Dr Julia de Roeper

Factors in comparative levels of uptake of longer form mobile screen content

Low Australian uptake of mobile screen content in living conditions where most young people have their own bedroom and often their own television set contrasts with high uptake in high density cities of Korea and Japan where high speed broadband is available at low cost but personal space is limited and shared facilities restrict individual viewing to smaller hand-held devices. Research will combine ethnographic methods with GIS mapping technology to investigate high density versus suburban mobile viewing patterns.

Recent research with Dr. Susan Luckman has focused on the mobile content preferences of young Australians. From a sample of 229, 84% said they prefer to watch drama on television, emphasising their penchant for large screens, better picture quality and viewing comfort. We have suggested that, rather than the slow download speeds and high costs often blamed for low Australian uptake rates but which were less significant to respondents, Australian living conditions in which most young people have their own bedroom and often their own television set may be a factor in this result. This contrasts with the high density cities of Korea and Japan where conditions enable delivery of high speed broadband at low cost but personal space is limited and shared facilities restrict individual viewing to smaller hand-held devices (Haddon 2007, who refers to Lim 2005, on China, Yoon 2003, on Korea and Ito 2005, on Japan). In future Australia-based research it is planned to explore this result combining ethnographic research with GIS mapping technology to investigate high density versus suburban mobile viewing patterns.

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