• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 4, 2004

Surprise! What People Say and What They Do May Be Different

EMarketer reports that Ball State's Center for Media Design "shadowed" adults to monitor their media intake, collected individual media diaries and surveyed people over the phone to see how far off phone surveys are from "reality."

Specifically, the study determined that adults said over the phone that they watch two hours of TV per day, but when they were observed by researchers, they were logged watching five hours and 19 minutes of TV each day. As for the Internet, over the phone adults told researchers they spend 29 minutes per day online, but when actually observed, researchers determined adults spend over an hour each day online... and so on.

Time Spent with Various Media by Method of Observation (minutes/day July/Aug 2003)

	Phone Survey	Diary	Shadow Observation	Phone / Shadow Difference
Home computer	21	52	64	205%
Online	29	57	78	169
Television	121	278	319	164
Books	18	17	36	100
Magazines	8	10	14	75
Radio	74	132	129	74
Newspapers	15	26	17	13

Source: Ball State University Center for Media Design, Feb 2004

Ball State surveyed people only in what it terms "Middletown America" -- taking the phrase from landmark sociological studies conducted by Robert and Helen Lynd in the 1920s -- among people living in Muncie and Delaware County, Indiana.

The researcher observations found that a number of adults made telephone calls, checked e-mail and opened postal mail while they watched TV, but those people keeping diaries tended not to note these few-minute-long instances. BIGresearch reports at least 20% of each age group of US consumers it surveyed in 2003 said they regularly go online while they are watching TV. Many also read mail or the newspaper.

Media Regularly (routinely) Used by US Consumers While Watching TV (% of respondents March/Apr 2003)

Age:	18-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
Listen to radio	4.2	4.6	3.7	2.4	0.9	1.7
Go online	23.8	29.0	28.5	29.1	26.4	20.8
Read magazines	7.2	8.1	6.7	6.3	5.6	4.3
Read newspaper	6.9	10.1	9.3	10.4	10.2	7.8
Read mail	11.5	12.8	11.5	11.2	11.4	9.0

Source: BIGresearch, Apr 2003

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