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Consuming online digital media


Applications are invited for a PhD studentship based on a project to
examine the factors now affecting and likely in the future to influence
European consumers of online digital content, such as music and news.
The studentship is available from 1 September 2002 for two and a half
years, with the possibility of further funding.


The studentship will be attached to a European project, SimWeb
(http://www.simdigital.com) funded by the IST programme of Framework 5,
which is modelling the digital content market in Europe using multi-agent
simulation.  The project team includes six partners, in Germany, France,
Portugal, Spain and the UK, two of which are companies that sell online
content.


The studentship will focus on providing a better understanding of why
people might be interested in obtaining digital content (either free, or by
subscription), the role of such content in their lives, and the
relationship of online content to content from other, more traditional
sources.  The research is likely to be  based on a combination of
quantitative analyses of secondary data and qualitative analyses of
interviews and observational data.


While the research would be expected to contribute to SimWeb, it would be a
free-standing project.  There would be some travel to project meetings and
to meet partners in Europe.  The studentship includes fees and a bursary of
GBP 8500 per year.


The student will be based in a lively Department of Sociology, rated 5* in
the 2001 RAE, that is carrying out a number of projects on new media and
communications (see, for example, http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/incite/ and
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/dwrc).
The University of Surrey (http://www.surrey.ac.uk/postgraduate/) is located
in the historic market town of Guildford which is surrounded by beautiful
countryside, is ideally situated within the North Downs, just 9 miles from
the M25, 35 minutes by train from London Waterloo, and with quick access to
both Heathrow and Gatwick airports by road, rail or bus.


Informal enquiries may be made by email to Nigel Gilbert at
<[log in to unmask]> (see
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/staff/nigel_gilbert.html), who will be one of
the student's supervisors.


Applications should include a CV, a covering letter and the names of two
academic referees and should be sent by email to
<[log in to unmask]>.


Closing date for applications: August 15.


__________________________________________________________________________
Professor Nigel Gilbert, FREng, AcSS, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of
Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. +44 (0)1483 689173