Exam Question 2

Exam Question 2

The question asked is how far my Primary does and Secondary research conducted support the conclusions drawn in the article and judging from some of my research, the conclusions have not been supported, it has been contradicted. A small minority of my secondary research only states connections and similarities from the Ofcom 2014 article. The only possible conclusion that has supported the article is from the Ofcom 2016 article, addressing that TV sets are the most popular forms of media devices. On the other hand, some of my research doesn’t support the conclusions summed up in the article. My Primary research completely does not support the conclusions as it fights and draws opposite conclusions; research gathered from a survey state that social media and phones are more popular than watching TV or films. Statistics made from my Primary survey express that 70% of children between the ages of 5-15 say that they use their mobile phones more than any other media device and TV follows after with 13%. This already contradicts both the Ofcom articles in popularity of media devices use the most.

In addition to the list of contradictions to the Ofcom article, my survey has also drawn conclusions that the trend of TV media devices is not the most popular and has been outgrown by the accompany of mobile devices and laptops (21%). Even the Ofcom 2016 article shows that the trend of TV devices in the bedrooms has decreased and levelled off at 48%. As a result of having more mobile and laptop devices, it creates a movement of isolation from the family and more time socialising online and watching TV shows and films without the accompaniment of family members. Statistics from my survey presents 71% of children have devices in their bedrooms compared of the Ofcom 2016. This shows a drastic change in consumption too; if more children are having devices like laptops and phones in their bedrooms then more shows will be shown online rather than on TV.

Another part of my research that contradicts the article is my secondary sources from the guardian and the BBC News. My primary research was supported these two secondary sources. They support the fact that time spent online has overtaken watching TV time. The information from the Guardian was taken from a site called Child wise that produce trustworthy information. ‘Research from child wise found that on average 5-15 year olds were spending 3hours a day using the internet, compared to 2.1 watching TV. Also it says, “TV viewing has been redefined.”  “Children are now seeking out the content of their choice. They still find traditional TV programmes engaging but are increasingly watching them online and on-demand or binge watching box sets.” This just proves that children are becoming more independent because they can watch things on their own. The strengths of my primary research was that the sample was a fair amount and I had valid responses, also my questions were not biased. The strengths of my secondary research was that one source was the of com source, another source was from BBC and another from the Guardian. These two sources are reliable because they are written by people who have a history of written for them and also the two sources post information about the world.

Furthermore to the research, I found some points that have linked my research to the Ofcom article in terms of supporting information. One part that supports the article was that children between the ages of 12-15 have online profile. It is mainly girls that have social media profile and socialise, whereas boys mainly go on games. Another part that links is the children’s consumption of internet hours. My survey findings show that the children mainly spend 3-5 hours a day on the internet which was corresponding to the Ofcom 2016 article which addressed that children in the 2016 article spend 20 hours and 6 minutes weekly on the internet which is on average 3 hours and 9 minutes a day online. Parents are more concerned about the time that girls spend on social media, as they are the gender that goes on it more often; they are not as concerned for boy because they have the impression that they can handle themselves. Also boys tend to spend more time on consoles than social media. 

As some of my research contradicted the article, majority was relevant information and I also made sure that my research was trustworthy and valid. The majority of my research either contradicted the article or had secondary research to back it up or linked to both 2014 and 2016 Ofcom articles. Only a small amount of both my research was irrelevant, either because of choice of question or source of research. My survey responses were good because of the amount of responses (30) and even though the some of my questions weren’t open question, they still had a number of valid responses. Having 30 responses shows the validity of my research and makes it trustworthy for people to believe. Majority of my questions asked were not biased but one question which said, "Do you watch films on your device?", which shows slight bias as I am only talking about one piece of content that can be viewed on a device. Half of my secondary was valid because of where they were from, confirmed by Harvard referencing and also they fought against the Ofcom 2014 article. My conclusion basically addresses that my primary and secondary research have deeply contradicted the article and have stated that children spend more time online than watching TV.