss of you?
I’d dispatch a squadron of my genetically-engineered winged howler monkeys to your aid, 'cept I’m all evil & stuff.
Ditto! You beat me to it.
AB! AB! AB!
Criminal Minds. Wednesday 9 p.m. on CBS
I agree. It’s dishonest. It may be illegal, and it’s certainly unethical.
I agree with Mayo Speaks! and Cliffy. I work in market research. Please, do not do this. Just…don’t. There is so much wrong here, I don’t even know where to begin.
I agree with Cliffy.
Tell them the truth.
If the current shows don’t interest you maybe they will change them to ones that do, but that will never happen if they don’t know.
“Market Research”, eh? There’s so much wrong with that that I don’t even know where to begin. When the system doesn’t return satisfactory results, there’s no harm in diddling with it. It’s not like it’s a democracy or scientific research: it’s in place only to make people money, and respondents have no fiduciary responsibility to be honest.
However, I personally am honest with market researchers, however, I don’t think they really listen to me and will probably decline to participate unless the financial incentives are great enough. (They don’t listen to me because they never include sensible alternatives, either in opinion/lifestyle polls or cultural ones such as this. When my choice isn’t even an answer, it’s clear that they don’t even care about me.)
I am returning my Nielsen packet today, which they wanted to give me despite the fact that I told them I don’t really listen to the radio and had no plans on doing so. Hey, an easy $10 and I get to write a nice invective damning the quality of radio in the tiny box they give for comments.
From http://www.nielsenmedia.com/
Plus, as someone pointed out last time we had a thread like this, lying to Nielsen counteracts the goal of the Dope, namely fighting ignorance.
I believe we DID have a thread once, where people would tell the OP what their favorite show is, then they would watch those shows, and tell Nielsen they were watching it. That still violates the secrecy requirement above, but I would guess that Nielsen wouldn’t mind that as much. Sarahfeena, would you agree?
So what if it is in place to make money? It’s called the economy…make money, and spread it around. Create jobs. Make products people want. You are right, what a dastardly invention. We should abolish market research immediately.
Respondents DO have a responsibility to be honest when they are being paid for their information. Actually, they have a responsibility anyway, from an ethical standpoint.
I am guessing that all of your experience with market research involves being a respondent, because you clearly don’t understand anything about how questionnaires are developed or used. Typically, gathering of qualitative data (such as focus groups) occurs first. Then, this qualitative data is used to develop closed-ended questions for quantitative surveys…the closed end options are not just made up at the whim of the researchers, they come from the opinions of consumers. Then, if someone is answering the closed-end question, and wants to give an answer not included in the given responses, their answer is written down and coded into data that can be anaylzed. So…yes, although it is true that market research firms do not care about YOU, per se, they do indeed care about your opinions. Of course, one should not forget when participating that they are “just a statistic” to a research firm, and therefore it is even more important to be completely honest in one’s answers.
Good for you.
Let me make sure I am getting you right. You mean, I would tell the OP my favorite show was X. The OP would watch X (even if he or she would not normally have watched it), and then put X down as the show they were watching at that time. Is this correct? If so, I think Nielsen would consider this to be basically the same thing as what is going on here…as it would have the same net effect on results.
What if Albert and Bob work together, and Albert gets dumped around the same time he gets his Nielsen diary in the mail? He says “Hey Bob, I’ve got a project[sup]1[/sup] in the basement, takes a long time between coats of paint. What kinda Teevee you been watchin’ lately? Anything good on besides freakin’ hockey?” Bob recommends shows to Albert, Albert watches 'em. As long as Albert actually watches the shows based on word-of-mouth recommendations from trusted friends, how is that fundamentally different from Albert throwing darts at the TV Guide[sup]2[/sup]?
- My girl robot. snort
- Which, for all the good it does anybody anymore, might be a more entertaining way to spend one’s evening…
Oh come on. Dishonest sure. Unethical maybe. But illegal? Can you cite me a law in any jurisdiction that this scenario might come close to violating?
Anyways, not that I’d want the OP to do anything terrible and go to TV Hell, but votes for Psych (USA, Fridays 10 PM EDT), Kyle XY (ABC Family, Mondays, 8 PM EDT), and the Intercontinental Poker Championship (CBS, Sundays 3 PM EDT) would be cool.