An Observational Study on How Situational Factors Influence Media Multitasking With TV: The Role of Genres, Dayparts, and Social Viewing

Abstract

This study responds to the need for research on individuals' media multitasking behavior using observational data. Media multitasking can have a profound impact on media processing and effects. However, we have little knowledge on when people are likely to engage in media multitasking and, consequently, when these effects are likely to occur. This study examines how three important situational factors-television genres, dayparts, and social viewing-influence the amount of media multitasking. Granular observational data obtained by directly monitoring and recording media consumption behaviors of a large panel at 10-second intervals are used for the analysis. The study reveals that media multitasking with television is most prevalent when people watch sports or engage in channel surfing and less prevalent with commercials, news, and entertainment. Furthermore, the extent of media multitasking is greater in the morning and afternoon than in the evening, and also greater when individuals watch television alone than in the presence of others. Daypart differences are

Insight into everyday media use with multiple screens

“…Although it is often found that all age groups and generations engage in media multitasking, the studies are consistent in the finding that younger people are more likely to multitask than older people (e.g. Carrier et al 2009;Duff et al 2014;Voorveld and van der Goot 2013;Voorveld et al 2014;Hwang, Kim, and Jeong 2014;Voorveld and Viswanathan 2015). An explanation for this finding could be that adoption rates of media vary among generations (Brasel and Gips 2011;van der Goot et al 2016).…”

“…Some studies have found that women are more likely to engage in media multitasking than men (Hwang, Kim, and Jeong 2014;Duff et al 2014;Jeong and Fishbein 2007;Voorveld and Viswanathan 2015), whereas other studies did not find significant gender differences across multitaskers (Voorveld et al 2014;Kononova 2013;Christensen et al 2015). Although gender is sometimes assumed and found to be related to media multitasking, it is unclear why there would be gender differences.…”

“…It is reasonable to assume that the more screens a consumer owns, the more access they have to the screens, the more likely it is that they will multiscreen. So far, it was found that the more media someone owns, the more likely they will engage in media multitasking (Kononova 2013;Jeong and Fishbein 2007;Voorveld and Viswanathan 2015).…”

Media Multitasking at Home

“…In order to better understand when people used their devices while watching TV and exactly what they were doing, Voorveld and Viswanathan [38] conducted an analysis of observational data obtained by directly observing participants from the USA. They found that media multitasking was most prevalent when watching sport and channel surfing, during morning and afternoon, and when individuals were watching television alone.…”

“…However, it is possible that people are poor at estimating just how much time they are spending on digital devices and so misrepresent the extent to which they media multitask. In response to this, a small number of observational studies have also been conducted, for instance using direct observation [38] or sensor-based telemetry [13]. While these methods are more accurate than self-report data, fine-grained video data has the potential to offer a more detailed and nuanced impression of behaviour in situated contexts (e.g.…”