searching for an anorak

David Ferrabee joins the ranks of those searching for a way to rigourously measure communication - at least I hope he wants to get real measures, as opposed to some of the easier to generate but essentially meaningless numbers that can get floated around. The major problem with comms measurement, and what makes it so difficult, is that the thing being measured is really fuzzy - typically impact, or behavioural or attitude change, and is easy to misreport and derive incorrect conclusions, especially when so few companies seem willing to adopt standard experimental techniques to isolate what has caused the effect. Contrast this with epidemiological population studies, or clinical drug trials, in which strenuous efforts are made to ensure that biases are eliminated, variables are unintwined and effects are associated with the correct causes. We could do worse than start from there. Technorati Tags: communication, measurement