Focus Groups in Media Research
A focus group is a moderated discussion among a small group of participants, used in media research to explore how audiences interpret, talk about, and respond to media content. Its distinctive value lies in the group interaction itself: participants build on, challenge, and refine one another's views, surfacing shared meanings and contested interpretations that individual interviews or surveys would not reveal.
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Sources
- Morgan, D. L. (1996). Focus groups. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 129–152. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.129 ↗
- Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972–79 (pp. 128–138). London: Hutchinson. ISBN: 9780415079068
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Focus Group Method for Media and Audience Research. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/communication/focus-group-media
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Audience Reception AnalysisCommunication↔ compare
- Experience Sampling in Media ResearchCommunication↔ compare
- Media-Use Diary MethodCommunication↔ compare
- Narrative Analysis in MediaCommunication↔ compare