Pew Internet has released a new report “The State of Online Video”

OVERVIEW

Seven in ten adult internet users (69%) have used the internet to watch or download video. That represents 52% of all adults in the United States.

Driven by the popularity of online video among 18-29 year-olds, there have been dramatic increases since 2007 in the number of American adults watching:

• Comedy or humorous videos, rising in viewership from 31% of adult internet users in 2007 to 50% of adult internet users in the current survey
• Educational videos, rising in viewership from 22% to 38% of adult internet users
• Movies or TV show videos, rising in viewership from 16% to 32% of adult internet users
• Political videos, rising in viewership from 15% to 30% of adult internet users

On the other side of the camera, video creation has now become a notable feature of online life. One in seven adult internet users (14%) have uploaded a video to the internet, almost double the 8% who were uploading video in 2007. Home video is far and away the most popular content posted online, shared by 62% of video uploaders. And uploaders are just as likely to share video on social networking sites like Facebook (52% do this) as they are on more specialized video-sharing sites like YouTube (49% do this).

Yet, while video-sharing is growing in popularity, adult internet users have mixed feelings about how broadly they want to share their own creations. While 31% of uploaders say they “always” place restrictions on who can access their videos, 50% say they “never” restrict access. The remaining 19% fall somewhere in the middle. And while there is almost universal appreciation for the ease with which video-sharing sites allow uploaders to share video with family and friends, a considerable number (35%) also feel they should be more careful about what they post.

Download or read the full report here

The Pew Internet study finds the link between young adults, reputation management and social media.

• More than half (57%) of adult internet users say they have used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% who did so in 2006.
• Young adults, far from being indifferent about their digital footprints, are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. For example, more than two-thirds (71%) of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online.
• Reputation management has now become a defining feature of online life for many internet users, especially the young. While some internet users are careful to project themselves online in a way that suits specific audiences, other internet users embrace an open approach to sharing information about themselves and do not take steps to restrict what they share.
• “Search engines and social media sites now play a central role in building one’s identity online,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and lead author of the report, “Many users are learning and refining their approach as they go–changing privacy settings on profiles, customizing who can see certain updates and deleting unwanted information about them that appears online.”
• When compared with older users, young adults are more likely to restrict what they share and whom they share it with. “Contrary to the popular perception that younger users embrace a laissez-faire attitude about their online reputations, young adults are often more vigilant than older adults when it comes to managing their online identities,” said Madden.

For more read the full report or download

A latest BCS report suggests that access to IT can make you happier. It primarily covers three areas:

• Effect of IT on Life Satisfaction, Individual Level
• Effect of ICT on Sense of Freedom and Control, Individual Level
• Effect of IT on Life Satisfaction with various variable/IT interaction terms

From the press release:

A new global study from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, shows that access to information technology has a ‘statistically significant, positive impact on life satisfaction’.

‘Put simply, people with IT access are more satisfied with life even when taking account of income,’ said the study’s author, social scientist Michael Willmott.

‘Our analysis suggests that IT has an enabling and empowering role in people’s lives by increasing their sense of freedom and control, which has a positive impact on well-being or happiness,’ he continued.

Women and those on lower incomes or with fewer educational qualifications benefit most from access to and use of IT and appear to benefit more than those on higher incomes or with more qualifications. 

The study also suggests that women in developing nations benefit even more than those in the developed world.

You can download the full report here (PDFs)

[ Via Textually.org ]

Amanda Lenhart, Rich Ling, Scott Campbell, Kristen Purcell on Pew Internet have published a new report Teens & Mobile Phones. You can view the report online or download the pdf.

Overview; Daily text messaging among American teens has shot up in the past 18 months, from 38% of teens texting friends daily in February of 2008 to 54% of teens texting daily in September 2009. And it’s not just frequency – teens are sending enormous quantities of text messages a day. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month. Older teen girls ages 14-17 lead the charge on text messaging, averaging 100 messages a day for the entire cohort. The youngest teen boys are the most resistant to texting – averaging 20 messages per day.
Text messaging has become the primary way that teens reach their friends, surpassing face-to-face contact, email, instant messaging and voice calling as the go-to daily communication tool for this age group. However, voice calling is still the preferred mode for reaching parents for most teens.

Image Credit: http://www.pewinternet.org/

Morgan Stanley has released the 2010 edition of State of the Internet (pdf) report. The report primarily highlights the exponential growth of the mobile web in coming years. It hints that Mobile Will Be Bigger Than Desktop Internet in 5 Years and then takes a deep dive into mobile internet. The report shares deep analysis of the following:

1.Wealth Creation / Destruction is Material in New Computing Cycles – Now in Early Innings of Mobile Internet Cycle, the 5th Cycle of Last Half Century.
2.Mobile Ramping Faster than Desktop Internet Did and Will Be Bigger Than Most Think – 5 Trends Converging (3G + Social Networking + Video + VoIP + Impressive Mobile Devices).
3.Apple Leading in Mobile Innovation + Impact, for Now – Depth of App Ecosystems + User Experience + Pricing Will Determine Long-Term Winners.
4.Game-Changing Communications / Commerce Platforms (Social Networking + Mobile) Emerging Very Rapidly.
5.Massive Data Growth Driving Carrier / Equipment Transitions.
6.Growth / Monetization Roadmaps Provided by Japan Mobile + Desktop Internet.

The report is authored by Mary Meeker, Scott Devitt and  Liang Wu and more is available about the report on GigaOm

Image Credit : Morgan Stanely

Pew Project For Excellence In Journalism has published their annual report on American Journalism – The state of the News Media. The report talks about all the aspects of news media – consumption, journalism, monetization, users and the news industry as whole across the mediums. It talks about the economics of online news, journalism’s future, users readiness to pay for the news and so on.

The major trends highlighted in the report:

• As we learn more about both web economics and consumer behavior, the unbundling of news seems increasingly central to journalism’s future.
• The future of New and Old Media are more tied together than some may think
• The notion that the news media are shrinking is mistaken.
• Technology is further shifting power to newsmakers, and the newest way is through their ability to control the initial accounts of events
• The ranks of self-interested information providers are now growing rapidly and news organizations must define their relationship to them
• When it comes to audience numbers online, traditional media content still prevails, which means the cutbacks in old media heavily impact what the public is learning through the new.

Lee Rainie, who is the Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project provides his own thoughts on journalism’s future. He seems to be optimistic. In an interview with Leonard Witt, he says:

"News organizations are trying to adapt to the new realities that will allow them to provide [high quality journalism], and there will always be a portion of the population who deeply cares about public life and civic life and the way that public institutions perform."

Here’s the video of the interview and the full transcript .

In response to this report Derek Thompson, staff editor at Atlantic Business comes up with 7 ideas that could save online journalism

Read the full "State of the News Media" report at http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/