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Abstract
production, distribution and content has led to a growing need for media professionals with the
skills to analyze media data and make informed decisions based on their findings. This article
examines job advertisements for media analytics positions to determine the skills and
technological experiences required for entry and mid-level hires. The findings indicate varying
expectations across the industry, indicating a need for flexibility and breadth in media analytics
education.
Introduction
The use of focus groups, Neilson ratings, chart rankings and circulation numbers to guide
business decisions is increasingly being supplemented, and in some cases replaced, by the raw
data produced when audiences click, view, share and comment. The processes of media
digital information. But if media professionals lack the ability to sift through this data deluge to
extract insight, we run the risk of squandering access to this valuable resource. There is an
analytics skills gap pervasive across the industry that could put media organizations at risk of
missing growth opportunities and making poorly informed decisions (Colombani, James, Kim, &
Wegener, 2014). This article looks at how academic programs in journalism and mass
communication can prepare students for jobs where the ability to perform media analytics work
is required.
There are innumerable examples of the ways access to audience and customer data has
changed business practices among mass communication professionals. John Foreman, Chief
Data Scientist for MailChimp.com defined data science as the “transformation of data using
mathematics and statistics into valuable insights, decision, and products” (Foreman, 2014, p.
xiv). For the purposes of this article, media analytics refers to the application of data science to
provide insights and aid decision-making in media production, distribution and consumption
broadcasting, strategic communication and journalism, show just a few recent successes of data-
The broadcast market changed dramatically in 2011 when the streaming content
behemoth Netflix purchased first rights the political drama House of Cards in a distribution deal
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that reportedly exceeded $100 million (Andreeva, 2011). Not only was this Netflix’s first entree
into the original programming market, but the company made the staggering decision to commit
to two full seasons of the show – 26 episodes – without seeing a pilot. House of Cards Star Kevin
Spacey said, “Netflix was the only network that said, ‘We believe in you. We’ve run our data
and it tells us that our audience would watch this series’” (Kevin Spacey: James MacTaggart
Collaborative data analysis across formerly siloed business functions at a major national
airline helped alleviate customer complaints after a turbulent merger. When Southwest Airlines
slipped from the top spot in the U.S. Department of Transportation Monthly Air Travel
Consumer Report as the best on-time domestic airline in 2014 the company launched a
comprehensive effort to track news and social media mentions related to on time performance
(OTP). This data was married with information on consumer complaints submitted to
Southwest’s Customer Service division and compared to the record of news and weather events
that could affect flight times. This analysis led to a series of new projects that addressed
emergent customer concerns and led to a 5% increase in OTP rate over the next two years
In journalism, one of the most impactful stories of 2017 emerged from the tenacious
McClatchy and the Miami Herald were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for their work culling through
the cache of 11.5 million leaked financial records, collectively known as the Panama Papers. The
analysis of these papers by more than 300 reporters illuminated the murky world of global off-
These examples illustrate the innumerable ways analytics is changing the role of
communication professional. Yet there is remarkably little research addressing the way mass
media programs can best prepare students for industries that are increasingly using data analytics
to guide decision-making. This multi-method study examines entry-level and mid-level job ads
to determine the skills and qualifications organizations are looking for in candidates for positions
that require media analytics work. The findings of this study will provide insight into how
programs in media and communications can best prepare students for increasingly data-driven
industries.
Literature Review
In 2008, Wired Magazine editor-in-chief introduced the concept of big data to a popular
audience and claimed that ready access to vast amounts of data the classic approach to scientific
Sixty years ago, digital computers made information readable. Twenty years ago, the
Internet made it reachable. Ten years ago, the first search engine crawlers made it a
single database. Now Google and like-minded companies are sifting through the most
measured age in history, treating this massive corpus as a laboratory of the human
Online communication has made it possible to track and monitor production processes,
distribution channels, content performance and audience sentiment and behavior to an extent
unheard in the pre-digital age. But while many media organizations are inundated with data,
industry experts are concerned about the dearth of communication professionals able to translate
the raw data into goal-oriented decisions (Alexander, 2016; Culver, 2014; Neill & Schauster,
2015). In Cision’s 2017 Global Comms Report, 75% of those surveyed felt the comms industry
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should do a better job of measuring and proving its impact on business objectives and 63%
placed inability to measure impact effectively in their top three most difficult challenges (Cision,
2017).
The rise of social media use by both individuals and organizations is inextricably tied
with the growing need for media analytics skills. The social media analytics market is predicted
to grow from $2.35 billion in 2016 to $11.89 billion by 2023 (Stratistics MRC, 2017). As
McCosker (2017, p. 131) wrote, “the use of social media platforms defines only one aspect of the
role of social media.” Whereas the first wave of social media use by organizations relied on
social media as channels to publish and distribute content, organizations are increasingly
approaching social media sites as enormous databases ripe with potential for insights and
knowledge generation (McCosker, 2017). In the broadcast industry, for example, there has been
a recent surge in the use of social TV analytics in conjunction with Neilson data to provide
insight into audience exposure and engagement (Kosterich & Napoli, 2016). Universities are
posed to play an important role in bridging the data analytics skills gap, but a review of recent
literature in this area suggests that programs in journalism and mass media communication are
(ACEJMC) lists that ability to “apply basic numerical and statistical concepts” as one of the core
competencies that all mass communication graduates, regardless of their area of specialization,
should possess. (“Nine Standards – ACEJMC,” n.d.). Yet a survey of journalism programs both
in the United States and abroad showed that only 19% require majors to take a statistics course.
Furthermore, not one of the 369 programs included in the study offered a statistics course within
EQUIPPING THE MEDIA ANALYTICS TOOLBOX 6
the journalism program, relying on business schools, economics programs, math departments,
and others to provide the necessary statistics classes for their majors (Martin, 2017).
The Sage publication Journalism recently devoted an entire issue to the state of data and
statistics in journalism education. In the introduction, guest editors Nguyen and Lugo-Ocando
(2016) wrote:
statistical skills in its curricula, despite repeated calls from experts, scientists and policy
makers and despite being better positioned than any news organization or professional
competitive advantage for students entering the workforce (Griffin & Dunwoody, 2016),
evidence shows significant cultural resistance to formalizing requirements for data analytics
concerns that focusing on quantitative reasoning skills could take time away from the
development of writing skills and that faculty did not have the expertise or training to teach data
Journalism programs are not the only areas where additional instruction in numerical
literacy is needed. After interviewing 20 leaders in strategic communications, Kim and Freberg
(2016) concluded that academic programs must further develop instruction in social media
content creation, storytelling and analytics to prepare students for growing expectations in the
industry. The need for young strategic communication professionals with analytics experience is
perhaps in part by a lack of expertise in that area by more seasoned employees. In a survey of
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public relations professionals, O’Neil and Lambiase (2016) found that 81% would be interested
The assumption that students in mass media disciplines are averse to math and concerns
about communications faculty’s ability to teach numerical reasoning are both frequently cited as
barriers to offering instruction in media analytics (Yarnall, Johnson, Rinne, & Ranney, 2008).
This reasoning, however, may be based on misconceptions about analytics. Although the ability
to analyze quantitative data and perform statistical analysis depends on math as a tool, statistics
and math are not the same area of study. The application of mathematical concepts however is
necessary to perform basic and advanced statistical analysis, just as it is used for analysis in
disciplines such as physics, computer science, and economics, among others. While mathematics
and statistics are distinct disciplines, generalizations about math and closely associated with
attitudes toward statistics and math averse communication students are likely to be wary of
statistics courses (Fullerton & Umphrey, 2016). This misconception may indicate a need to for
educators to reframe how statistics are presented in journalism and mass media courses. As
Nguyen and Lugo-Ocando (2-16) write, “statistics are not mathematics: they are about the
application of the same kind of logical and valid reasoning needed for other types of news
material” (p. 3). This sentiment is echoed by the comments of an advertising industry consultant
quoted in Neill and Schauster’s (2015) study of the gaps strategic communication leaders saw in
advertising and public relations education. “Everything in our world operates around data and
analytics now, and you better have a really strong core. Doesn’t mean that you’re a data
scientist... but you better be a very sophisticated and savvy user” (p. 11).
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The lack of clear expectations as to what media analytics professionals should (and can)
different organizations, McCosker (2017) found that expectations for analytics employees varied
widely. “Even among digital and social media agencies, there was often no direct work trajectory
or set of qualifications underpinning their appointments.” (p. 163). The limited body of research
on teaching data analysis in journalism and mass media programs offers wide-ranging and
sometimes contradictory advice. For example, Martin (2017) wrote that an introductory statistics
course for media students “should include rigorous readings on statistics and probability, teach
students to analyze data using software such as SPSS or other widely used, non-Excel program,
and assign students to interpret statistical findings of peer-reviewed research” (p. 466). Whereas
Asamoah, Sharda, Hassan Zadeh, & Kalgotra (2017) cautioned against focusing too much on
specific applications stating that “the vast amount of technical skills needed to manage each of
the mostly nascent applications could have an unintended consequence of making students
overly focused on how to use a particular software rather than learning the underlying concepts
To address the issue of how academic programs in journalism and mass communication
can best prepare students for increasingly data drive careers, this research addressed the
following questions:
R1. What skills are required for internships, entry-level and early mid-level jobs in media
analytics?
R2. What (if any) software programs do employers prefer employees in media analytics
Method
In the first phase of this project, researchers collected a sample of 100 job advertisements
using the search term “media analytics” and manually filtering for positions requiring five years
or less of work experience. Of these ads, 36 were pulled from CareerBuilder.com, 31 from
Indeed.com, and 33 from LinkedIn.com. All postings were collected between November 15 and
November 24, 2017 and represent the first positions listed according to fit of the search term
“media analytics.”
The co-authors independently coded the full dataset identifying content in the following
categories: hard skills, soft skills and technological experience. A comparison of researchers’
coding efforts reveled inconsistency between identification of hard and soft skills, so the decision
was made to combine coding categories into a single code of “skills.” Further comparison of the
independent coding showed only minor disagreements, which were solved through brief
discussion and mutual agreement of categorization and phrasing. Researchers then used the text
mining program KH Coder (Higuchi, 2001) to conduct a frequency analysis and co-occurrence
Results
The data show that employers looking to fill positions in media analytics highly value
written and verbal communication skills as well as the ability to work collaboratively (see Figure
1). Although analytical skills appear in reference to many different types of data (i.e. web
analytics, social listening, data analytics, social media analytics), no single type of method of
Frequency
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
verbal
social_listening
social_media_marketing
writing
data_analysis
media_buying
communication
marketing_campaigns
datum
editing
passion
collaborative
multitasking
detail
digital_marketing
presentation_skills
brand_awareness
social_media
web_analytics
strategy
analytical_thinking
data_interpretation
organization_skills
social_media_analytics
digital
oral_communication
project_management
data_analytics
media_planning
blogging
analytical
campaign
creative
campaign_analysis
research
interpersonal_skills
interpersonal
communication_skills
social_media_content_creation
Figure 1: Frequency of terms used to describe required and preferred skills of media analytics
job applicants
The co-occurrence analysis of required or preferred skills referenced in the job ads
showed widespread reference to a range of skills (see Figure 2). A clear cluster (01) consists of
four of the most frequently referenced skills: writing, verbal, multitasking and collaboration.
These are common requirements among positions across the communication industry. Cluster
(08), while not representative of particularly frequent terms, does show a notable relationship
cluster 02 represents a relationship between visual communication skills and presentation skills,
both desirable traits among entry and early-career media analytics professionals.
EQUIPPING THE MEDIA ANALYTICS TOOLBOX 11
Figure 2: Co-occurrence map of terms used to describe required and preferred skills of media
analytics job applicants
The results of the frequency analysis of preferred technical experience also showed a
range of tools referenced in job advertisements. However, Google Analytics was clearly the most
desired skillset among media analytics applicants. This software was closely followed by the
spreadsheet program Excel the social networking platforms Facebook and Twitter. Google
adwords, a suite of tools related to positioning paid content on Google, is also among the top five
most referenced terms in the job ad dataset. The SQL, which refers to a programming language
used to store and manipulate data, was the sixth most referenced term in the dataset and the first
Frequency
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
0
Pinterest
SPSS
Atlas
Facebook
twitter_analytics
Omniture
Salesforce
DBM
Twitter
SAS
LinkedIn
google_adwords
PYTHON
Hootsuite
MRI
adobe_premiere
Nielsen
facebook_insights
Sysomos
Photoshop
Excel
SQL
YouTube
microsoft_office
Sprinklr
google_analytics
word
Kenshoo
HTML
ComScore
Snapchat
Marin
Brandwatch
Bing
Tableau
PowerPoint
adobe_analytics
Figure 3: Frequency of terms used to describe required and preferred technological experience of
media analytics job applicants
In contrast to the co-occurrence analysis of the preferred and required skills (Figure 2),
the co-occurrence analysis of the technological expertise data (Figure 4) showed distinct
clustering of related terms. Although no single programming language, with the possible
exception of SQL, rose to the top of the frequency charts, cluster 01 shows a dense connection of
terms relating to types of coding, programming and scripting languages. This cluster is closely
connected to cluster 03, which references common statistical analysis and visualization tools
including SAS and Tableau. This indicates that, although the preferred language varies between
job descriptions, some familiarity with coding for data manipulation, analysis, and visualizations
Cluster 02 underscores the importance of social media expertise among recent journalism
and mass media graduates. Cross-platform experience, as well as an understanding of the native
analytics programs for each platform, is expected for those pursuing a career in media analytics.
Discussion
The results of this analysis show that there is no clear consensus on the skills or
technological experience needed to pursue a career in media analytics. That said, the data does
provide some direction for academics looking to incorporate instruction in media analytics into
RI asks, “What skills are required for internships, entry-level and early mid-level jobs in
media analytics?” The findings of this study indicate that the foundational skills commonly
ability to collaborate, critical thinking – are highly valued among employers looking to hire
individuals with media analytics experience. More advanced data science skills, such as in-depth
knowledge of programming languages and machine learning technique, are not prominent in the
dataset. Instead, general proficiency in a range of analytics techniques such as social media
metrics, basic coding for data analysis, and data visualization skills may serve media analytics
students better than extensive instruction in a single method of analysis. This finding supports
[W]hat journalists need the most is not a set of skills to calculate or create their own data
but one to use logical, valid reasoning and journalistic skepticism to (a) find and acquire
data, (b) explore and evaluate their real meaning in context, (c) investigate non-numerical
factors shaping them and (d) report them in a balanced, fair, accurate, accessible and
In regards to the second research question, “What (if any) software programs do
employers prefer employees in media analytics positions have experience?” The data again
shows a preference for familiarity with a range of tools and techniques, with the exception of
Google Analytics and Excel. With the prominence of Google Analytics in the field of website
traffic monitoring and its relevance to the process of search engine optimization, the inclusion of
this tool in the majority of job ads is unsurprising. The dominance of Excel however, even over
such popular social networking platforms as Facebook and Twitter, was surprising. The
spreadsheet program was initially released by Microsoft in 1987 and is a stable of the company’s
EQUIPPING THE MEDIA ANALYTICS TOOLBOX 15
office suite. The staid reputation of the program is belied by its robust, and largely underutilized,
One of the primary limitations of this study is the small size of the dataset. The
researchers have already embarked on the second phase of the research project consisted of
and job posting website for media professionals. The Google Chrome plug-in Data Miner was
used to scrape information on all listings in the Media Bistro job board that included any of the
following terms: “analytics,” “analyst,” “analyze” or “data.” The resulting dataset represents
45% of the 584 jobs posted on Media Bistro when the data scrape took place on November 28,
2017. The researchers plan to code and analyze these additional job postings and compare the
findings to those presented in this study. In doing so the researchers hope to expand the findings
of this study and provide additional recommendations for including media analytics in the
curriculum.
Conclusion
Based on the findings of this study, journalism and mass communication programs could
incorporate additional instruction in media analytics with relatively little effort. Employers are
seeking communications majors with numerical literacy, a range of skills, and familiarity with
fairly common media analytics tools. The researchers found evidence that employers in the
media industry tend to be seeking media professionals with data experience, as opposed to data
scientists that can work in the media. With strong communication and collaboration skills,
journalism and mass media students are well-positioned to join a changing workforce. The
EQUIPPING THE MEDIA ANALYTICS TOOLBOX 16
challenge now is to provide instruction and instill confidence in students regarding their ability to
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