Audience Stratification and Digital Innovation: Exploring Public Educational Practices in a Regional Museum

Abstract

Driven by global digital cultural transformation, museums are transforming from collection‑oriented repositories into inclusive educational venues. Current research on differentiated museum education mainly focuses on Western or national flagship museums, lacking systematic analysis of audience stratification and low‑cost digital practices in Chinese provincial regional museums. This paper constructs a dual analytical framework of audience stratification and lightweight digital museum education. Using multiple qualitative approaches including case study, documentary review and cross‑regional comparison, it investigates public education practices at Hunan Museum, a representative regional museum in central China. Results identify a three‑tiered education system for child‑family, teacher‑student and adult visitors, supported by offline outreach activities and systematic low‑cost online digital resources. Despite museum administrators’ forward‑looking digital vision, structural problems remain: resource bias toward juvenile audiences, insufficient in‑depth content for adults, limited museum‑school partnerships, and absence of quantitative evaluation for long‑term educational effects. This study supplements Western audience‑stratification theories with China‑specific museum‑school collaborative experience and offers practical optimisation strategies for global regional museums to realise equitable differentiated low‑cost digital education service.