The competition among the media for
audiences and advertising dollars continues
to reach new levels of complexity. The media
“survival kit” today includes information about consumers’ changing values and
tastes, shifts in demographic patterns, and
developing trends in lifestyles. Audience
fragmentation increases the need for trend
studies (fads, new behavior patterns), image
studies (people’s perceptions of the media
and their environment), and segmentation
studies (explanations of behavior by types
or groups of people)