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The Morgan Stanley 15 yr old Media report
Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert | Business | guardian.co.uk
The background to the report: a 15 year old intern tells the executives as Morgan Stanley how tenagers use the media.
How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City | Business | guardian.co.uk
How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City
This is the full copy of the research note written by Matthew Robson (aged 15 years and seven months), an intern at Morgan Stanley, which caused a stir after it was published by the bank
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 July 2009 10.23 BST
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RadioMost teenagers nowadays are not regular listeners to radio. They may occasionally tune in, but they do not try to listen to a program specifically. The main reason teenagers listen to the radio is for music, but now with online sites streaming music for free they do not bother, as services such as last.fm do this advert free, and users can choose the songs they want instead of listening to what the radio presenter/DJ chooses.
Television
Most teenagers watch television, but usually there are points in the year where they watch more than average. This is due to programs coming on in seasons, so they will watch a particular show at a certain time for a number of weeks (as long as it lasts) but then they may watch no television for weeks after the program has ended.
Teenage boys (generally) watch more TV when it is the football season, often watching two games and related shows a week (totalling about 5 hours of viewing). A portion of teenagers watches programs that are regular (such as soap operas) at least five times a week for half an hour or so but this portion is shrinking, as it is hard to find the time each day.
Teenagers are also watching less television because of services such as BBC iPlayer, which allows them to watch shows when they want. Whilst watching TV, adverts come on quite regularly (18 minutes of every hour) and teenagers do not want to watch these, so they switch to another channel, or do something else whilst the adverts run.
The majority of teenagers I speak to have Virgin Media as their provider, citing lower costs but similar content of Sky. A fraction of teenagers have Freeview but these people are light users of TV (they watch about 1 ½ hours per week) so they do not require the hundreds of channels that other providers offer.
Newspapers
No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV.
The only newspapers that are read are tabloids and freesheets (Metro, London Lite…) mainly because of cost; teenagers are very reluctant to pay for a newspaper (hence the popularity of freesheets such as the Metro). Over the last few weeks, the Sun has decreased in cost to 20p, so I have seen more and more copies read by teenagers. Another reason why mainly tabloids are read is that their compact size allows them to be read easily, on a bus or train. This is especially true for The Metro, as it is distributed on buses and trains.
Gaming
Whilst the stereotypical view of gamers is teenage boys, the emergence of the Wii onto the market has created a plethora of girl gamers and younger (6+) gamers. The most common console is the Wii, then the Xbox 360 followed by the PS3. Most teenagers with a games console tend to game not in short bursts, but in long stints (upwards of an hour).
As consoles are now able to connect to the internet, voice chat is possible between users, which has had an impact on phone usage; one can speak for free over the console and so a teenager would be unwilling to pay to use a phone.
PC gaming has little or no place in the teenage market. This may be because usually games are released across all platforms, and whilst one can be sure a game will play on a console PC games require expensive set ups to ensure a game will play smoothly. In addition, PC games are relatively easy to pirate and download for free, so many teenagers would do this rather than buy a game. In contrast, it is near impossible to obtain a console game for free.
Internet
Every teenager has some access to the internet, be it at school or home. Home use is mainly used for fun (such as social
networking) whilst school (or library) use is for work. Most teenagers are heavily active on a combination of social networking sites. Facebook is the most common, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered and visiting >4 times a week. Facebook is popular as one can interact with friends on a wide scale. On the other hand, teenagers do not use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.
Outside of social networking, the internet is used primarily as a source of information for a variety of topics. For searching the web, Google is the dominant figure, simply because it is well known and easy to use. Some teenagers make purchases on the internet (on sites like eBay) but this is only used by a small percentage, as a credit card is required and most teenagers do not have credit cards. Many teenagers use YouTube to watch videos (usually anime which cannot be watched anywhere else) and some use it as a music player by having a video with the music they want to listen to playing in the background.
Directories
Teenagers never use real directories (hard copy catalogues such as yellow pages). This is because real directories contain listings for builders and florists, which are services that teenagers do not require. They also do not use services such as 118 118 because it is quite expensive and they can get the information for free on the internet, simply by typing it into Google.
Viral/Outdoor Marketing
Most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing, as often it creates humorous and interesting content. Teenagers see adverts on websites (pop ups, banner ads) as extremely annoying and pointless, as they have never paid any attention to them and they are portrayed in such a negative light that no one follows them.
Outdoor advertising usually does not trigger a reaction in teenagers, but sometimes they will oppose it (the Benetton baby adverts). Most teenagers ignore conventional outside advertising (billboards etc) because they have seen outside adverts since they first stepped outside and usually it is not targeted at them (unless it’s for a film). However, campaigns such as the GTA: IV characters painted on the side of buildings generate interest because they are different and cause people to stop and think about the advert, maybe leading to further research.
Music
Teenagers listen to a lot of music, mostly whilst doing something else (like travelling or using a computer). This makes it hard to get an idea of the proportion of their time that is spent listening to music.
They are very reluctant to pay for it (most never having bought a CD) and a large majority (8/10) downloading it illegally from file sharing sites. Legal ways to get free music that teenagers use are to listen to the radio, watch music TV channels (not very popular, as these usually play music at certain times, which is not always when teenagers are watching) and use music streaming websit
es (as I mentioned previously).Almost all teenagers like to have a ‘hard copy’ of the song (a file of the song that they can keep on their computer and use at will) so that they can transfer it to portable music players and share it with friends.
How teenagers play their music while on the go varies, and usually dependent on wealth –with teenagers from higher income families using iPods and those from lower income families using mobile phones. Some teenagers use both to listen to music, and there are always exceptions to the rule.
A number of people use the music service iTunes (usually in conjunction with iPods) to acquire their music (legally) but again this is unpopular with many teenagers because of the ‘high price’ (79p per song). Some teenagers use a combination of sources to obtain music, because sometimes the sound quality is better on streaming sites but they cannot use these sites whilst offline, so they would download a song then listen to it on music streaming sites (separate from the file).
Cinema
Teenagers visit the cinema quite often, regardless of what is on. Usually they will target a film first, and set out to see that, but sometimes they will just go and choose when they get there. This is because going to the cinema is not usually about the film, but the experience –and getting together with friends. Teenagers visit the cinema more often when they are in the lower end of teendom (13 and 14) but as they approach 15 they go to the cinema a lot less. This is due to the pricing; at 15 they have to pay the adult price, which is often double the child price. Also, it is possible to buy a pirated DVD of the film at the time of release, and these cost much less than a cinema ticket so teenagers often choose this instead of going to the cinema. Some teenagers choose to download the films off the internet, but this is not favourable as the films are usually bad quality, have to be watched on a small computer screen and there is a chance that they will be malicious files and install a virus.
Devices
Mobile Phones
99% of teenagers have a mobile phone and most are quite capable phones. The general view is that Sony Ericsson phones are superior, due to their long list of features, built in walkman capability and value (£100 will buy a mid-high range model). Teenagers due to the risk of it getting lost do not own mobile phones over the £200 mark. As a rule, teenagers have phones on pay as you go. This is because they cannot afford the monthly payments, and cannot commit to an 18-month contract. Usually, teenagers only use their phone for texting, calling.
Features such as video messaging or video calling are not used –because they are expensive, (you can get four regular texts for the price of one video message). Services such as instant messaging are used, but not by everyone. It usually depends whether the phone is Wi-Fi compatible, because otherwise it is very expensive to get internet off the phone network. As most teenagers’ phones have Bluetooth support, and Bluetooth is free, they utilise this feature often. It is used to send songs and videos (even though it is illegal) and is another way teenagers gain songs for free. Teenagers never use the ringtone and picture selling services, which gained popularity in the early 00s. This is because of the negative press that these services have attracted (where the charge £20 a week with no easy way to cancel the service) and the fact that they can get pictures and music on a computer –then transfer it to their phones at no cost. Mobile email is not used as teenagers have no need; they do not need to be connected to their inbox all the time as they don’t receive important emails. Teenagers do not use the internet features on their mobiles as it costs too much, and generally, if they waited an hour they could use their home internet and they are willing to wait as they don’t usually have anything urgent to do.
Teenagers do not upgrade their phone very often, with most upgrading every two years. They usually upgrade on their birthday when their parents will buy them a new phone, as they do not normally have enough money to do it themselves.
Televisions
Most teenagers own a TV, with more and more upgrading to HD ready flat screens. However, many are not utilising this HD functionality, as HD channels are expensive extras which many families cannot justify the added expenditure. Many of them don’t want to sign up to HD broadcasting services, as adverts are shown on standard definition broadcasts, so they can’t see the difference. Most people have Virgin Media as a TV provider. Some have Sky and some have Freeview but very few only have the first five channels (BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five).
Computers
Every teenager has access to a basic computer with internet, but most teenagers computers are systems capable of only everyday tasks. Nearly all teenagers’ computers have Microsoft office installed, as it allows them to do school work at home. Most (9/10) computers owned by teenagers are PCs, because they are much cheaper than Macs and school computers run Windows, so if a Mac is used at home compatibility issues arise.
Games Consoles
Close to a third of teenagers have a new (<2 ½ years old) games console, 50% having a Wii, 40% with an Xbox 360 and 10% with a PS3. The PS3 has such a low figure because of its high price (£300) and similar features and games to an Xbox 360, which costs less (£160). The Wii’s dominance is due to younger brothers and sisters, they have a Wii and parents are not willing to pay for another console.
What is hot?
• Anything with a touch screen is desirable.
• Mobile phones with large capacities for music.
• Portable devices that can connect to the internet (iPhones)
• Really big tellies
What is not?
• Anything with wires
• Phones with black and white screens
• Clunky ‘brick’ phones
• Devices with less than ten-hour battery life
And a Response to the report….
Teenage media habits: was the whiz-kid correct? | Technology | guardian.co.uk
zzy Alderson Blench, aged 16 years, 11 months: teenagers DO read newspapers
Despite the stir caused by 15-year-old Matthew Robson’s report, I can’t help noticing that the half of it I agree with is definitely not groundbreaking – any teenager could tell you that paying for things is unpopular and Facebook has infinite importance over Twitter. After all, the only people that use Twitter are celebrities with nothing else to do and bored old people who think they’re connecting with the younger generation. Does anyone care that Miley Cyrus is “eatin’ an apple”. Really? Oh, and the other half of it does not account for anyone who isn’t a 15-year-old boy living in London.
I listen to the radio. I know many teenagers that specifically listen to a late-night chat show as they’re going to bed, or a morning show when getting ready for school. As for criticising the advertising on radio, has this boy not heard of the BBC?
If there is one thing I definitely have time for, it is television. Matthew claims that teenagers don’t have time for television or reading a newspaper. Maybe that is because he is too busy chatting to his friends on Xbox Live 360. Living in a rural area, Virgin Media is not available and the vast majority of teenagers I know use Sky. Instead of using BBC iPlayer or 4od, teenagers will record programmes on to their Sky+ box and watch later.
As a girl, I know I can account for every single one of my female friends when I say that I have never owned and never will own an Xbox or a PS3. It definitely is a huge market for teenage boys, but the small percent
age of girl gamers use only the Wii, and much less often than boys. Matthew wrote about how teenagers are reluctant to pay money for music, yet they will happily pay more than £100 for a gaming console and a further £30 per game.Music is, of course, an extremely important part of almost all teenagers’ lives, and a large majority of teens I know own an iPod. A small amount will play music straight from their phone, but this is usually a replacement for a lost/stolen/broken iPod. Contrary to Matthew’s findings that teens from “lower income families” use phones for music, I have found that people who use their phones for music tend to be people from higher-income families, using phones such as the iPhone and the Nokia N95 – both costing more than £200.
The music program most popular with teenagers I know is Spotify. With last.fm (Matthew’s choice) it isn’t always possible to listen to exactly the song you want; with Spotify, it is. Aside from short advertisements every eight songs or so, there are no interruptions. Although teenagers will use programs such as Spotify regularly, it doesn’t mean I won’t pay for ANY music. Singles are easily downloaded, but albums prove more difficult, and I tend to buy an album I like per month or so, which are no more than £10. It hardly breaks the bank.
And one final word: teenagers DO read newspapers. Real ones, not just freesheets (you don’t get thelondonpaper in East Sussex, funnily enough). Even if it is just the weekend section or the magazine, the majority of teenagers will read an interview or feature in a newspaper regularly. Some even read the news.
Eloise Veljovic, 17 years, 1 month: teenagers are disenchanted with sites such as TwitterMatthew Robson’s report, How teenagers consume media, highlighted the way in which teenagers interact to the mass media and each other. As a teenager who lives in a small town in Kent, I feel some of his comments to be unfair on the general population – as a boy from London he seems to not have realised that most are unable to understand, let alone use, the technology that allows people to talk via an Xbox console. Here are my views on Robson’s topics
Radio: I believe that the radio culture is thriving among the younger generations. With popular presenters such as Chris Moyles and Fearne Cotton spilling over into other genres, teenagers are keen to keep up to date with their radio shows, even if only for the 10 minute car journey to school. An example of this is the irritable catchy “Barack Obama” jingle introduced by Moyles at the beginning of the president’s term; this tune echoed through schools for weeks, confirming radio’s popularity among a mass audience. On a similar note, I feel pirate music is coming to the end of its lifespan. With the introduction of legal and easier to use sites such as Spotify, teenagers are increasingly abandoning the complicated and confusing Limewire.
Television: As a teenage girl who cannot tell Ronaldo from Ronaldinho, I tend not to spend five hours a week watching football. Our generation has become near-on obsessed with soaps ranging from the sickeningly American lives of those in The Hills to the gritty social problems discussed in Skins, girls and boys alike. As with radio, stars of these programmes such as Speidi, the key love relationship in The Hills, and Dev Patel from the first series of Skins have crossed over into other areas of the mass media, holding their audience’s attention even when the programme isn’t on.
I also disagree with Robson’s take on the BBC iPlayer and his correlation to less television viewing time. Most teenagers live with the comfort and reassurance of Sky or Sky+ and will be informed whether their programme is about to begin or when it will next be on. Therefore, the use of services such as 4od or iPlayer are irrelevant and unnecessary.
Newspapers: Robson seems to feel that all teenagers read freesheets. However, he seems to have forgotten that these are only available to those living in towns and cities, leaving the majority of teenagers forced to get their news fix either from the school library, a self bought paper (which, I must agree, are usually tabloids) or may catch the front page story when their parents are reading it. Reading a quality newspaper seems to be a case of nurture and varies with each family’s political persuasion and perception of the mass media, rather than be a case of not having the time to do so.
Gaming/internet: Computer gaming has evolved; instead of the shiny new game CDs synonymous with children of the 1990s, computer gaming now means Sims 3 (intensely realistic graphics) and Miniclip (addictive, far-reaching and, most importantly, free gaming) to those of the teenage generation. Gaming consoles such as the Wii have picked up speed and diversified; once designated for the teenage boy’s dark bedroom, consoles are now stepping out into the living room with family games and yoga sets being introduced.
The computer has many functions for a teenager: music, gaming, networking and homework and is regarded as a tool used to stay in contact with friends, public affairs and the mass media. Networking is a key component to being a teenager and is surprisingly political: an individual’s popularity can be gauged by how many friends and photos they have on any particular site. As media moguls try to jump on Mark Zuckerburg’s Facebook bandwagon, teenagers are disenchanted with sites such as Twitter attempting to become the next big thing and remain Facebook-faithful.
Cameron vs Ofcom
BBC NEWS | Politics | Tories pledge to cut back quangos
The Tories would close one schools quango, while media regulator Ofcom would be stripped of its policy-making role, he told the Reform think-tank.
Ofcom hits back at David Cameron | Media | guardian.co.uk
“As Ofcom is itself a product of regulatory rationalisation – merging five regulators into one – we are surprised at being highlighted in the speech,” a spokesman for the regulator said.
“Since its establishment, Ofcom has delivered five consecutive years of real terms budget reductions, reduced headcount by more than 300 people and saved more than £117m in the process – a 21% reduction. Ofcom has always been very clear that we provide analysis and recommendations in line with our duties set by parliament but that outside specified areas, such as economic regulation and competition law, policy and decision making is a matter for the government of the day,” he added.
“Ofcom’s responsibilities cover the entire communications industry and the management of the UK’s spectrum. We are an independent regulator with clear statutory duties including the promotion of competition in the interests of the UK public. It is important that the UK communications industry has a strong and effective independent regulator to protect the consumer interest.”
Ofcom looked “forward to discussing the proposals” with Cameron, the spokesman added.
When Good films go bad
It takes a team of talented financiers, writers, producers, directors, gaffers, film processors and editors a long time, a lot of thought and roughly the GDP of Tonga to make an idea into a turkey. So how does it all go wrong? Here – anonymously, for fear of jeopardising their careers – are some of Hollywood’s finest explaining why films, including some of theirs, go bad.
The test-screening process – in which studios show their most expensive films to focus groups and then change them accordingly – also has to take some of the blame for the artistic failure of his movie, says the screenwriter. “They’re going for the widest possible audience. So you end up having a movie that doesn’t offend anyone and which everyone doesn’t mind, instead of a movie some people love. But I never lost sight of the fact that I was happy to see it made.”
Would he be as happy to see, say, Brett Ratner attached to his next project, if it would guarantee a green light? He sighs. “I’ve reached the point where I’m lucky enough to say I’d be sad. The buck always stops with the director, in my experience. It’s a director’s medium.”
A producer responsible for what he admits were some less-than-stellar big-budget films is pragmatic about the process: “Films are not easy to get made. And a producer is constantly trying to get them off the ground. If there’s a director whose films show a profit, such as Michael Bay or Brett Ratner, and you can present that director as attached, then you may get the money to make your film.” And Bay and Ratner do make money, as both producers and directors: they have grossed almost a billion dollars each for films they’ve been attached to.
“It’s a business,” says the producer. “They’re not art films. We do sometimes employ brilliant screenwriters to do passes on things; some of the blockbuster scripts are actually great. But studio films are, for better or worse, made by a committee – it’s not the vision of one person. People you call ‘bad’ directors are good at working on big movies. They end up sitting in a room with a dozen people and they have to catch the ideas flying around and place them in the film. There’s not much you can do about it. It’s a complicated process.”
One director, responsible for well-received and Oscar-nominated films budgeted between $20m and $50m, sees such blockbuster-managers as failures, regardless of what the balance sheet shows.”They don’t really direct at all. A script is only a ticket for the journey; it’s not necessarily a map. If you have a director without any vision or understanding of the way film works, it’s going to be bad, no matter how good the script was.”
This particular director once asked for his name to be removed from a film after a clash of egos with a star, so unhappy was he with the finished product. But he now says he has learned to balance the urge to resist pressure from above with the fact that it’s futile to fight the star system. “The main character, played by the star, is the film,” he says. “If the director really gets on with the actor, has a shared vision, knows deep down that their job is to get the best possible performance out of that actor and they have respect for each other, then the collective efforts of those two minds goes a long way to making a good film. You can see it on the screen when that hasn’t happened.”
“It’s narcissism and power that ruin movies,” agrees one veteran publicist. Over three decades, she has seen plenty of those ego clashes between producers, directors and stars. “A lot of producers really want to direct. And if the director is someone who’s malleable, for whatever reason – maybe because he couldn’t get the thing greenlit for 10 years – the power of the producer can corrupt.”
She has seen stories and scripts and characters and performances – the very heart of the movie, in short – change beyond recognition on set. “Anything can prompt a rewrite or a reshoot,” she says. “It could be the director or producer’s wife calling to say, ‘I just read this new draft and you cut out that girl I thought was great,’ or, ‘You said my sister-in-law was going to have a part in the movie and you cut her scene out.’ It could be that the star felt the power had shifted to the co-star and wanted it back.”
When scripts are revised on set, they are colour-coded to avoid confusion. The first draft is white, the second blue, then pink, yellow, green, gold, salmon, cherry and then back to white again, referred to as double white. “I’ve seen scripts get to triple gold,” the publicist says. “They look like rainbows. The original screenplay? God only knows what that was.
“And once you’re finished shooting, there’s more. The stars put in their two cents in during the edit, the director puts in his two cents, the producers do the same. A bad editor can ruin a film. A great editor can take a movie and say, ‘You know what? The third act is the first act. Or the second half of that act is pointless.’ They can rescue it.
“There are so many variables. Making a good movie is like getting an ice sculpture out of a block of ice. There’s something beautiful in there, but it’s fragile and you have to find it.”
This publicist has worked with Michael Bay, and has seen him interact with those who pay his wages. So why does she think he gets hired despite the merit or otherwise of his movies? She thinks for a moment. “Michael is a good salesman,” she says. “He’s great in meetings. And he has great hair.”
Sci Fi Classic
Brother from Another Planet, The (1984) – Free Movies, Watch TV online – Retrovision.tv
This was a low budget Sci fi, one of a series of good films made on no budget by Black Film makers in the mid 80’s. It takes it’s influence from 1970’s funk acts (Sun Ra, Parliament, Funkadelic) who used the alien idea as a means to explore racism. Take a few hours, and watch!
You may recognise Joe Morton from T2.
Alice in Wonderland
First Look: Tim Burton Takes Alice to Weird, Wild Wonderland | Underwire | Wired.com
Tim Burton is working on this at the moment – it is a motion capture film, and here are some of the early art designs.
Keep British jobs british?????
Sellafield workers join wildcat strike action over foreign labour | Politics | guardian.co.uk
Unions claim British workers were denied any opportunity to apply for the posts. Lord Mandelson, however, said the contract at the centre of the dispute had originally been awarded to a British firm, but that the company had failed to fulfil it so it was given to an Italian rival, which then drew on its own workforce.
[Lord Mandelson] added that the contract at the centre of the dispute was originally awarded to a British firm but it did not fulfil it so it was given to an Italian company which then drew on its own workforce.
Yes, I did hear it right first time.
So, we are striking because a French Firm is employing Italian workers?
Meusanus 