Factors affecting media time use

Peter J Vitartas

This thesis examines the effects of situational, demographic and personal factors on consumers' media time use. Media time use is of importance to marketers as it relates to their efforts to communicate with consumers and, in addition, it represents a significant proportion of consumer's allocation of free time. As such, this thesis is of direct relevance to advertising and media planners and more generally to those interested in the way consumers allocate time. The study emerged from an examination of the literature which revealed few current studies into the allocation of time to media. In addition a number of developments in the theory of time use analysis were identified which had not been examined in relation to media time use. In particular, the call for researchers to incorporate social measures of time use, in addition to objective measures, led to the examination of factors affecting media time use - situational, demographic and personal factors. The investigation identified gaps in the knowledge base that led to the development of eleven research questions and a model of media time use. The study first examines the trade-offs that occur with media. Media to media and media to non-media activities are examined with only employment identified as a significant item that is negatively associated with media time use. Employment is also found to be a significant factor in the difference between people who were identified as 'media time poor', a measure developed in this thesis to identify those with low levels of media time use. In this study respondents who had less than 115 minutes per day of media time use were classified as media time poor. Four situational variables were examined - the effect of travel time, the level of free time, the effect of the number of others in the household and the effect of natural and artificial rhythms on media time use. Each revealed insights into consumers' time use with a number of findings being identified that were inconsistent with theory. Personal influences were modelled as a timestyle latent variable which incorporated the elements of perceived time pressure, past/future orientation, planning orientation and social time. Each of the elements were examined individually in relation to media time use and then in combination as a model of timestyle. Finally an overall model of media time use incorporating the demographic, situational and timestyle factors was tested. Timestyle was found to have the largest effect (.36) on media time use. The other variables identified as affecting media time use included the number of televisions in the household, education and gender, indicating that media time use is influenced by personal, situational and demographic factors. The models and hypotheses developed in this thesis were tested using a methodology based on secondary data analysis with data drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997 Time Use Survey. The database included 7055 individuals aged 15 years and over, representing 4000 households. Analysis was unde1taken using tests for comparison of group differences, measures of associations and covariance structure analysis. Limitations and areas for future research are identified along with six theoretical implications. For practitioners the findings highlighted the extent of positive media-to media interrelationships and the combination of p1imary and secondary time in media time use supporting the use of cross media promotion. A unique profile of people who can be described as 'media time poor' was developed and perceived time pressure was identified as a factor leading to less media time use. It is suggested marketers need to develop strategies to communicate product information to the 'media time poor' so that they will be able to make informed decisions.

Factors affecting media time use

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Factors affecting media time use

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Southern Cross University Social media