Youth consumption of television in the age of new media

Abstract

This research investigates the habits of young television viewers in terms of watching television through new media devices. It explores the rationale behind the youths’ increased engagement with emerging technologies, that are related to live streaming. This study’s methodology has taken valuable insights from the ‘Technology Acceptance Model’ (TAM) combined with the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ (U&G) approach, in order to understand the motives behind the usage of different media for watching television. Quantitative data was gathered by means of an online survey questionnaire that was distributed amongst all the students at the University of Malta. Results have validated the theoretical framework of the TAM model as the: ‘perceived ease of use’ has affected ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘the intention to use’. Moreover the ‘perceived usefulness’ also affected ‘the intention to use’. In addition, it transpired that there were casual relationships between the ‘motivation for ritualised use of new media devices’ and ‘perceived ease’ as well as ‘perceived usefulness’ of such devices. Results also showed that respondents were watching more television on their new media devices when compared to watching television through the conventional television sets. Evidently, youth audiences are increasingly shifting to online platforms for watching television. Thus, this empirical study implies that there is a need to produce and present television content that is readily accessible online.