Other activities while using media
Because different media are used in different ways for different reasons and in different situations, the nature and degree of attention varies substantially from medium to medium.
People do not always consume media in isolation. There is often a lot going on around them at the moment of media exposure. Sometimes one medium is employed only in a supporting role. Two media are often used together. All this has a marked bearing on how well media content is received and digested.
The “Absorbing Media” survey investigated some of the other activities which were going on while consumers were using each of the six media. As the next table shows, all six media are used amid considerable other activities, including exposure to other media. The table should be read vertically.)
Television viewers are particularly prone to temporarily focus on other things when the commercials come on, because viewers are not in control of how long the advertisements run. Only 29% watch the commercial ‘nearly all or a lot of the time’. Otherwise they are switching channels (26% do this ‘nearly all or a lot of the time), talking to someone in the room or on the phone (31%), being distracted by something else (28%), or leave the room temporarily (21%). If they are watching a video-recorded programme, 69% fast forward through the commercials.
Activities done ‘Nearly all/a lot of the time’ while using each medium
|
|
News- |
Supple- |
|
Radio |
| |
|
Activity |
Magazine |
paper |
ment |
TV |
with ads |
Website |
|
|
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Read magazine |
|
|
11 |
15 |
3 | |
|
Read newspaper |
|
|
9 |
13 |
1 | |
|
Read newspaper supplement |
|
6 |
9 |
2 | ||
|
Watch TV |
22 |
23 |
21 |
|
7 |
4 |
|
Listen to commercial radio |
15 |
13 |
11 |
4 |
|
7 |
|
Look at websites |
5 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
|
|
Talk, in room or on phone |
22 |
19 |
18 |
22 |
23 |
17 |
|
Do household chores |
|
|
18 |
29 |
| |
|
Drive |
|
|
|
|
41 |
|
Source: Absorbing Media, 2002. Base: 12+ respondents who use the medium
Share of attention
What happens when people use two media simultaneously – which medium attracts the main attention? The Belgian “MediaTime Study” of 2002 [90] showed that where magazines, television and radio are concerned, it is magazines to which attention is chiefly devoted.
|
Share of attention: magazines and television |
Share of attention: magazines and radio |
 |
 |