Measuring diversity of exposure in Guangzhou's television market

Abstract

This study applied Napoli’s (1997) media diversity model to the study of television audiences in Guangzhou, one of China’s largest television markets. An analytical framework was developed to organize the measures of exposure diversity, i.e., audience concentration, fragmentation, polarization, and channel repertoires, based on a secondary analysis of peoplemeter data. The results showed that the degree of audience concentration decreased while the degree of audience fragmentation and polarization increased in the market over the course of the past decade. Most notably, the rapid development of both overseas and local television channels greatly diminished CCTV’s market monopoly. Overall, patterns of audience fragmentation and polarization are more limited than analogous audience behavior reported in the West.