A Q-analysis of television programmes

✍ Scribed by J.H. Johnson

• Book ID: 104139696
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1978
• Weight: 891 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7373
• DOI: 10.1016/s0020-7373(78)80004-2

✦ Synopsis

This paper documents an experiment in the application of R. H. Atkin's methodology of Q-analysis in the field of television. Relations are defined between programme types and time intervals for each of three British television channels, Anglia, BBC1 and BBC2, and the associated simplicial complexes are compared by Q-analysis. Pairwise the structures are similar for each channel compared with itself over two consecutive weeks but are quite different when one channel is compared with another. A theoretical discussion attempts to illustrate the relationships between the programme-time interval backcloth and the viewing patterns it can support. The paper demonstrates how Q-analysis may be applied to programme schedules and suggests this may be a fruitful new area of application.