• by Mark Glaser , September 1, 2005

In August, MEDIA and online researcher InsightExpress conducted an unscientific poll of academics involved with media research and design, asking them to nominate the peers or institutions they believe are doing the best or most interesting work on the subject of media.

Specific universities came up repeatedly on the topic of conducting media-centric research. For example, in response to, "Other than your own university, what other academic institutions do you consider to be the best in researching and defining the future of media?," several schools popped up frequently. They were: MIT, the University of Southern California, the University of California-Los Angeles, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University.

Academics were also asked to select schools that are superior in conducting research on specific topics. For instance, in research on consumers' use of media, professors most often chose USC, MIT, NYU, and Ball State University. On the subject of wireless research, MIT and USC stood out from the pack. And on media convergence in the home, Ball State was mentioned the most, no doubt because of the groundbreaking research it's conducting in this area.

When asked how long it takes Madison Avenue to use research from the media labs, the academics generally agreed that the timeframe ranges from 1 to 5 years or more, much longer than the pace of current technological change.

Consumers' changing media consumption habits and media platforms are hot research topics that academics believe Madison Avenue would find valuable, along with traditional areas such as audience research, consumer satisfaction, advertising effectiveness, return on investment data. One survey participant wryly noted that the advertising industry needed "long-term vision, whether they themselves realize it or not."

The academics surveyed said research on shifting media platforms, digital video recorders, video-on-demand, and interactive TV are research areas that are currently underserved.

One academic summed up the situation: "We rely on old-model thinking too much to successfully address emerging-model challenges. [What we need is] genuinely consumer-centric research, (rather than media-, product- or technology-centric research), that seeks to investigate how consumers are adapting to the changing media landscape, and what the likely impact will be on the media industries and those who rely on mainstream media to reach their audiences."