Communication Research and Evaluation_COMM2382

Research Proposal

How does the Internet affect

TV watching behavior?

Name: Anh Le Ngoc

ID : s3161960
Instructor: Lukas Parker
Abstract
This research aims to find out the impact of the Internet on TV watching behavior. The
Internet not only provides us new activities such as in participating in social networks or
entering the world of online games, the Internet is also a tool to do common activities
such as reading online magazines, online shopping, listening to music and many others.
This paper takes as a sample, a single entertaining activity which is mostly everybody’s
leisure habit – watching television. By indicating the widespread adoption of the Internet
and its important consumption in personal activities, the results from this paper give us
the data of TV watching behavior of young Vietnamese. Moreover, the research provides
Internet using trend of young Vietnamese for people and organizations that are associate
with media use and communication.

Introduction

Both leisure and non-leisure activities such as reading, listening to music, watching
video, communicating with friends, learning and business are replaced or reduced by
Internet surfing and online game (Roger et al 2005). It seems that the Internet has
changed the way people spend their time and also changed their habits. In addition, Roger
(2005) concluded that more than any other leisure activities, watching television are the
top activity that the Internet displace. Based on the research findings of Liebowitz and
Zentner (2009), they also asserted that the rise of Internet use reduce television viewing.
They found that the impact of the Internet on television consumption depends on
purposes and people who use it. Nie (2002) has another aspect which is the impact of
Internet on people’s daily lives as well as their social interaction. Nie (2002) said ‘the
more hours people use the internet, the less time they spend with human beings’. He also
found that there is 60% of regular Internet users in America spend less time in watching
TV and the rest said their reading newspaper habit reduced.

According to Vietnam General Statistic Office (2006), the percentage of households

having computer in the whole country has increased from 2,6% (2002) to 7,9% (2006).
The percentage of households access to Internet by their computer has increased from 19,
1% (2002) to 21, 4% (2006). It has been 13 years since Vietnam opened the door to the
Internet from 1997. When the Internet first emerged in Vietnam, the Government used to
worry that they could not manage it. Today, Internet has become an indispensable tool for
million of Vietnamese people (Nguyen 2007). The way the Internet changes our TV
watching habit is just like the way television changes radio listening habit.

Due to the changes in media consumption, some industries have to update the changes in
order to fit with their business and communication strategies. In this research, the study
focuses on how the Internet affect on TV watching behavior of young people in Vietnam
market so that people know how to use appropriate media to target audience. In addition,
the research will improve my knowledge about the media change and the media
consumption of target publics so that I could apply them on my future career in
communication and marketing activities. This research provides different aspects and
findings from different social scientists and researchers on how the Internet impact on
television watching habit.

There are three parts for this research paper. The first part is about the ideas, thoughts and
findings of previous research. The second part is the methodology to investigate the issue
by using questionnaire survey on paper based among young people in several areas. The
final part will be discussion and interpretation about the results and findings.

Literature review

After researching, I found that there are many authors doing research about the topic
which provide research results, findings and measurement on the Internet on people’s
social activities including television watching behavior. However, there are just a few
people doing research focusing only the impact of the Internet on television watching
habit. In this section, I will demonstrate different ideas and findings from previous
research and explain how this study relates to or differs from those previous works. This
section divided into three categories-the Internet use reduce the time spend on television
viewing; the Internet has no or just a little impact on television viewing and the Internet
also affects on other daily activities.

The Internet use reduce the time spend on television viewing

There is 60% of the Internet fluent generation from 18-35 watch video via Internet
instead of television (Wolf 2008). He also asserted that consumers are likely to prefer
using the Internet to television because it allows them to assess whatever content they
want. “We’re seeing a massive shift in consumer behavior”, Wolf (2008) said. Simililary,
Serra (2008)-leader of IBM Global Business Services’s America media and entertainment
industry group provides the same idea. According to IBM survey (2008), in 2008, there
are 76% consumers in six countries have watched video on their PC exceed 16% in 2007
(60%). One of useful and informative study relates to the issue is “the impact of Internet
use on sociability: time-dairy findings” by Nie (2002). Nie (2002) did the survey based
on a time-diary approach by using “different amount, location and type of Internet use” to
clarify time spent online and social activities. Nie (2005) found that there is 60% of
regular Internet users in America admitted their television viewing has been reduced due
to the Internet use. He said “this trend is like to have a major impact on the economics of
the media industry and, as recent develops suggest, may lead to further integration of
media and information delivery technologies”. A recent study of Liebowitz (2009) also
concludes that the Internet use reduces television viewing. However, the level depends on
how and who use it. As the same findings with other studies, the Internet has a significant
impact on television watching behavior to the generation who grew up at the time of
computer development. The impact becomes smaller to the middle age and very minimal
influence on the oldest group. As time goes by, the young generation who is the most
Internet affected will spread into the older. Therefore, we could assume that the Internet
consumption will increase and television viewing will appear less in the future. Different
from the other studies, the study of Roger et al (2005) et al explored the impact of
Internet and computer use on adolescent’s leisure behavior. In the research, they found
that not only the television watching but also the other leisure activities in physical such
as outdoor activities or reading are replaced by Internet surfing and online game world
(Roger et al 2005).
The Internet has little impact on television viewing
Even though there are a lot of evidence show that Internet has reduced the time spent on
television, some studies indicates the differences. According to CBS and NBC Universal
(2008), there has been a steady rise to traditional television viewing. Although TV
content online has increased, there is still a “historic ratings” on television, Perrette
(2008) said. Moreover, Poltrack, D (2008)-CBS chief research officer said that television
viewing for all demographic has the rise of 8% since 2000 and 7% for teenagers. Another
research of Yumiko, H and Maki, S about the attitudes of Internet users in Japan said that
they have both positive and negative perspective toward TV viewing. “The participants
find television “easy” and requiring only a low degree of involvement, but at the same
time, they are dissatisfied that television can not respond to their personal desires”,
Yumiko (2008) said.

The impact of the Internet on other activities

Watching television considered as a “lion” habit of daily life. Therefore, the Internet has
impact on the habit, it also impact on other activities such as social interaction, reading
newspaper or outdoor activities. A research of Nie (2002)- American social scientist
about “the impact of Internet use on sociability: time dairy findings”, he said that the rise
of Internet use has reduced internet users in America time spent with friends and family,
watching television and spend more time working at home. Nie (2002) found that there is
a quarter of his research’s respondents feel that the internet has reduced their time with
friends and family and outdoor events; a quarter said the Internet has increased their time
spending working at home without cutting back at the office;

Through the literature review, we have a general idea how the internet impact on
television watching habit as well as other daily activities in several countries. However,
the studies are just based on the results collected from developed countries, such as
America and Japan. Therefore, I want to know how the Internet impact of TV watching
habit in developing country, especially in Vietnam. Here is the research question that I
want to figure out through the survey to get an idea about the impact of Internet us on
young Vietnamese.

RQ: Does the Internet reduce TV viewing to young Vietnamese?(from 18-35)

Proposed methodology

To support my study, I will do quantitative method which is questionnaire survey to

measure the Internet use in young Vietnamese and to know how the Internet affects them.
I choose this method because it is measurable and suitable for social science research.
Moreover, through the quantitative data, it is possible to give precise and testable
expression to qualitative idea. Moreover, I will do the survey on paper based which is fair
for both Internet users and non-users to avoid biased idea.

Participants
The participants are young people ages from 18-35 living in HCMC. The participants
income or their parents income is from middle level.

Procedure
I will keep questionnaires short and easy to answer so that it is easy for participants to fill
in. To avoid their hesitation, I will not put sensitive questions into the survey. Moreover,
I will explain the survey is used for university research study, why I need them to fill in.
After collecting the data, I will analyze them and use them to answer my research
question.

Timeline

I will create the questions for the survey in week 7 and get approval from instructor. Next
step, I will start to collect the data in week 8. After finishing the data collection, I will
analyze and interpret the findings in week 9. Finally, I will do the discussion about the
result findings by the end of week 10.
References
Housing, Electricity, Access to Safe Drinking Water, Sanitary and Internet, section 8,
Vietnam General Statistic Office, viewed 26th March 2010,
http://www.gso.gov.vn/Default.aspx?tabid=217
Kraut, R et al (2008), ‘Examining the Impact of Internet Use on TV viewing’, viewed 25th
March 2010, <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kraut/RKraut.site.files/articles/Kraut04-
ExaminingInternetUseTV_Viewing.pdf

Liebowitz S and Zentner A (2009), ‘Does Internet Use Reduce Television Viewing?’,
viewed 25th March 2010,
<http://ses.telecom-paristech.fr/econict/Papers/internetimpactontvtelecomparis.pdf>

Nie N and Hillygus D (2002), the Impact of Internet Use on Sociability: Time Diary
Findings, IT & Society, viewed 25th March 2010,
<http://www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/itandsociety/v01i01/v01i01a01.pdf>

Nguyen (2007), Internet in Vietnam for 10 years, Laodong newspaper, viewed 25 th March
2010, <http://www.laodong.com.vn/Home/Muoi-nam-Internet-o-Viet-
Nam/200711/63514.laodong

O’Toole K (2010), Study offers early look at how Internet is changing daily life, Stanford
News Service, viewed 25th March 2010,
<http://news.stanford.edu/pr/00/000216internet.html>

Roger C et al (2005), ‘Internet/Computer Use and Adolescent Leisure Behavior’, viewed

25th March 2010, <http://lin.ca/Uploads/cclr11/CCLR11-89.pdf>

Spanler T (2008), Is Internet Eating into Traditional Viewing?, Multichannel News,

viewed 25th March 2010, <http://www.multichannel.com/article/88155-
Is_Internet_TV_Eating_Into_Traditional_Viewing_.php>

Yumiko H and Maki S, ‘Internet Users and Television’, viewed 25th March 2010,
<http://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/english/pdf/030201-03.pdf>