ABSTRACT

This paper argues that material valuation devices used in consumer research rely on moralized cultural techniques. The paper focuses in detail on one such valuation device, namely audience simulators, and recovers the deeply ascetic and disciplinary nature of this set of techniques. Audience simulation, and in particular the Continuous Response Measurement of media audiences (CRM) allows estimating audience reactions to movies and commercials by simulating the response these offerings would receive in ‘real’ life. The paper traces this simulation method and the material valuation devices it is made up of, namely push-buttons, dials, and polygraphs, back to interwar prediction systems for the success of radio shows. The simulation and valuation practices that perform CRM reveal a genealogy that links audience research to an ethics of religious training. While CRM settings ostensibly aim at audience simulation and programme valuation, they also rely on essentially pre-modern cultural techniques such as monastic pace-setting, congregational judgement, and confession.

摘要

本文认为，消费者研究中使用的物质评估工具依赖于道德化的文化技术。本文详细介绍了一种这样的评估设备，即观众模拟器，并恢复了这组技术的深刻禁欲和纪律性质。观众模拟，特别是媒体观众的持续反应测量 (CRM)，可以通过模拟这些产品在“现实”生活中收到的反应来估计观众对电影和广告的反应。该论文追溯了这种模拟方法及其组成的材料评估设备，即按钮、拨号盘和测谎仪，追溯到两次世界大战期间广播节目成功的预测系统。执行 CRM 的模拟和评估实践揭示了将受众研究与宗教培训伦理联系起来的谱系。虽然 CRM 设置表面上旨在观众模拟和节目评估，但它们本质上也依赖于前现代文化技术，例如修道院的节奏设置、会众判断和忏悔。