A Publisher Is Considering Publishing a New Magazine About Environmentally-Friendly

question 46

Essay

A publisher is considering publishing a new magazine about environmentally-friendly living in the city and plans to gage interest in the magazine using potential consumers. Company researchers want to measure whether there is a difference in opinion between the new magazine and the competing publication. Company researchers believe that consumer reaction to the new magazine will depend on age so they decide to block on age. To do this, they create blocks for consumers between the ages 18-24 years, 25-32 years, 33-45 years, and 46 years and older. They then randomly select two of the blocks to read the first issue of the new magazine and the other two blocks to read a similar competing publication. Following the test, participants respond to a questionnaire about the magazine they read. Is this an effective design for the study? If not, describe an improvement.

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Definitions:

Computer

Any electronic device that can accept information, manipulate it according to a set of preprogrammed instructions, and supply the results of the manipulation.

Files

Digital documents or records stored in a computer system or other storage devices.

Scanned

Describes the process of sequentially examining or reading information from a source, often used in the context of barcodes or digital images.

Data

Information that is processed or stored by a computer.