Task 2

1. Summarise the key findings in the report

The stimulus of the article is Children and parents: Media use and attitudes. Some of the key findings which were displayed in the article were that seven in ten children ages 5-15 now have access to a tablet computer at home. Furthermore, children aged 3-4 are almost twice as likely to go online using a tablet. Going online using a mobile phone is also more likely for children aged 12-15, This has lead to access via a PC/laptop has decreased. More kids aged 5-15 have access to smart TVs but fewer have TVs and game consoles in their bedroom. Gaming on tablets is on the rise, while gaming on some other devices is falling. TV is the media device that would be most missed overall. Older children aged 12-15 years old spend more time online and prefer mobile phones for social activities. 8-11-year-olds are spending more time online than in 2013. Children are using a broader range of social media services with differences by gender. Girls are more likely to have a profile on Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr account than boys. On the other hand, boys are more likely to have a youtube account than girls. Boys preference for gaming devices is evident from an early age. Whilst girls are more likely than boys to miss mobile phones and reading. More children are demonstrating a level of critical understanding in relation to different sources of online information. 

2. Summarise the Methodology used - Primary and Secondary methods.

Their methodology was used as a media literacy tracker with children and parents. Essentially this was a quantitative type of primary research as they conducted a survey. The survey was updated annually from 2009 all the way up to 2014. Interviews were conducted with parents of children aged 3-4. The methodology suggests In April, May and June 2014 1,660 in-home interviews with parents of children 5-15 were conducted, along with 731 interviews with parents of children 3-4 years old.

3. Which different audiences have been considered in the sample?

With this research, there are different audiences that were considered the first audiences are children. They have chosen to separate their children in different age ranges one being aged 5-15, the second bing children aged 12-15, the next were children aged 3-4. another audience that has been considered is the gender of the children, whether they are a boy or girl. They finally considered the Parents, as they are going to be speaking on behalf of their child who is participating in the survey by being interviewed.

4. Is the sample broad or representative enough to be valid?

This is unlikely to be a broad enough sample because although they do have significant participants in the actual research part they have a separated their children's age categories but have not taken an equal sample size for each individual categories.

5. Identify which sections of the report are based on Quantitative research

The sections of the report containing the figure 1 graph about Availability of key platforms in the home by age:2007,2009,2011,2013. Further more the figure 9g graph analysing the media in children's bedrooms amount 5-15s:2007,2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014. Finally the Figure 10 graph: media in children's bedrooms, by age 200, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014.

6. Identify which sections of the report are based on Qualitative Research

The sections of the report which are based on qualitative research are the interviews which they stated that they conducted in the methodology analysis.

7. Discuss how or if the Quantitative and Qualitative are inter-linked

They did interlink the quantitative and qualitative data because they used the same age range categories for the children both in their survey's and their interviews.

8. Is there any reference to Secondary research or Academic studies in this area?

Through out the whole article there was no mention of any academic sources referenced or used. However they had One resource which could be considered reliable would be Ofcom as they are the official regulatory body for television content. 

9. What are the issues with the Primary research that has been conducted?

The issues that I have been able to pick out from this report is that they have used a different sample size for the children's parents that have been interviewed. They have interviewed over double a number of parents with children aged 5-15 than parents of children aged 3-4. This could affect the results because there would be a lack of those parents getting a say in how their child acts so it will be an inaccurate representation. Another issue of the primary research is that although they have updated their results they haven't used the same sample size each time, so they haven't repeated their methods and therefore have gotten a greater set of results from certain years such as in young peoples media usage survey, 2007 they got 3696 parents of 5-15-year-old children, whereas in 2008 they only conducted 2,066 interviews of parents with children aged 5-15. another issue is that they have conducted their survey's and interviews at different times of their year over the course of their research. This could impact on the results because at different times of the year different types of material are released and holidays are available to the children allowing them to have more free time to consume media.

10. What research needs to be carried out to apply the findings to - or how this will impact on your SECTOR?

my industry sector is the television sector. I think the research that needs to be carried to apply these findings would have to be firstly how television is consumption children aged 5-15, 8-11 and 12-15. This is so I know if there are any differences between children's ages. Next, I would then have to figure out the hourly rates of which children aged 5-8, 8-11 and 12-15 years old view Tv programming.