Unique centre for studies of media audiences established at the University of Warsaw

The Media Analysis Centre is a research laboratory which will carry out advanced studies of media audiences, until now not conducted in Central and Eastern Europe in this form. The facility was established at the Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies of the University of Warsaw.

"At the Media Analysis Centre we can integrate various measurements to innovatively study human experience in the media world, especially with regard to new technologies, including in particular augmented and virtual reality" - told PAP Media Analysis Centre coordinator at the Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies of the University of Warsaw, Dr. Tomasz Gackowski. The researcher added that during the planned experiments it will be possible to study, among other things, what a person feels when watching or listening to media messages, when the recipient\'s engagement increasing and what emotions he or she feels.

"It\'s a lab where we run modern media audience research, check how people react to the contents they see, watch, hear. This content can have different forms, because we can study how people watch, how they perceive texts, images, videos, video games" - said Media Analysis Centre coordinator at the Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies of the University of Warsaw, Dr. Karolina Brylska.

"We have tools at the Media Analysis Centre that allow us to observe the behavioural and biometric responses of the subject" - she added.

Researchers can test the physiological responses of the body with face tracking (evaluation of facial muscles movements), eye tracking (tracking of eye movement), GSR (galvanic skin response). The Centre is also equipped with an EEG system that allows to study the bioelectric brain function and an ECG and EMG measuring device instrument for recording electrical cardiac activity and muscle activity.

Some of the devices at the Centre are only available at some of the world\'s top universities, such as Stanford University, Harvard University, and MIT. One of those devices is iMotions, used to monitor and analyse the reception of audiovisual media.

"The uniqueness of the Media Analysis Centre lies in the fact that with various types of psychophysiological measurement devices, we can quickly perform specific measurements on a single time axis, in a single programming system, development environment, and even faster draw conclusions that may be useful for our business partners" - added Dr. Gackowski.

Dr Brylska added that the Media Analysis Centre will on the one hand deal with modern forms of media such as virtual reality and games, but the equipment at the disposal of researchers will also enable researchers to more closely and more broadly research traditional media, such as press, television, radio and film.

Researchers at the Media Analysis Centre will focus primarily on the study of human activity in virtual and augmented reality. Researchers want to know what cognitive capabilities and limitations are associated with VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technologies.

The Media Analysis Centre was established with more than PLN 2 million of special purpose subsidy from the Ministry of Science. (PAP)

author: Szymon Zdziebłowski

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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