{"id":4217,"date":"2013-04-25T10:52:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T15:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/citings\/?p=4217"},"modified":"2015-10-13T13:48:04","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T18:48:04","slug":"march-2013-tsp-media-award-for-measured-social-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2013\/04\/25\/march-2013-tsp-media-award-for-measured-social-science\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2013 TSP Media Award for Measured Social Science"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Just<\/a>
Just gotta find the gold one\u2026 Photo by takingthemoney via flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s been decided! The winner of the March 2013 TSP Media Award for Measured Social Science goes to:<\/p>\n

“Anthropology Inc.<\/a>,” Graeme Wood, The Atlantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wood explains that corporations are seeking the help of social scientists to understand the qualitative dynamics of consumer behavior. To illustrate, Wood delves into one strategy consulting company’s struggle to understand consumers’ needs in China:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find that these objects have meanings<\/i>, not just facts,\u201d Madsbjerg says, \u201cand that the meaning is often what matters.\u201d So to sell a personal computer in China, for example, what matters is the whole concept of a \u201cpersonal\u201d computer, which is culturally wrong from the start. \u201cHousehold objects don\u2019t have the same personal attachment [in China as they do in America]. It has to be a shared<\/i> thing.\u201d So if the device isn\u2019t designed and marketed as a shared household object, but instead as one customized for a single user, it probably won\u2019t sell, no matter how many gigahertz it has.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TSP author Andrew Wiebe wrote a citing<\/a> on this article which outlines the problem-solving Absolut Vodka did with the help of anthropologists. To see more examples of how social scientists are helping unearth consumer insights, check out Wood’s article—a lengthy, but fascinating read.<\/p>\n

As we say often, the choice of each month\u2019s TSP Media Award is neither scientific nor exhaustive, but we do work hard to winnow our favorite nominees. And, while we don\u2019t have the deep pocketbooks to offer enormous trophies or cash prizes, we hope our informal award offers cheer and encouragement for journalists and social scientists to keep up the important (if not always rewarding) work of bringing academic knowledge to the broader public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been decided! The winner of the March 2013 TSP Media Award for Measured Social Science goes to: “Anthropology Inc.,” Graeme Wood, The Atlantic. Wood explains that corporations are seeking the help of social scientists to understand the qualitative dynamics of consumer behavior. To illustrate, Wood delves into one strategy consulting company’s struggle to understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":3989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[97,118,17197],"class_list":["post-4217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-ethnography","tag-journalism","tag-media-award"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/files\/2013\/01\/stars.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4221,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4217\/revisions\/4221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}