Teenagers and media

The Financial Times has recently published an interesting report about media consumption by teenagers. Understanding their mindset seems an excellent way of assessing how the media landscape will evolve. 

From the report: "Teenagers are consuming more media, but in entirely different ways and are almost certainly not prepared to pay for it. They resent intrusive advertising on billboards, TV and the Internet. They are happy to chase content and music across platforms and devices (iPods, mobiles, streaming sites). Print media (newspapers, directories) are viewed as irrelevant but events (cinema, concerts etc.) remain popular and one of the few beneficiaries of payment. The convergence of gaming, TV, mobile and Internet is accelerating with huge implications for pay-TV."

Some other conclusions in the report: teenagers do not use Twitter (for the cost of one tweet via mobile Internet you can send quite a few text messages and tweeting is “pointless”), most teenagers watch television, but dislike the idea of scheduled programming, no teenager that regularly reads a newspaper, teenagers never use real directories (hard copy catalogues such as yellow pages), teenagers visit the cinema quite often, regardless of what is on (see Martin Wilson's blog entry in ForumOxford here) and do not use mobile email. Teens use IM and or SMS for communication; they think that email is for their parents. 

Also from the ForumOxford blog (Jon Fletcher): "This from a speaker about future media habits of Generation Z, are the 12-27 year olds and here is a list of their ten key future media habits and how you should now start thinking about engagement with them in the future. 

1. They won’t read newspapers: 12 to 27 year olds do not read newspapers; they may read a few celebrity magazines or specialist magazines. There will be a huge consolidation of print media, with just a handful news brands left. 
2. Television on their own terms: They will never watch TV on someone else’s schedule. The idea of being constrained to watch a certain program at a set time will make no sense to them. 
3. Mobile: they won’t own a landline phone, and probably never will. They will not own a watch either. They will hold all their music on their phone and interact with their friends through it. They will buy, bank even open and start the car through the mobile. 
4. Who they trust: Teens trust their peers and are influenced by them as we all know - even unknown peers - more than they trust experts. 
5. Pay for content: Today there is actually a willingness among teens to pay for content in some manner, but sharing of media is what they will try to do currently file sharing via bluetooth running at about 17-22%. 
6. Community: The social community & communication with ‘friends’ is a primary activity. However, no loyalty to a particular social network., for teens, it a bit like a nightclub – you go there with your friends as long as its cool, but once too many other people start showing up (e.g. parents), you go off to find a new nightclub. 
7. Advertising: Teens think they are not impacted by brands and advertising. However, studies from the Centre for the Digital Future have shown that in fact teens are actually more aware of brands and pay more attention to brands than other age groups. 
8. Movable content: Teens expect to be able to move digital content from platform to platform, and won’t accept restrictions on this. They lead a multi-platform life, and believe they should be able to take their digital content with them. 
9. IM & SMS: Teens use IM and or SMS for communication; they think that email is for their parents."