Relevance & Research Question:
Real-time-response (RTR) measurement is a useful data-collection tool for academic and applied research, as it enables the measurement of viewer reactions during the reception process. However, traditional RTR studies which are conducted in laboratory settings often require expensive special equipment and extensive planning and coordinating efforts. Furthermore, the technical equipment often only allows for a limited number of participants and offers little flexibility with regard to adjusting the functions of the measurement devices. Therefore, we developed the MediaLiveTracker, an online-based RTR tool which tackles some of these limitations.
Methods & Data:
MediaLiveTracker is an online-based tool to collect subjective recipient data during the reception of a streamed or recorded audio or video stimulus. The video player provides highly adaptable rating elements, like a slider, a dial or push-buttons which can be used for real-time data collection. It can easily be implemented into online survey tools. The underlying Open Source framework Drupal allows for a flexible content and user management and has been enhanced by custom modules, like a dynamic user account creation.
In a first validation study, we used MediaLiveTracker to measure the evaluation of five politicians during a political talk show. A convenience sample of 77 participants was surveyed directly before and after the discussion. During the 1,75 hours of the talk show, they rated the performance of each politician with push-buttons which meant more than 18.000 ratings in total.
Results:
Because of the numerous ratings, the scalability of the system posed some challenges during the first pilots. After some reconfigurations, these performance problems could be solved and a stable system can be assured now. The study’s results show promising indicators for the criterion validity of MediaLiveTracker’s measurements. Concurrent validity (operationalized as correlations between the real-time evaluations of the candidates) as well as predictive validity (operationalized as correlations between evaluations of each candidate before, during and after the stimulus) can be considered as appropriate. Participants rated the survey experience positively.
Added Value:
MediaLiveTracker is a valuable device for researchers who wish to measure recipient judgments during the reception process with an affordable and flexible online-tool.