Exam Question 4

With reference to the article and your own research, how has the topic impacted on consumption patterns in your specific media sector?

With reference from the article and my own research, I have concluded that audience consumption is the main reason as to the downfall of television consumption. This has negatively affected television production.  There is one focal reason for the reduction of consumption towards television and it is caused by the increase in ownership of tablets as a whole. Citing back to the Ofcom 2014 article, indicating that children at the ages of 12-15 say that they prefer to socialise online rather than watch TV, this is due to the increase in age as they find TV boring and rather have creative discussions on social media. It also says that 12-15 year olds say they spend more time going online than watching television. The consumption hours of being online is 3 hours and has overtaken the television consumption hours. In addition to this, children from 7-15 prefer to view content of their choice on tablets and phones and this is followed up by a fact from the Ofcom article, 12-15 year olds are twice as likely to say they would miss their mobile phone than the TV. Children’s access to a tablet computer at home has increased from (51%) to (71%) for 5-15 year olds since 2013.  Another device that has caused the consumption of television to decrease is mobile phones. Four in ten 5-15s own a mobile phone; rising to almost eight in ten children aged 12-15. Making some links from the article to my primary research, 70% of people chose mobile phones as their most used devices, this adds to the downfall in television consumption. Making another link between my primary and secondary research, my secondary research supports my primary conclusions and support the fact that television is on the decrease in consumption. Children use social media sites like YouTube and snapchat, as they are the most popular sites to use. It is easy to find any type of content they want and they prefer to view the “how to do” content, which would take up most of their time. My secondary research strongly subsidizes the fact that tablet consumption has not only overtaken television but has also over taken every other media device. The rise in tablets significantly means that online activities will increase and more time spent alone in their bedrooms. Also with the absence of tablets, alternative devices are mainly laptops or PC’s, which was recommended from the results of my survey research, television as an alternative came third. Referring back to my secondary research from the BBC News, its states that among television services, Netflix emerged as the most popular choice - overtaking all the conventional channels. Children rarely watch TV anymore as they can receive the same content online, content like EastEnders, I’m a celebrity get me out of here, the flash and even kids content can be seen in various places like YouTube, illegal sites and Netflix.