This current age of digital media has raised concern that the traditional television viewing will become outdated. Advances in technologies provide people with various options to watch television.
Judy Franks, lecturer of integrated marketing communications at the Northwestern University, conducted a survey to understand whether television viewing was alive. And she found that television viewing is not just alive but well, evolving far beyond its traditional definition.
The author asked the respondents about the concept of “I am watching television.” Only half of all adults refer to “sitting in front of a television set.” The other half mean something else: They are either watching TV on any screen device that happens to be available to them, or they no longer use the phrase “I am watching television” at all. For these respondents, the screen is irrelevant; they refer solely to the content they are viewing. For millennials aged 18-24, these shifting labels are even more pronounced.
The regular program schedule set by the broadcaster doesn’t matter much anymore to these viewers. But live viewing has not gone completely away. Nearly 43 percent of adults will still often or always tune in for special event television programs. And 45 percent say they often or always binge view their favorite serial content.
In sum, television viewing in not dead in the age of digital media; rather. advances in technologies have opened new potential of this medium.
To read the full text of this study:
Franks, Judy. (2018). The Changing Face of Television. Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, 54-55.
