Critical target group being analysed

Critical target group being analysed

By Anna-Kari Modin, Industry and marketing manager, Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association

Newspaper reading is declining, as is the interest in TV, while at the same time consumers spend more time and money consuming media via the Internet or other channels. When there is an option, they choose free newspapers over paid-for ones. The trend described is particularly pronounced among younger people. This is the situation in Sweden, and it is far from unique.

The Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association is currently running a two-year project aimed at gaining more knowledge about media consumption among young adults. This group includes anyone aged 18-39 who lives independently and make their own financial decisions.

During the first project year we have gathered and analysed existing information.

We now know considerably more about young adults' media consumption generally, and about the underlying social and financial factors which influence their consumption.

Furthermore, we have looked in depth at how media consumption differs between life stages depending on whether you live in the countryside, in a town or in a major city.

Thanks to researchers we know that the younger generation is restless, demanding, consumption orientated, operating on impulse and is used to media being "free" (of cost).

Very little of what we know of the extent of and what young people do today is actually useful when we want to develop new products and make strategic decisions for the future. We know what young people do, but not why. What underlying forces dictate their media behaviour and how will this affect their future media consumption?

The 20-year olds of today will in ten years be an extremely valuable consumer group. This means that newspaper organisations need to develop products and content attractive to this group. In order to do so, we need to know more about their current values, attitudes and driving forces. People aged 20 today are digital natives, i e they have grown up with a near enough endless supply of information and digital communication channels. We can safely assume that they relate to digital technology, information and communication in a significantly different way than the so called digital immigrants, i e people over 30. This results in a problem for decision makers and business developers in understanding the connection between the media context young people live in today in combination with values and driving forces dictating today's and tomorrow's media behaviour.

In an effort to address this problem, we are carrying out two qualitative studies on the media habits of young people. Through these studies we aim to gain a deeper understanding of the driving forces which influence young people's media behaviour, to map why and how young people relate to and use media in their everyday lives. We also want to know more about how, what, when and why they consume media in the way that they do.

1. The research company Trendethnography will conduct a cultural-anthropological study of young people aged 10-24 years. Aiming to answer a number of questions regarding media habits, a group of anthropologists will follow young people in their everyday lives, with friends, family, school, at parties and during their free time. They will observe how young people act, think, behave in relation to media as well as how they interact with media and other people around them. The observations will be further supported by in-depth interviews. We continuously follow this project, and have the opportunity to further elaborate the questions at a number of check-points.
   
2. The research and consultancy firm Kairos Future is carrying out mobile-ethnographic study among young people aged 13-15 and 20-24. The young people in the target groups are given advanced mobile phones. Using the phones, the "informants" will document their (media) day, with family, friends and so on, sending everything to a study leader who continuously will analyse the material. The moderator can communicate with the informants, ask for explanations, additional images, comments on phenomena, etc. Once the study is completed, the results will be analysed by a expert panel of researchers.

We aim to present the results of the study in a more lively and illustrative way than is normally the case. Both studies present opportunities to play films illustrating behaviour, which in turn will give the young people an opportunity to participate and the researchers to comment "live".

The aim of the two studies is to prepare the members of the publishers' association for future demands; in other words, to provide better media solutions for the young people of the future.

Research results, articles etc are all published on the website www.tu.se/ungavuxna (unfortunately just in Swedish)