Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Good Idea to Limit Kids' Media Screen Time

A study of New Zealand teens concludes that parents who limit their children's media screen time may be helping them establish better relationships with friends and family. The study's authors recommend limiting screen time to less than two hours per day, which may be a daunting task given that teens in the U.S. average over seven hours per day according to a recently released study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Parents who don't let their children watch too much television or sit at the computer for hours have been vindicated by a study that linked excessive "screen" time with troubles relating to other people.

The study's findings, published in the March issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, should reassure parents who feel guilty that they are depriving their children of entertainment that their peers are also indulging in, lead author Dr. Rose Richards of the University of Otago said.

"Our findings give some reassurance that it is fine to limit TV viewing," she said. "In fact, it may result in stronger relationships between young people, their friends and their parents."

The study was based on the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study and the Youth Lifestyle Study conducted by the university in the 1980s and then in 2004.

Although the studies were some 16 years apart and the nature of screen-based entertainment has changed, the link with family relationships appears to be the same.

"We found that staring at any screen for a long time is detrimental, and advise parents to stick to the recommended time limit of less than two hours of any screen use a day."

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE62103520100302

Kids and Media Use

In its third phase (1st-1999, 2nd-2004), the Kaiser Family Foundation examines the extent and nature of media usage by young people in the "Generation M^2" study. In a sense, it tells us what we already know: that media is a powerful influence in the lives of our kids. Yet, this study sheds light on explosive growth of media use (largely due to advances in technologies that deliver it) by today's young people.

Significant findings:

• Over the past five years, there has been a huge increase in media use among young people.
    - Today's teens spend 7 hours, 38 minutes per day consuming media (an increase of 1 hour, 17 minutes per day from 2004. This amounts to a full-time job! (Even more when you take into account that the reported time consuming media per day is based upon 7 days a week - not the standard 5 day work week.)
    - When multitasking is accounted for (consuming multiple sources of media at one time), today's youth consume 10 hours, 45 minutes of media content per day! (An increase of about 2 hours, 15 minutes per day from 2004.)

• An explosion in mobile and online media has fueled the increase in media use among young people.
    - The story of media in young people’s lives today is primarily a story of technology facilitating increased consumption. The mobile and online media revolutions have arrived in the lives—and the pockets—of American youth.
    - Mobile media:
        • Cellphone ownership among kids increased from about 39% in 2004 to about 66% in 2009.
        • iPod/MP3 device ownership among kids increased from 18% in 2004 to 76% in 2009.
    - Television on new media platforms:
        • Kids have turned increasingly to watching television programming on mobile devices and online via computer.
    - Online media:
        • As new online media forms have increased (think YouTube, Facebook) kids use of these sources has increased.

• Youth who spend more time with media report lower grades and lower levels of personal contentment.
    - Nearly half (47%) of all heavy media users say they usually get fair or poor grades (mostly C’s or lower), compared to 23% of light media users. Heavy media users are also more likely to say they get into trouble a lot, are often sad or unhappy, and are often bored.

• Children whose parents make an effort to limit media use—through the media environment they create in the home and the rules they set—spend less time with media than their peers.

• Two groups of young people stand out for their high levels of media consumption: those in the tween and early teen years (11- to 14-year-olds), and Blacks and Hispanics.
    - The jump in media use that occurs when young people hit the 11- to 14-year-old age group is tremendous—an increase of more than three hours a day in time spent with media (total media use), and an increase of four hours a day in total media exposure.
    - Differences in media use in relation to race and ethnicity are even more pronounced, with Hispanic and Black youths averaging about 13 hours of media exposure daily (13:00 for Hispanics and 12:59 for Blacks), compared to just over 81⁄2 hours (8:36) among Whites.

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf

Lack of Sex Attracts Teen Girls to Twilight Series

Vampires aside, it's really just a simple love story.

The reason teenage girls have fallen hard for the Twilight book and film series has to do with its portrayal of a traditional, romantic relationship, new research from the University of Missouri shows.

In the series, vampire Edward Cullen doesn't want to harm or bite his teen love interest Bella Swan, which means they can't have sex.

"With teens, we actually found that they appreciated the messages of abstinence," said Melissa Click, an assistant professor of communication who surveyed 4,000 Twilight fans, aged 11 to 70.

Click and her co-authors' research primarily addresses the reasons behind the teenage-madness for Twilight, a four-book series with two films so far.

The Missouri research found that many teen girls — who make up the core of Twilight's audience, along with a few moms — are drawn to the story about love beyond the physical.

"The media environment is saturated with teens in sexual relationships," said Click, who plans to publish the findings next spring in a collaborative book Bitten by Twilight: Youth culture, media and the vampire franchise.

"(Twilight) does provide something different for girls. I've had girls say to me, 'I'm going to wait for my Edward.' And they think that's really cool."

Source: Vancouver Sun
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Lack+attracts+teen+girls+Twilight+series+study/2238456/story.html

Media Images of Alcohol Can Drive You to Drink

Young men who watched the movie American Pie with accompanying commercials for alcohol were more apt to grab a beer or glass of wine from the refrigerator, compared to those who watched a movie without the drinking prompts.

This study shows for the first time the effect of on-screen depictions of alcohol and their influence on consumers' behavior, said the researchers, who are from Canada and the Netherlands.

"It's one of those things the majority of people have assumed to be the case, but it's nice to have the empirical evidence," said Jeffrey T. Parsons, chair of psychology at Hunter College in New York City. Parsons was not involved with the study, which was published online March 4 in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism.

But, Parsons added, the study had limitations.

"It was done just with young men, and there are a lot of differences in the role of gender and alcohol," he said. "It's also a Dutch study that used American movies. Part of me wonders if it's just bad American movies that make people drink."

The new research isn't the only new troubling data coming out on alcohol and alcohol abuse.

On Tuesday, a report in the March issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine said that an estimated 11 percent to 20 percent of U.S. teens have T-shirts, headwear, jewelry, key chains and other paraphernalia emblazoned with brands of alcoholic beverages. These children seem to be more prone to end up being binge drinkers, the Dartmouth researchers noted.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/04/media-images-of-alcohol-can-drive-you-to-drink.html

More Entertainment on Computer Than TV for Millenials

According to Deloitte's State of the Media Democracy survey, three-quarters of Millennials (ages 14 to 25) view the computer as more of an entertainment device than their television. Ed Moran, Deloitte director of product innovation, notes that "This (early-adopter) generation of consumers was the first to be raised on the Internet and is united across borders and cultures by their digital media preferences, so the implications for global marketers are unprecedented." 
Across five surveyed countries, Millennials are the most active in gaming, music and Internet use for socializing:

80% of Millennials are regularly searching, downloading and listening to music over the Internet
73% are also regularly socializing online (via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards)
59% of Millennials use their mobile phone as an entertainment device, versus an average of 33% of all consumers.

Millenials are spending one-third less time watching their television than are other generations.

Source: Center for Media Research
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=99040

Survey: Web Video Beats TV Among Respondents Ages 18-24

In the ever-evolving practices of how our society consumes its media, it comes as no surprise to me that this recent survey indicates that 18-to-24-year-olds spend more time watching web based video than they do watching television. Can the end of television as we've known it be far behind? I'm guessing that one day, today's kids will look back at television programming as it now exists with nostalgia, much like I do on ocassion in regard to the black and white tv I grew up watching, where it was such a kick to stay up late enough to witness the appearance of the test pattern while the Star-Spangled Banner played in the background...

Coveted 18- to-24-year-old consumers now spend more time watching Web-distributed video than broadcast television, according to a new survey released by online video ad network LiveRail.

"We polled several hundred under-25-year-olds, and an overwhelming majority are now watching as much or more video content online as on regular TV," said Mark Trefgarne, CEO of LiveRail. "We were genuinely surprised by the results."

Rather than short-form consumer-generated media, Trefgarne attributes this trend largely to an increase in the availability of quality long-form content from sites like Hulu and TV.com.

Of these respondents, 53% stated that in an average month they spent "more time watching online video than TV." About 19% of respondents said they watched "about the same," while 28% said they watched "more TV than online video."

According to comScore, frequent viewers are now consuming an average of 273.1 minutes of online video content per month--up from 195 minutes a year ago.

Source: Online Media Daily
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=98512&Nid=51271&p=989684

Report Ties Children's Use of Media to Their Health

The National Institutes of Health and a nonprofit advocacy group, Common Sense Media, have another reason for President-elect Barack Obama to keep urging parents to “turn off the TV.”

In what researchers call the first report of its kind, a review of 173 studies about the effects of media consumption on children asserts that a strong correlation exists between greater exposure and adverse health outcomes.

“Coach potato does, unfortunately, sum it up pretty well,” said Ezekiel J. Emanuel, chairman of the bioethics department at the institutes’ clinical center, one of the study’s five reviewers.

The report should compel lawmakers to underwrite media education efforts and public service advertising campaigns and should motivate the entertainment industry to be more “responsible and responsive,” said Jim Steyer, the chief executive of Common Sense Media, which helped to finance the study.

In a clear majority of those studies more time with television, films, video games, magazines, music and the Internet was linked to rises in childhood obesity, tobacco use and sexual behavior. A majority also showed strong correlations — what the researchers deemed “statistically significant associations” — with drug and alcohol use and low academic achievement.

Researchers sought to look at the health effects of a wide array of media and distill 30 years of research into a simple message. “The average parent doesn’t understand that if you plop your kids down in front of the TV or the computer for five hours a day, it can change their brain development, it can make them fat, and it can lead them to get involved in risky sexual activity at a young age,” Mr. Steyer said.

Source: Common Sense Media
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/press-room/Daily-Digest/2008/Report-Ties-Media-Use-To-Health

Adolescents' TV Watching Is Linked to Violent Behavior

Adolescents who watch more than one hour of television a day are more likely to commit aggressive and violent acts as adults, according to a 17-year study reported in the journal Science.

The study, which tracked more than 700 adolescents into adulthood, found that young people watching one to three hours of television daily were almost four times more likely to commit violent and aggressive acts later in life than those who watched less than an hour of TV a day.

Girls as well as boys exhibited increased aggression, according to the study, which was hailed by psychologists and social scientists as more evidence of TV's harmful effects.

"It's a very important study and has a great deal of credibility--it very niftily isolates television as a causal factor," said George Comstock, a researcher on media violence at Syracuse University in New York.

It is also the first study, Comstock said, to clearly link TV viewing among adolescents to later, adult violence.

Source: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-hew-kidviolence2002,0,2251451.story

An important study here! Many have suggested this link in the past, but it's nice that researchers have done the hard work of being patient over 17-years in order to complete this study. It might not be the last word on the issue (I'm sure it won't be!) but parents have greater reason now to place limits on amount of television screen time they permit their children to consume. (Of course, it will also be important to understand that kids are watching less television these days and are consuming more of their video via the Internet and downloads. I may seem obvious, but I want to caution parents that it's not the television medium that leads to the aggressive and violent behaviors in later life, but the content of what adolescents watch.)

Many Teens Spend 40 Hours a Week on 'Screen Time' During High School

For about a third of high school age teenagers, "Screen Time" each week amounts to a full time job!

While most teenagers (60 percent) spend on average 20 hours per week in front of television and computer screens, a third spend closer to 40 hours per week, and about 7 percent are exposed to more than 50 hours of ‘screen-time’ per week, according to a study presented at the American Heart Association’s 48th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

Researchers looked at patterns of screen-time through high school, including total time viewing television, video, computer and the Internet. Then they examined the influence of neighborhood social factors on distinct patterns of screen-time.

“Boys and those whose parents had lower educational attainment were much more likely to be in the ‘high-screen time’ group,” said Tracie A. Barnett, Ph.D., lead author of the study. “Teens with high levels of screen time may be at increased risk of obesity.”

Barnett and colleagues identified distinct levels of screen-time for each of television/video and computer/Internet use. Overall, their study showed that:

* 52 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls reported average total screen-time levels above 42 hours per week;
* 52 percent of boys and 39 percent of girls reported average levels of TV/video use above 23 hours per week;
* 24 percent of boys and 7 percent of girls reported average levels of computer/Internet use of almost 30 hours per week.

Source: Labspaces.net
http://www.labspaces.net/view_news_comments.php?newsID=3883

How Much Money is Spent on Advertising?

Pop Quiz: How much money is spent by companies in the USA on advertising in a year?

A. 1.9 Billion Dollars
B. 6.8 Billion Dollars
C. 12.3 Billion Dollars
D. 14.9 Billion Dollars

If you chose any of the above, sorry, it was a trick question. I just came across the stats regarding advertising spending for 2006 and the actual amount spent is much higher. A lot higher. The number is actually just shy of 150 Billion dollars. Read it again: 150 Billion dollars. That's more than the individual Gross National Products of some 185 countries. There are only some 35 countries in the world that have a GNP higher than the amount U.S. companies (as a whole) spend on advertising. Why do our companies spend so much?

Advertising works. It's all about the bottom line. The goal of advertising (obviously) is to sell goods and services, to you and to your kids. This just serves as an encouragement to talk to your kids about advertising. There are plenty of opportunities in any given day to engage in such a discussion. Remind your kids that the point of advertising is to create a desire within them in order to get them to buy something, so that companies can add to their profits. It's the American way. It's not that all advertising is bad, it's just that kids should learn and become savvy enough to realize that everyday, they will encounter companies (via advertising) that want their money.

TNS Media Intelligence Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Increased 4.1 Percent in 2006
Total advertising expenditures in 2006 increased 4.1 percent to $149.6 billion as compared to 2005, according to data released today by TNS Media Intelligence, the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. Ad spending during the fourth quarter of 2006 was up by 4.2 percent against the same period in 2005.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence
http://www.tns-mi.com/news/03132007.htm