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.

First Set of Primary Research - Survey Results on Social Media

Secondary Results Evaluation

What I can conclude from my extensive secondary research is that the cause of aggression and violence in the video game may not be because of the content but because of the competitiveness of the game as a study showed that more competitive games produced greater levels of aggressive behaviour than the amount of violence in games. The link that can be made between video games in general are that they all contain an element of competitiveness as they have options where you can either work in teams or by yourself to win. Another idea was raised that perhaps its not the violence in the game but perhaps the mental state of that person before they start playing type of game.

Extensive Secondary Research

The issue of children’s exposure to violent video games has been a source of considerable debate for several decades. Questions persist whether children with pre-existing mental health problems may be influenced adversely by exposure to violent games, even if other children are not. We explored this issue with 377 children (62 % female, mixed ethnicity, mean age = 12.93) displaying clinically elevated attention deficit or depressive symptoms on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist. Results from our study found no evidence for increased bullying or delinquent behaviors among youth with clinically elevated mental health symptoms who also played violent video games. Our results did not support the hypothesis that children with elevated mental health symptoms constitute a “vulnerable” population for video game violence effects. Implications and suggestions for further research are provided.


https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/S10964-013-9986-5

CONTEXT. Youth worldwide play violent video games many hours per week. Previous research suggests that such exposure can increase physical aggression.

OBJECTIVE. We tested whether high exposure to violent video games increases physical aggression over time in both high- (United States) and low- (Japan) violence cultures. We hypothesized that the amount of exposure to violent video games early in a school year would predict changes in physical aggressiveness assessed later in the school year, even after statistically controlling for gender and previous physical aggressiveness.

DESIGN. In 3 independent samples, participants’ video game habits and physically aggressive behavior tendencies were assessed at 2 points in time, separated by 3 to 6 months.

PARTICIPANTS. One sample consisted of 181 Japanese junior high students ranging in age from 12 to 15 years. A second Japanese sample consisted of 1050 students ranging in age from 13 to 18 years. The third sample consisted of 364 United States 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-graders ranging in age from 9 to 12 years.

RESULTS. Habitual violent video game play early in the school year predicted later aggression, even after controlling for gender and previous aggressiveness in each sample. Those who played a lot of violent video games became relatively more physically aggressive. Multisample structure equation modeling revealed that this longitudinal effect was of a similar magnitude in the United States and Japan for similar-aged youth and was smaller (but still significant) in the sample that included older youth.

CONCLUSIONS. These longitudinal results confirm earlier experimental and cross-sectional studies that had suggested that playing violent video games is a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior and that this violent video game effect on youth generalizes across very different cultures. As a whole, the research strongly suggests reducing the exposure of youth to this risk factor.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/122/5/e1067?sso=1&sso_redirect_count=1&nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token 

Adachi, Paul J. C.,Willoughby, Teena

Psychology of Violence, Vol 1(4), Oct 2011, 259-274

Objective: This study is the first to our knowledge to isolate the effect of video game violence and competitiveness on aggressive behaviour. 

Method: In Pilot Study 1, a violent and nonviolent video game were matched on competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action, and the effect of each game on aggressive behaviour was then compared using an unambiguous measure of aggressive behaviour (i.e., the Hot Sauce Paradigm) in Experiment 1. In Pilot Study 2, competitiveness was isolated by matching games on difficulty and pace of action, and systematically controlling for violence. The effect of video game competition on aggressive behaviour was then examined in Experiment 2.

Results: We found that video game violence was not sufficient to elevate aggressive behaviour compared with a nonviolent video game, and that more competitive games produced greater levels of aggressive behaviour, irrespective of the amount of violence in the games.

Conclusion: It appears that competition, not violence, may be the video game characteristic that has the greatest influence on aggressive behaviour. Future research is needed to explore the mechanisms through which video game competitiveness influences aggressive behaviour, as well as whether this relation holds in the long-term. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0024908

Published online 18th April 2013

The majority of research on the link between video games and aggression has focused on the violent content in games. In contrast, recent experimental research suggests that it is video game competition, not violence, that has the greatest effect on aggression in the short-term. However, no researchers have examined the long-term relationship between video game competition and aggression. In addition, if competition in video games is a significant reason for the link between video game play and aggression, then other competitive activities, such as competitive gambling, also may predict aggression over time. 

In the current study, we directly assessed the socialization (competitive video game play and competitive gambling predicts aggression over time) versus selection hypotheses (aggression predicts competitive video game play and competitive gambling over time). Adolescents (N = 1,492, 50.8 % female) were surveyed annually from Grade 9 to Grade 12 about their video game play, gambling, and aggressive behaviours. Greater competitive video game play and competitive gambling predicted higher levels of aggression over time, after controlling for previous levels of aggression, supporting the socialization hypothesis. The selection hypothesis also was supported, as aggression predicted greater competitive video game play and competitive gambling over time, after controlling for previous competitive video game play and competitive gambling. Our findings, taken together with the fact that millions of adolescents play competitive video games every day and that competitive gambling may increase as adolescents transition into adulthood, highlight the need for a greater understanding of the relationship between competition and aggression.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-013-9952-2

Television, video game and social media use among children with ASD and typically developing sibling

First Published online September 2012

This study examined the nature of television, video game, and social media use in children (ages 8–18) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD, n = 202) compared to typically developing siblings (TD, n = 179), and relative to other activities. Parents completed measures assessing children’s screen-based and other extracurricular activities. Children with ASD spent approximately 62 % more time watching television and playing video games than in all non-screen activities combined. Compared with TD siblings, children with ASD spent more hours per day playing video games (2.4 vs. 1.6 for boys, and 1.8 vs. 0.8 for girls), and had higher levels of problematic video game use. In contrast, children with ASD spent little time using social media or socially interactive video games.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-012-1659-9

Exposure to media violence, including violent video gaming, can have a cognitive desensitization effect, lowering empathic concern for others in need. Since emerging adulthood offers increased opportunities to volunteer, strengthen relationships, and initiate new relationships, decreases in empathic concern and prosocial behavior may prove inhibitive to optimal development during this time. For these reasons, the current study investigated associations between violent video gaming, empathic responding, and prosocial behavior enacted toward strangers, friends, and family members. Participants consisted of 780 emerging adults (M age = 19.60, SD = 1.86, range = 18–29, 69% female, 69% Caucasian) from four universities in the United States. Results showed small to moderate effects between playing violent video gaming and lowered empathic concern for both males and females. In addition, lowered empathic concern partially mediated the pathways between violent video gaming and prosocial behavior toward all three targets (at the level of a trend for females), but was most strongly associated with lower prosocial behavior toward strangers. Discussion highlights how violent video gaming is associated with lower levels of prosocial behavior through the mechanism of decreased empathic concern, how this association can affect prosocial behavior differently across target, and finally what implications this might have for development during emerging adulthood.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10964-012-9742-2

We examined the role of parental media mediation in the relationship between media violence and adolescents’ ADHD-related behaviors. Survey data from 1,017 adolescents (10–14 years) show that parents can play an important role in this relationship, depending on the media mediation strategies that they use (i.e., restrictive or active mediation) and how they apply these strategies (i.e., in a controlling, inconsistent, or autonomy-supportive way). Our findings support the notion that contextual factors are critical in understanding media effects, and provide directions for how parents can manage their adolescents’ violent media use, and possibly by extension, their ADHD-related behaviors.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08838151.2016.1234476

Credibility and Validity of Secondary Sources

A credible source means that the information is high quality and trustworthy, essentially we can believe what the source is telling us. Using high quality work to back up your work will demonstrate your own credibility and will prove to be more effective in proving your argument.

Factors to a sources credibility would be. An authors level of expertise, which will be show through the different types of degrees the author has acquired or extensive experience in the the field of the topic they are writing about. If the authors credentials are not listen then that could be a sign that the authenticity of the study may be in the form of the publication,as some may studies may not be written by scholars, with the publication the articles content is critically examined. 
Another point of a studies credibility is the authors point of view as there could be potential bias. Bias is an inaccurate or unfair presentation of information. Bias can sometimes be intentional. A group with its own agenda may sponsor research and make the researchers sway the results. Bias can sometimes be unintentional, a writers perspective may prevent them from seeing the other side of the issue. In the academic publishing world books and articles go through an editorial phase. They are accessed by editors or groups of scholars evaluate the works quality. Peer reviewed articles are considered high quality. They filter out content made by unqualified or bias authors. Date of publication or validity as in is it valid? Something that was once high quality could be now useless. evaluate the sources appropriateness for your argument.

The criteria also known as the CRAAP test can be used to also evaluate the credibility of work. C stands for currency when was the information published and is it still in date? R stands for relevance how much information is presented, superficial treatment or detail analyses, is the readership level appropriate? A stands for Authority who are the authors and or editors of the information and what are their credentials? are the articles peer reviewed by other experts such as scholars or are they independent or self published? A stands for accuracy, does the source match your understanding of the topic, can you verify the claims in other sourced, how many relevant sources are mentioned. P stands for Purpose, is the purpose state? what is the authors bias and how could it affect the outcome of the study? there can be more than one type of bias in a study.

Google and Wikipedia are not useful because they are online site where anyone can post to meaning that what is put up is self published and not examined by and professional researchers editors or scholars. This means that the information has no credibility to it, so it will most likely contain a lot of bias and perhaps some invalid and out of date information. Google scholar is useful because it acts as a filter and the search engine only finds work which has been peer assessed by professional editors, groups of scholars or published by credible universities.

Limitations and Opportunities of my Research Methods

For my primary research, I have chosen to do a survey, experiment, and observation. My survey has allowed me to gain information about teens and social media there are some big limitations that I am receiving by doing this. Firstly, I need to prevent bias in my questions, so I don't get specific results I want out of them. Furthermore, I need to consider who my survey is sent out to because I don't have to power to get it across to a significant amount of people in a short amount of time. Limitations of my observation method are that the number of subjects will be very small, and the person I choose will have to be someone that I know or I am related to. However, this could be seen as an opportunity because if I know the person they are more likely to act normal around me and won't filter the way they act when being observed. The limitation of my experiment it that the subjects involved as I don't have the power or time to arrange a meeting with other children. For my secondary research, i was limited to only using Google scholar and YouTube because I didn't have access to a library or physical academic books. The limitation of Google Scholar is that there was a lot of irrelevant information that I needed so decoding it and sourcing out important information was very time consuming, so I only stuck with about 2-3 sources. However, the opportunity of google scholar is that I can trust the information and it might give me good information to answer my theory or question The limitation of YouTube is that finding original unedited broadcasts is very tricky and also confirming the validity because the posts were not often posted by the person who was in the videos.

Research Methods

The Primary Method is research you have carried out to prove a specific theory/statement or question. The way in which this works is that you must first conduct secondary research so you can fill in the wholes of the research but to also see if the results of before are still relevant to this day. The advantages of primary research are that your competition doesn't have access to the information, there can be a blend of different data which can be in-depth and you know that it is to date. The disadvantages of primary research would be that it can be expensive to conduct, it is time consuming meaning the results won't come instantly. finally, the most effective ways of conducting primary research would be to conduct a survey, experiment or observation.


The Secondary Method is where you use and gather information from previous studies and academic research to further your knowledge and understanding. They can also be ideas and theories which could raise questions and are used as a basis to form your primary research. The most reliable sources of Secondary data are ones that have been published by professional researchers and universities because that is what they do for a living so it is less likely to be biased. The advantages of Secondary are that it is easy to access because it is all there meaning its quick, It is also free to do. Thins to consider would be is the data trustworthy? is it to date? does it suit your specific requirements? An example of a trustworthy website would be Google scholar because they only provide academic sources, which have already been peer assessed.


Quantitative Data is where you gain information through statistical values, amounts and general numbers from sample results and you would analyse this in the form of pie charts and graphs to measure the quantity of similar views which were picked by the population of people involved. They are usually a large number of cases representing the population of interest and are randomly selected respondents, meaning their identity is anonymous. The advantages of quantitative data are that results are easier to analyse because they are in numbers and values. The disadvantage of quantitative data is that there isn't any depth to the answers, so it will leave a gap for me research to be done. Examples of quantitative data would be Surveys and questionnaires.


Qualitative Data is where you gain personal information from individuals to get a better understanding of behavioural patterns/ trends in peoples opinions and the reason as to what motivates people. The advantages of this form of data collecting are that it is in-depth meaning you will get more information, an insight into peoples attitudes and beliefs and also ideas. The disadvantages of qualitative data would be that there can be biased because they are people opinions and also it is harder to analyse and come to a conclusion because results can't be expressed as a number or value. Examples of qualitative data would be Interviews, Quotes, and theories.


The Sample Research Method is where you choose a group of people, objects, or items that are taken from a larger population or identity group for measurement purposes. The sample is used to represent the population. so the findings can generalise that group as a whole. This disadvantage of this is that it is impossible from a group of people to represent every individual belonging to a certain group identity. Things to consider would be The age range of the people chosen to sample and Gender. Is there a variation of people?


Open Questions are questions which rely on the audience to think about the question and what they think or why they have chosen that specific choice and then to relay that information back. This type of question allows your audience to go in-depth with their answer. However, a disadvantage would be that they are unappealing to answer.


Closed Questions are questions which require a simple yes or no response from the audience. An advantage is that you receive fast and easy to analyse results. On the other hand, the negative is that the results are very simple and often won't prove the full picture that you were looking for, leading for there to be gaps in your research.