UK / Public Services
Assessing Diversity of Media Consumption
"Ofcom now have clear evidence of the scale of mis-attribution and unconscious consumption of online news, and an accurate reading of the impact of online news consumption on media plurality outcomes."
Business issue
Ofcom have a statutory duty to improve media outcomes for citizens and to reduce potential harms from a poor functioning media landscape. Online news has dramatically changed the way we engage with news, but recall of what we see and consume is poor. Ofcom needed a better way to understand real online news behaviours.
Our solution
Over the course of two studies, we triangulated behavioural and attitudinal data from a range of sources. This included building bespoke data science solutions to map the breadth and pathways of online news consumption across our passive online panel Ipsos iris, analysis of social media feeds, and interrogation of Optical Character Recognition data to study mentions of news in screen record footage.
For more information on this case study, get in touch here.
Impact
Ofcom now have clear evidence of the scale of mis-attribution and unconscious consumption of online news, and an accurate reading of the impact of online news consumption on media plurality outcomes. Integration of passive data provided a rich 360 picture of each participant experience, assessing actual rather than claimed impact. Our insight has helped to inform Ofcom’s regulatory response.
