[1st-mile-nm] On the U.S. and broadband

[Tom Johnson]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

_
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_ai
d=87117_<http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=87117_>
(
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=87117
)



[In]Sight: The Great Divide
by  Graeme Hutton, August 2008 issue
"It's a country whose average broadband speed is 30 times  slower than the
world's leader. Some say that online video will cause its  Internet service
to
grind to a halt. And its population lives in ignorance of  the wide choices
available to the rest of the world. Welcome to the  United States of
 America."
-Spencer Kelly, host of BBC World News television program  Click, April 3,
2008
In  earlier columns, I have shown that contrary to popular perception, the
average  U.S. consumer lags behind the typical  global user in his use of
mobile
media. But never have I seen it put so  forcefully and by such a respected
global news organization as the BBC (see  inset). I doubt any of us would
agree
with the implication that, digitally, the  U.S. consumer is backward.
Universal McCann's latest edition of its global digital  research series,
Wave, spans 29 countries and 17,000 respondents and confirms  earlier
recognized
trends: On every social media metric we measured, the average  U.S. consumer
typically adopts  slower. That said, the rate of change in the United States
is
 highly dynamic, and at some levels it's moving at a breathtaking  pace.
For  example, in the States, video clip viewing has more than doubled from
32
percent  in September 2006 to 74 percent earlier this year. Similarly,
downloading  podcasts has more than doubled, from 12 percent to 28 percent
over the
same  period. RSS subscriptions and blog writing are moving swiftly to
all-time highs.
Interrogating the differences between the  United  States and the rest of
world, we see that this  country performs relatively better in what we call
passive social media (e.g.,  watching video clips or visiting a friend's
social
network page). Conversely,  the United  States performs comparatively worse
in
what we  term active social media (e.g., managing a social network profile
or
making a  phone call using the computer). On the surface, the U.S. consumer
appears to be more inclined to be a social media voyeur.
However, at a much deeper level, media carve out  powerful, emotionally
ingrained habits. These emotional attachments and habits  don't change
overnight.
Yet ultimately, change they will.
Interestingly, one major area where entrenched human  motivations can
immediately be seen in the U.S. social  media is in gender. Men are still
from Mars
and women from Venus - even in  cyberspace. There is a clear inverse
relationship between men and women in the  types of activities they prefer.
Men are much
more likely to be involved in  geeky Internet activities, such as uploading
a
video (30 percent of men vs. 20  percent of women) or downloading a podcast
(38 percent of men vs. 21 percent of  women). By contrast, women tend to
read
personal blogs, visit a friend's social  network profile or manage their
own.
Women quite clearly see social media for  what they are: devices that can
extend or facilitate social interaction and  understanding.
When  we look specifically at blog topics, we see clear patterns emerge
which
amplify  the differences between the two genders. As in life, men gravitate
to the  physical and tangible: They demonstrate greater interest in issues
like
 technology, business and science. Blogs by friends and family appeal more
to
 women.
We  see a correlation between what is important to female and male consumers
offline  and what content they consume online. For example, Universal
McCann's
 qualitative research shows women take a much greater active interest in
planning  vacations than men, which translates to women's preference for
travel
blogs. The  blog topics that appeal to women are precisely the ones men show
the
least  interest in.
Overall, the United States enjoys a vibrant social  media ecosystem.
Streaming video leads the way in shaping how social media are  swiftly
growing to
become an integral element of our mass media ecology. But  perhaps it is
gender -
and the innate differences in how men and women use  social media - that
confirms that while digital media is starting to fuel macro  changes in
behavior,
deeper and more profound human motivations still  fundamentally define who
we
are, and who we want to be.
Graeme Hutton is senior vice president and director of  consumer insights at
Universal McCann.  (graeme.hutton at universalmccann.com)




**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your
travel
deal here.
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)
_______________________________________________
MEA mailing list
MEA at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/mea



-- 
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com tom at jtjohnson.com

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
-- Buckminster Fuller
==========================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/1st-mile-nm/attachments/20080902/0499b6b2/attachment.html>