R. Steve Dick/University Relations
Mugur Geana, assistant professor of journalism, prepares Bill Walberg, El Dorado Hills, Calif., junior, for an experiment at the Experimental Research Media Lab in Stauffer-Flint Hall. The lab measures physiological responses, such as heart rate, muscle activity and facial expressions, to media messages.
Lab measures body's reactions to media stimuli
It is easy enough for a researcher to show an individual a media message and ask them how they reacted to it. Researchers at KU now can go further and find out in real time just how those messages impact the individual's brain.
The Experimental Research Media Lab opened in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications in September. Housed in Stauffer-Flint Hall, the lab is a high-tech way of answering an age-old question: "How are people responding to my message?"
The lab is set up to measure physiological reactions to media stimuli. Mugur Geana, assistant professor of journalism and a former physician, oversees the lab. It is unique, he says, because the majority of research in media is based on recall. After viewing a stimulus such as a video, researchers will generally ask the participant how they felt about it. Instead of waiting, researchers in the Stauffer-Flint lab can instantly monitor the physiological reactions to the media message. Sensors placed on the participant's face and on the arm can gauge their facial expressions and level of arousal.
A tasty message
Mugur Geana's strategic communications campaigns class has been selected as one of 12 national finalists in an advertising competition sponsored by Chipotle. The students created a 30-second spot called "Burrito Friends Forever." The winner of the competition will receive $30,000. To see the ad on YouTube, go to KU - Burrito Friends Forever.And while the verbal question is no longer necessary, the lab can still gauge opinion. Participants hold a "slider," which they can use to indicate how they feel about a certain image. While watching a political speech, for example, participants can indicate approval of a speaker's message by sliding a knob up or down a scale with corresponding positive and negative ratings. The lab can also provide interested researchers with the opportunity to conduct any type of experiment involving self-reported measures to media exposure.
The research performed in the lab can measure mood and emotional responses to media, emotional and physical responses to brand identification, how people react to messages in varied environments and attention to mediated messages.
Geana shares the example of an anti-smoking campaign. Those behind the campaign may want to know whether their message is more effective when the viewer sees it in the dark versus the light. The findings could help determine whether it would be more effective to show the message to viewers in a dark theatre or on billboards in broad daylight.
Messages based on the findings can be more effective because they can be geared toward what resonates with the consumer, not the wishes of the creator.
"It's not about how you conceive the message, it's about how people perceive and react to the message," Geana said.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the new lab is the opportunity it provides students. At least two graduate students are already taking advantage of the lab to conduct research for theses, and it is open to any students interested in experimental media research.
While the equipment is located in the journalism school, it invites collaboration from across campus and beyond. The lab is open to companies in the Lawrence area or any campus department interested in media-related research. Anyone interested in performing research within the lab should contact Geana at geanam@ku.edu.
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