Transcript Revision: Childwise media

Media use among children and young
people
Joan Garrod
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Children’s media usage
The research agency ‘Childwise’ has been following children’s viewing behaviour since the
mid-1990s.
Their annual survey is based on a sample of more than 2,000 children aged 5 to 16.
The findings from the 2016 report Connected Kids have been described as a ‘tipping point’,
with children switching from watching conventional television to spending more time online.
Questions
1Why might changes in the use of media by children and young people be of interest to
sociologists?
2Which other groups in society might be interested in such changes, and why?
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Children’s media usage
Connected Kids main findings
More time is now spent online than watching television. On average, children aged 5 to 16
spend 2.1 hours a day watching TV, down from 3 hours in 2000.
There has been a change in the way that TV is watched:
• 60% watch TV via a phone, tablet or laptop
• 38% do most of their TV viewing on demand
• Among 15–16 year olds, less than a quarter typically watch TV ‘live’, preferring a catch-up
or on-demand service, or YouTube.
• Across the whole age range, none of the TV programmes identified as ‘favourites’, such as
Hollyoaks and Pretty Little Liars, had been seen by more than 2% of young people in the
previous week.
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Children’s media usage
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Children’s media usage
Young people say that they go online for the following reasons:
• to watch videos
• to listen to music
• to play games
• to do research for their homework
• for social networking — especially older girls
But however they access the internet, YouTube is the dominant destination. It is
used every day by almost half of all children aged 5–16, most often via a mobile
phone or tablet. They particularly want to see ‘funny’ content, but about a third
watch ‘how to’ videos, including how to play computer games. Almost three quarters
use YouTube to watch TV programmes, compared with 40% of this age group who
watch via BBC iPlayer.
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Children’s media usage
Gender differences are apparent from an early age.
Discussion points
•What gender differences would you expect to find in young people’s viewing habits
and use of media, and why?
•How might sociologists explain these differences?
•Take a ‘straw poll’ among the people in your class. Are such gender differences
apparent?
•Parents also treat boys and girls differently, monitoring some aspects of girls’ online
activity more closely than boys. What reason(s) might there be for this?
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Children’s use of media
More gender differences
On TV, boys expressed a preference for sport programmes, such as Match of the Day. Girls
preferred reality shows, such as Made in Chelsea.
Online, boys had a preference for gaming, while girls preferred communicating.
There are also differences in the choice of social media services. Seven in 10 children aged
12–15 who go online have a social media profile, with Facebook the dominant choice. The use
of Instagram has doubled since 2013, and is now used by 36% of this age group. A significant
minority with a social media profile use photo or video message sites, or apps such as
SnapChat.
Among the same group, boys are more likely to have a YouTube profile (29% v 15%), while
girls are more likely to have a profile on Instagram (42% v 30%), SnapChat (33% v 20%) and
Tumblr (11% v 3%).
Boys in each age group are over five times more likely than girls to say that they would most
miss a games console, while girls are more likely than boys to say they would most miss a
mobile phone and reading.
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Children’s media usage
Future trends
The authors of the Childwise report make some future predictions, based on their findings.
• Tablet ownership among this age group is likely to increase, while ownership of laptops and
PCs is likely to fall.
• Conventional TV viewing will continue to decline, being replaced by more on-demand and
‘binge viewing’ on tablets and laptops.
• There will be a further decline in the proportion of children with TV sets in their bedroom —
this has already fallen from 80% in 2004 to 60% in 2014.
• Children will increasingly expect to access the internet anywhere and everywhere. This
may even influence their willingness to take part in family holidays and days out.
• The use of portable devices will make it more difficult for parents to monitor and regulate
what their children are watching online.
• Photo and video sharing sites will become increasingly popular among young people.
• Mobiles will become a ‘hub’ device, used to co-ordinate a variety of other devices.
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016
Gendered use of media
Useful links
The following link will take you to an account of research carried out by the US Pew Research
Center, with further illustration of the gendered use of social media, this time among adults.
http://tinyurl.com/zlndpct
The link below will take you to other research from the Pew Center, this time about ‘Teens,
Technology and Friendships’, also with valuable information about gender differences in social
media usage.
http://tinyurl.com/prwqlnn
Philip Allan Publishers © 2016