Benefits of media usage

Most people had more than one motive when they chose media: 16% of people mentioned only one motive, 44% mentioned a few, and 40% mentioned 4–15 different motives that affected their choices. It was delightful, but not altogether surprising, to notice that all motives had effects on media choices (see Table 8). The top motive for media usage was the desire to spend time pleasantly. Information-related motives (getting latest news and get information on something) seemed to be important motives as well, as was the related motive of know the topics of discussions, which has been categorized as social currency in this study. Gaining social knowledge was rather important as was getting something to do. Self-comfort, self-reward, and avoiding loneliness are mood-dependent specific motives, related to certain kinds of situations. Therefore, it is not surprising that they are not very significant motives in media choices in general. Hypothesis 2 stated that the more motives one has, the more satisfied one is with the media choice. The hypothesis is confirmed. The satisfaction and number of motives correlated strongly (0.19**).

Even though newspapers have sometimes been criticized as containing only

“yesterday’s news”, they are still strong in the news business. 90% of people who read newspapers in this study did so in order to gain the latest news (see Table 8). It is rather remarkable that people used Facebook a lot (85%) in order to gain the latest news. People seem to understand the concept of news pretty broadly. Although social media is incredibly fast at spreading the most interesting and surprising news,

the coverage of topics is rather random. The same media groups that are used for the news are also widely used in order to gain information on something. Spending time pleasantly was important for all media groups. Top in this category was surfing the net for fun (100%). Surfing the Internet for fun was mainly done for mood management purposes. People surfed because they wanted to get something to do (80%), avoid doing something (47%), gain a better mood (67%), avoid feeling lonely (47%), and distract their thoughts (67%). It was also used for self-reward (27%) and self-comfort (27%) more than any other media type. Television is relevant in managing tasks, such as getting something to do (80%), avoiding doing something (59%), and distracting thoughts (68%). Facebook is a pretty good provider of something to do and self-comfort, but in other mood management-related motives, it lags behind surfing in general and watching television. It is remarkable how big a part of media usage is getting something to do. Newspapers were used least for this purpose, and still 53% of newspaper readers claimed they read the paper in order to get something to do. Distracting thoughts is important for all media groups. Reading the netpapers seems to differ quite a lot from reading the newspapers on paper.

Netpaper reading is more opportunistic; the netpapers are read in order to get something to do, avoid doing anything, gain a better mood, reward oneself, and distract one’s thoughts more than newspapers. Newspapers and netpapers are mainly used for getting the news. But an even more important reason to use the newspaper is that people want to “know topics for the discussion”. Gaining social knowledge and giving a better image of oneself are also strengths of newspapers in comparison to netpapers. Knowing topics of discussion (social currency) is a newspaper strength, even though respondents used netpapers and other reading from the Internet in order to find topics too. Newspapers are also rather widely used for self-branding purposes (46% read newspapers in order to give a better image of themselves). The Internet, especially Facebook (77%), was the main source for gaining social information. But newspapers are not far behind in this. One important part of Facebook usage is also the desire to use the same media as friends.

Hypothesis 3 stated that media choices are affected by the following motives:

need for information, need for entertainment, need to manage time and tasks, escapism, mood management, identity building and signaling, social knowledge, and social currency and that the motives to use each media type differ. The findings in Table 8 confirm hypothesis 3.

All Newspaper (on paper) Netpaper Net (other reading) Net (surfing for fun) Facebook Program (Net) Program (Rec/rental) Program (Television)

Latest news 78 % 90 % 89 % 87 % 67 % 85 % 44 % 25 % 52 %

Table 8. Motives used in media choices of different media products (n=316)

The consumer-media brand relationships seemed to be rather satisfactory. The results in Table 9 show how important the social and identity-related aspects are in media usage. Many media products seemed to have a good user group relationship.

It seems that media really connects people, since 54% of respondents want to belong to user groups and 48% feel that media connects people in the area; and 45% even feel that this media is a symbol for belonging to certain group. Newspaper readership seems to be a pretty strong identity claim, at least when it is measured by agreement with the descriptions “part of myself “and “signals my values”. Media products are extremely important for the respondents, since 53% were “totally dependent” on the chosen media. Social aspects were more important than individual, although those are also significant, since over one-third of respondents thought that the chosen media was part of themselves (identity) and 32% felt that the media usage signals their values. Newspaper readership seems to be a pretty strong identity claim, at least

when it is measured by the descriptions “part of my self “and “signals my values”

(see Table 9). Although more people feel totally dependent on Facebook than newspapers, the two share a similar role of reminding users of nice things. There were clear differences in attractiveness of user groups in the study. Whereas 71% of newspaper readers wanted to belong to reader groups, only 45% of netpaper readers and 35% of Facebook users felt the same. Netpapers did not have as strong relationships as paper newspapers and Facebook.

All Newspaper Netpaper Facebook

Brand as identity claim

Totally dependent 53 % 50 % 48 % 62 %

Part of myself 32 % 47 % 19 % 23 %

Signals about my values 36 % 52 % 27 % 23 % Brand as feeling regulator

Got me into better mood 17 % 15 % 21 % 15 % Reminds me of nice things 39 % 47 % 25 % 46 % Symbol for my future aims 17 % 17 % 14 % 19 % Brand as social currency

Want to belong to user group 54 % 71 % 45 % 35 % Symbol for belonging to certain group 45 % 56 % 31 % 46 % Connects with other people in the area 48 % 60 % 27 % 69 % Table 9. Media-brand relationships with newspapers, netpapers, and Facebook (n=202)

Some motives correlated more strongly with satisfaction than others, which indicates that media is able to gratify some motives better than others. Table 10 shows the correlations between motives and satisfaction. The correlations reveal, for example, that the more important avoiding loneliness as a media usage motive was for respondents, the more satisfied they were with their choice. In other words, the chosen media helped people avoid feeling lonely very well. All other correlations but the four bottom ones are statistically significant. It is curious that all the motives that did not correlate with satisfaction had something to do with spending time or distracting thoughts. The brand relationships clearly correlated with satisfaction. It was stated in hypothesis 4 that the stronger the brand relationship as identity claim, feeling regulator, or social currency, the more satisfied people are with their media choices. Hypothesis 4 is confirmed for all tested brand relationships. It turned out that all 9 statements were statistically significantly correlated with satisfaction (see Table 10). The more media can be used in connection to other people, the more satisfied people are with their media choice. And the more media symbolizes

belonging to a certain group or future aims, the happier people are with their chosen media. Some people were totally dependent on media products—the more so, the more satisfied they were with their chosen media. When media becomes a part of self and signals their values, the more satisfied people are. The effect of these findings on media marketing is revolutionary. The media products are mainly marketed as keeping up-to-date, enjoyment, etc. Those elements correlated with satisfaction only slightly. Instead, the effect of brand relationships is big.

Correlation with

satisfaction Media motives

Latest news 0.19**

Get information on something 0.15**

Spend time pleasantly -0.03 Get something to do -0.10

Avoid doing anything 0.01

Get something else to think about 0.00 Avoid feeling lonely 0.18**

Gain better mood 0.12

Reward myself 0.17**

Comfort myself 0.13**

Give a better image of myself 0.20**

Gain social knowledge 0.13**

Use same media as my peers 0.13**

Know the topics of discussions 0.16**

Brand relationships

Totally dependent 0.20**

Part of myself 0.21**

Signals about my values 0.23**

Got me into better mood

Reminds me of nice things 0.14**

Symbol for my future aims 0.21**

Wants to belong to user group 0.29**

Symbol for belonging to certain group 0.27**

Connects with other people in the area 0.32**

Table 10. Correlations of respondents’ media motives and satisfaction (n=316) and respondents’

media-brand relationship and satisfaction (n=202)

Newspaper reading was a much more habitual event than usage of other media products (41%). All media products had habitual users. It is somewhat surprising

that surfing the net was done habitually by 29% of the surfers. (Surfing is a random act of choosing content, not connected to time or place.) Facebook users were quite habitual (27%). The most random act was television program watching at 18%.

People were mainly satisfied with their media habits, with 73% satisfied (39% very satisfied and 34% rather satisfied). Only 13% were unsatisfied (9% rather unsatisfied and 4% very unsatisfied). Hypothesis 5 is confirmed, since satisfaction with media usage was correlated with the strength of existing habits people were satisfied with (0.24**). Therefore, it has been shown that habits are benefits of media usage.