Ratings and Metric power

kafa khalil, thanaa eter, yarah moussaoui

Data is objects of human designs. It is open to many interpretations, critiques, analysis and truths, but also vulnerable to bias, misinterpretations and errors. Data has many functions such as The data can show whether there was any significant change in the dependent variable(s) you hoped to influence, They can uncover factors that may be associated with changes in the dependent variable(s), They can show connections between or among various factors that may have an effect on the results of your evaluation, They can help shed light on the reasons that your work was effective or, perhaps, less effective than you’d hoped, and They can provide you with credible evidence to show stakeholders that your program is successful, or that you’ve uncovered, and are addressing limitations.

Moreover, data is collected by various data collectors such as students, researchers, volunteers who are trained to do so and others. For example, In TV stations, there are qualified journalists who collect data about their audiences (what they like, dislike, type of videos… etc) in order to create videos that attract high number of people and get high ratings.

Therefore, to make our example clearer, we have to define first metric power. It is a concept that is intended to focus attention upon the relations between measurement, circulation, and possibility in order to extend our understanding of the linkage between power and metrics. In another word, the concept of metric power is intended to sensitize us to the role of metrics in the performance of the social and the intricacies of the numerical governance of individuals and populations​.

More than this though, it is a concept that is intended to focus attention upon the relations between measurement, circulation, and possibility which is related to the rating average and the relation between tv viewers and the view rating. Rating is the percentage of potential audience members — whether tuned into any program or not into a particular program or station at a given time.

The ratings that you know — for cable news, for broadcast primetime shows, etc — are extrapolated out from households. The ratings categories that matter are generally “total viewers” The ratings you see now are also mostly “live + same day” which accounts for 24 hours of the viewer watching on their Tv channels. They are crucial to the financial success of the channels where they are able to charge more for advertisement slots during high-rated programs. So, according to metrics, the unit of measurement here is the rating itself estimated by the number of audience watching any tv broadcast. However, this became a legal social phenomenon for all tv stations competing each other to own the highest rating. In tv broadcasting, its all about ratings, otherwise the station is closed.

Espeland and Stevens’ argument is that we need sociological insights that think about the background work, knowledge, and expertise that are required to make these metrics so powerful, and that is true. Because when it comes to ratings and studying the sociological terms, the more the society which is the audience are participating in increasing the rating, the more the rating metric is powerful.

Also, according to the readings, Metric power works through a complex interplay between the visible and the invisible, and when it comes to ratings the visible is the show itself being famous and the number of audience watching it, and the invisible is the value of every single sample who are contributing to this rating, to the money intended from this rating, and apparently, to the power of this rating.

Moreover, With regard to TV ratings, metrics and measurements construct a power in the society through an indirect bond between estimations and the conclusions arising out of them. These results are able to form social norms that regenerate the populations’ values and traditions. The measurements can be powerful enough to create a trend or destruct a social habit. For instance, people are always leave a certain channel on when a commercial of a movie trailer pops up. This means that people like to watch this kind of movies; thus, produce more of this genre. The society either devours what’s presented on the screen and live underneath its authority, or rejects it. By accepting what’s being portrayed on the screen as a full representation of a community, people would increase it in the market and make it popular, therefore deciding what exactly the social market should hold. The process that metric powers passes through is effectively shown during the circulations; numbers point out what a whole population is concerned with.

In conclusion, when thinking about new types of digital, big, by-product or transactional data, we should be thinking both genealogically about their origins whilst also thinking conceptually about the politics and power dynamics that reside not only in these data but in the ways that they are described, presented, and marketed to us​. Finally, Metric power should be seen in its historical dimensions and it should be explored both as a material presence and as a central part of the way that the contemporary age is being imagined and reimagined in light of the fantastical possibilities that metrics are said to have.

References: Beer, D. (2016). Metric power. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.