We’re about to have a census of our population conducted in 2010.  A census is where everyone is a respondent.  In the media world, there is a parallel census or canvass available of everyone using an Internet site or stream to glean crucial usage information.  This comprehensive canvass may have a profound effect on how research is viewed and conducted in the future.

Traditional research depends on sampling a small part of the population (a.k.a. the universe) and projecting that sample’s responses onto the entire population being sampled.  When done properly, the projection of those research results will hold true 95 times out of 100 (a.k.a. the margin of error.)

With the canvass or census of a web site, you see what everyone is doing…no need to sample anything.  The challenge becomes how you siphon out useful information from everyone streaming your audio and/or going to your website.

One fascinating side issue with Arbitron’s Portable People Meter (PPM) is the disappointment some have expressed that they truly can’t get valid minute-by-minute audience behavior because of the limited number of people in the PPM sample.  The lure of measuring actual radio usage behavior as opposed to how people report their perceived behavior in the diary should be a vast improvement.  However, apparently some forward-thinking operators confuse getting a sample of media behavior with a canvass…or at least a large enough PPM sample to reliably observe how people are using stations minute by minute.

Ando Media’s Webcast Metrics are a good example of a census canvassing all activity rather than research’s traditional sampling.  If all the data is there before you, why not mine the pertinent information from that data?

With so much at stake in preserving and improving on broadcast investments, it’s puzzling to me why many radio operators have either abandoned traditional sampling research or buy “research” that can’t be projected onto the population.  One has to wonder if these operators will be around once the final impact of Internet distribution has been realized.