Background Information HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Over the course of a given week, the vast majority of Americans watch at least some amount of television. Since most television shows are paid for by the sales of advertising, both broadcasters and advertisers have a vested interest in knowing who is watching each television show. Nielsen Media Research conducts surveys on a weekly basis to calculate the ratings for television shows. The calculated ratings are used for a variety of purposes including deciding which shows to air and when to schedule them, how much advertising costs, and when to buy advertising. Problem Statement In this project, we wish to create a database to store and analyze television show ratings data for the top 20 most-watched shows in a given week. Project Instructions IMPORTANT: Complete the below steps in the order they are given. Completing the steps out of order may complicate the project or result in an incorrect result. 1. Begin by creating a new Microsoft Access database named lastname_firstname_ntrp.accdb. 2. We would like to begin by making a table to store the television networks. a. Create a table named Networks to store the names of the television networks and their abbreviations. Designate the abbreviation as primary key. b. Enter records for all networks below. HINT: The Networks table will contain 6 records. Network Name National Broadcasting Company American Broadcasting Company Columbia Broadcasting System Fox Broadcasting Company CW Television Network Public Broadcasting Service Network Abbreviation NBC ABC CBS FOX CW PBS 3. We need to store information on various television show genres. a. Create a table named Genres to store the show genres. Include a separate field (other than the genre) to serve as primary key. Page 1 of 7 Version 14.3
b. Enter records into the Genres table corresponding to the below genres. HINT: The Genres table will contain 6 records. Comedy Drama Sports Reality Action News 4. There is nothing to do for this step. Please proceed to the next step. 5. To finish adding our dataset, we must store information about the shows. a. Create a table named Shows to store information on each of our shows (listed below under Step 5b). Some requirements for this table appear below. IMPORTANT: Completely define the Shows table before entering records. i. For the primary key, use an AutoNumber-type field to store an ID number. ii. Create a text field to store the abbreviation for the show s network (e.g., FOX for the show Family Guy). iii. iv. For the network abbreviation, create a relationship to the primary key of the Networks table to indicate which network airs each show. Enforce referential integrity and enable cascade updates, but do not enable cascade deletes. Provide a field to store the name of the television show. Using a lookup field to the Genres table, allow the user to specify the show genre. The user should be able to select the full name of the genre (e.g., Drama ) from the lookup field dropdown list. The Lookup Wizard will create a relationship automatically to the Genres table. Edit this relationship to enforce referential integrity and enable cascade updates, but do not enable cascade deletes. v. Provide a fixed-type number field with 1 decimal place to store the show s rating. vi. vii. Provide a field formatted as a percentage with 1 decimal place to store the show s viewer share. Include a field to store the number of viewers. Page 2 of 7 Version 14.3
viii. Create a lookup field that will allow us to specify the day that the show aired. You must provide the possible values shown below: ix. Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Create a date/time field to store the start time of the show. Represent the time in the medium time format (e.g., 10:22 PM ). Page 3 of 7 Version 14.3
b. Enter the below show data into your Shows table as appropriate. The below information is from the week of February 6-12, 2012. HINT: The Shows table will contain 20 records. Ntwk Show Genre Rtng Share Viewers Day Time CBS Grammy Awards Reality 14.1 33.0% 39,909,000 Sun 8:00pm CBS NCIS Drama 3.9 11.0% 20,976,000 Tue 8:00pm FOX American Idol- Reality 6.1 17.0% 19,325,000 Wed 8:00pm Wednesday FOX American Idol- Reality 5.7 16.0% 18,132,000 Thu 8:00pm Thursday NBC Voice Reality 6.0 15.0% 17,844,000 Mon 8:00pm CBS NCIS:Los Angeles Drama 3.2 8.0% 16,266,000 Tue 9:00pm CBS The Big Bang Theory Comedy 5.5 16.0% 16,206,000 Thu 8:00pm CBS Person of Interest Drama 3.3 8.0% 15,138,000 Thu 9:00pm CBS The Mentalist Drama 2.9 8.0% 14,678,000 Thu 10:00pm CBS 60 Minutes News 2.8 7.0% 14,254,000 Sun 7:00pm CBS Criminal Minds Drama 3.3 8.0% 13,306,000 Wed 9:00pm CBS Two and a Half Men Comedy 3.9 9.0% 13,000,000 Mon 9:00pm ABC Modern Family Comedy 5.5 14.0% 12,899,000 Wed 9:00pm CBS Unforgettable Drama 2.3 6.0% 11,863,000 Tue 10:00pm CBS Blue Bloods Drama 1.8 5.0% 11,822,000 Fri 10:00pm CBS 2 Broke Girls Comedy 3.8 10.0% 11,467,000 Mon 8:30pm NBC Smash Drama 2.8 7.0% 11,443,000 Mon 10:00pm CBS Mike & Molly Comedy 3.4 8.0% 10,954,000 Mon 9:31pm CBS CSI Drama 2.5 7.0% 10,884,000 Wed 10:00pm CBS ROB Comedy 3.3 9.0% 10,742,000 Wed 8:31pm 6. Create separate queries to provide the information requested below. Name each query after the step in which it appears (e.g., name the query in Step 6a as Query6A ). HINT: Run your queries to test them. Make sure that they display all and only the records that you would expect to appear. a. Create a query that lists all show names, their full network name, full genre name, ratings, viewer shares, number of viewers, air day and air time. Sort by ratings and then by viewer share, both in descending order. HINT: This query returns 20 records. Page 4 of 7 Version 14.3
b. Create a query that lists show names, their full network name, ratings and the number of viewers. Only display shows with a rating of at least 3.0 but not more than 6.0. Sort by network and then by rating, both in ascending order. HINT: This query returns 12 records. c. Create a query that lists each genre name, the number of shows within that genre, and the total number of viewers for that genre. Your results must include all genres, even if they have no shows. Sort by the total number of viewers in descending order. HINT: This query returns 6 records. d. Create a query that displays each full network name and the average of the ratings for that network s shows. Format the average as a fixed-type number with 2 decimal places. Sort by the full network name in ascending order. HINT: This query returns 4 records. e. Create a query that lists all shows with their names, ratings, viewer shares, and number of viewers. You must also create a calculated field that estimates the total number of households watching, which can be determined from the rating value. You can calculate the number of households watching using the formula: ([Shows. Rating] 1128000) Sort the results by the number of viewers and then the number of households, both in descending order. HINT: This query returns 20 records. 7. Using the Form Wizard, create a form with subform. The main form should display the full network name. The subform must display a datasheet with all Shows table fields. Name the main form NetworkData and the subform NetworkDataSubform. Page 5 of 7 Version 14.3
8. Using the Report Wizard, create a report to show the results of Query6A. Display all fields from the query. View by genre and sort by show name in ascending order. Use a stepped layout and landscape page orientation. Name the report ShowSummary. NOTE: Several columns on the generated report might be too narrow to display the full text. You should manually adjust the column widths if needed. 9. Create a table named AnalysisQuestions. This table will need to be able to store which question is being answered and your answer to that question in each record. Answer four of the five below questions, one question per record. Specifically indicate the question you are answering for each record. a. How does Nielsen select the participants who track their viewing so that the ratings can be generated? Do you think the method used gives accurate results for the number of viewers for the shows? b. In looking at the top 20 shows listed, only one of the shows aired on a Friday or Saturday. Why do you think this might be the case? c. In addition to overall viewer figures, Nielsen tracks viewers by various demographics including age and gender. Why might one want to use this demographic information? For example, why might it matter if a show has many female teenage viewers but few male viewers in their forties? d. Four times a year, advertising rates are set based on ratings recorded during sweeps periods. Do you think that measuring viewers just at certain times of the year like this gives accurate overall results? Why or why not? e. Average television show ratings have been decreasing over time. What are some possible causes for this? 10. Run the Compact and Repair Database utility on your database. Page 6 of 7 Version 14.3
Curriculum Information Project Type Microsoft Access database Relationship to GEC Objective 2 In addition to providing basic research and data analysis skills, this assignment allows students to explore the economics of mass media and how changing technologies can have a financial impact on advertising. Relationship to GEC Objective 4 Most individuals watch at least some amount of television each week. This assignment helps expose students to how networks determine which shows remain on the air and how advertisers choose when to purchase advertising. Grading Rubric This project will be worth 60 points and will be graded based upon the following components. The instructor may adjust the below values as he or she feels appropriate: Steps 2a-b 4.5 points total Steps 6a-e 4.5 points each Steps 3a-b 4.5 points total Step 7 3 points Step 5a 6 points Step 8 3 points Step 5b 4.5 points Steps 9a-e (pick 4 of 5) 3 points each Acknowledgments Nielsen ratings information was taken from http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,272 weekly,00.html and is used under fair-use provisions of copyright law. Page 7 of 7 Version 14.3