TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS In this project you will: read and complete a questionnaire; find out how to write appropriate questionnaire questions; learn how to set up a successful survey; conduct a survey yourself; report your findings.
CONTENTS 1
2
3
1.1
The questionnaire
3
1.2
Interpreting results
How to conduct a good survey
11
17
2.1
Defining your purpose and research group
17
2.2
Choosing your format
20
2.3
Structuring your research
20
2.4
Testing your questionnaire
23
2.5
Reporting your results
25
3
Over to you: your own survey
34
4
Tracking tools
37
5
2
Please complete
4.1
Good survey questions
37
4.2
Components of a survey
37
4.3
Choosing an online format
38
4.4
Reporting your results
38
Sources
39
TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
1 ⁄ PLEASE COMPLETE 1.1 ⁄ THE QUESTIONNAIRE 1 Think about what you did yesterday and write down how many minutes you suppose you spent on the following activities. Activity
Time spent Percentage (in hours and (total day = 24 h minutes) = 1,440 minutes)
watching TV / streaming videos, TV series, etc.
:
%
listening to music (includes all time spent listening, downloading and streaming)
:
%
playing (video, mobile, computer) games
:
%
using social media
:
%
doing other activities on computers and mobile devices
:
%
browsing websites
:
%
reading (in print, e-books or online stories, articles, news and blogs)
:
%
video chatting
:
%
going to the movies
:
%
2 Find a quick way to compare how you and your classmates spent your time. Write down three conclusions and share them with the class.
WRITING
SPOKEN INTERACTION
Tip: Use comparatives and superlatives! e.g. I watched more TV than anyone else. Alix watched as much TV as Serena. Eliana watched TV the most. Jenna spent fewer minutes in front of the TV than I did. 1 2 3
TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
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3 What can you also conclude from this very basic questionnaire? Tick the correct answer(s) and explain. The number of students in our class who stream videos on a specific day. The number of students in our class who stream videos. The number of students present today in class who stream videos on a specific day. The number of students present today in class who stream videos. 4 Why are you asked to express your activities in minutes? 5 Compare your and your class’ results to the results from a nationally representative survey of 2,658 US children (age 8 to 18) conducted in 2015 by Common Sense Media.
Average Time Spent Per Day Among Teens Watching TV/DVDs/videos
2:38
Listening to music
1:54
Playing video, computer, or mobile games
1:21
Using social media
1:11
Doing other activities on computer/mobile device
0:32
Browsing websites
0:36
Reading
0:28
Video-chatting
0:13
Going to the movies
0:03
Total screen media
6:40
Total media
8:56
Source: www.commonsensemedia.org
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TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
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6 What can you conclude from this comparison? Tick the correct answer. I spend less time using media than the average American teen. I spend more time using media than the average teen. The average student present in our class today spends less time using media than the average American teen. The average student present in our class today spends more time using media than the average American teen. Nothing
Explain your answer.
7 Is the questionnaire you completed in question 1 a representative one?
DID YOU KNOW?
Surveys versus questionnaires The terms ‘survey’ and ‘questionnaire’ are often confused. Oxford Dictionary describes a survey as being an investigation of the opinions or experiences of a group of people, based on a series of questions. When conducting a survey, your list of questions is called your questionnaire.
TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
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8 Study the following tables from the Common Sense Media survey and answer the questions. a Are the statements true or false? Correct when false. Statement
True False
1 None of the American respondents liked creating digital music most. 2 Watching TV is still quite popular among teens. 3 Teens read more electronic books than paper versions. 4 Nintendo DS, LeapPad and Gameboy are less popular than devices like X-Box, Playstation and Wii. 5 Teenagers use media more creatively than adults. b Write down one question per table that might have been asked to obtain these results. I FAVORITE MEDIA ACTIVITY Activity
Among Teens
Playing video games
15%
Reading
10%
Watching TV
9%
Listening to music
30%
Watching online videos
6%
Playing mobile games
2%
Using social media
10%
Playing computer games
5%
Creating digital art/graphics
1%
Writing
1%
Making videos
1%
Note: Other options in the survey for ‘favorite’ activities included taking/editing photos, creating/modifying games, coding, and creating digital music, but only activities that received at least 1 percent in each age group are included in this table. Therefore, totals do not add up to 100%.
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TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
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II TIME SPENT WITH EACH MEDIA DEVICE Average time spent per day Media
Among Teens
Smartphone
2:42
Computer
1:37
Television set
1:31
Tablet
0:45
iPod/iPod Touch
0:36
Video game console
0:32
Radio
0:27
0:20
DVD player
0:11
Handheld gamer
0:05
CD player
0:05
E-reader
0:03
Movie theater
0:03
Total mobile media
4:12
Total mobile screen media
3:01
Total screen media
6:40
Total media
8:56
III CONSUMPTION, COMMUNICATION AND CREATION Time spent using digital media, by activity Activity Passive consumption
Among Teens 2:06 (39%)
Watching online videos
0:35
Watching TV
0:22
Reading
0:05
Listening to music
1:04
Interactive consumption
1:19 (25%)
Playing games
0:44
Browsing websites
0:36
Communication*
1:24 (26%)
Using social media**
1:11
Video-chatting
0:13
0:09 (3%)
Creation Making art or music
0:06
Writing
0:04
Other*** Total
0:23 (7%)
5:21
Note: This table includes time spent on computers, tablets, smartphones, and iPod Touches. *Excludes time spent talking and texting. **Some would consider posting pictures or comments on social media ‘content creation’ but we are classifying those activities as ‘communication’. ***Respondents noted the time they spent doing ‘anything else’ on a computer, tablet, iPod Touch, or smartphone, beyond the specific activities asked about in the survey. These times have been included here in the ‘other’ category. It is not possible to determine whether these activities should be considered consumption, creation, or communication.
TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
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9 Take another look at the last table and answer the questions below. a What did the researchers try to do with this research? b Why didn’t they completely succeed in doing so? c Why, do you think, did the researchers make a distinction between ‘communication’ and ‘active creation’? d Did these questions elicit an open or a closed answer? Why? e Which questions are easiest to interpret: closed-ended or open-ended ones? 10 Do you remember the grammar rules regarding fractions, percentages and collective nouns? Complete the grammar box.
GRAMMAR Subject – verb agreement Fractions (¾), percentages (%) and other parts of a whole actually follow normal countable/ uncountable rules and the verb agrees with the preceding noun or clause that serves as the subject. With a
or
noun, use a singular verb:
e.g. One third of the study seems irrelevant. Fifty percent of the article is untrue. All the information is from 2015. None of the information is relevant. With a
noun, use a plural verb:
e.g. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of teens say they watch TV ‘every day’. 62% (of the teens) say they watch TV every day. More than two in ten respondents admit to be addicted to their mobile devices. All of the questions are relevant. None of the questions are relevant. After a noun (which stands for a group of people, e.g. audience, group, team), you either use a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether you want to emphasise the single group or its individual members: e.g. Half of my family uses / use their smartphone for more than two hours a day. Sixty-four per percent of the American population owns / own a smartphone.
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TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
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‘Police’ and ‘people’, however, must always be used with a plural verb: e.g. T he police investigate the case. People are responding to our questions. Note: The expression ‘more than one’ takes a singular verb: e.g. More than one (respondent) doesn’t have a smartphone.
Source: www.oxforddictionaries.com and www.merriam-webster.com
11 Read some of the key findings from the Common Sense Media survey and complete the verb forms.
TEENS AND SMARTPHONES The vast majority of teens (to live) in homes where at least one person (to have) a smartphone, and the majority of teens (to have) their own smartphones, but in a time when the common perception is that all teens (to use) smartphones all the time, it is useful to remember that more than three in ten teens (not to have) smartphones. Smartphones are used for a variety of activities, including listening to music, watching videos, playing games, and using social media (the survey did not measure time spent talking on the phone or texting). While this generation of young people is widely perceived as being near-constant texters, only about half (53 percent) of all teens (to send) text messages on any given day.
AMONG TEENS WHO TEXT, NUMBER OF TEXTS SENT IN A DAY, BY GENDER
BOYS
51+ texts 17%
31-50 texts
34%
1-10 texts
13% 36%
11-30 texts
Average number of texts sent 39
AMONG TEENS WHO TEXT, NUMBER OF TEXTS SENT IN A DAY, BY GENDER
GIRLS
51+ texts 25%
22%
1-10 texts
Among those teens who text, the average 31-50 18% number of texts sent in a day is 55, but the texts 35% average masks some real diversity in how 11-30 many texts young people texts Average number (to send). Many texters (28 percent) of texts sent 69 (to send) 10 or fewer texts in a day, and another third (to send) between 11 and 30. Another third (to send) more than 30 texts, including 21 percent who (to send) 51 or more.
TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS
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TELEVISION- AND VIDEO-VIEWING HABITS Despite all the new types of TV AND VIDEO VIEWING AMONG TEENS, BY PLATFORM media available to young Device used to watch people today, television Smartphone 43% 7% Computer 31% (to 8% Tablet 17% 22% continue) to be one of the most iPod Touch 9% popular and widely used. Online videos 14% On any given day, […] 71 percent TV on other platforms 50% TV on a set as broadcast of teens Time-shifted TV (to say) they ‘watch TV’ (either DVDs on a TV set or online), and those Note: Percentage may not add to 100% due to rounding who do watch an average of 2:21 and 2:40 respectively (that’s an average of 1:47 a day among all tweens and 1:53 among all teens). […] [T]eens now interact with media content across a diverse set of devices. For example, among teens only half (50 percent) of all TV- and video-viewing time (to consist) of watching TV programming on a TV set at the time it is broadcast. […] [A]mong teens, 64 percent (to watch) on a TV set and 19 percent (to watch) on another device. In terms of the amount of time spent watching TV or movies on each device, […] 81 percent of teens’ viewing (to occur) on a TV set. Just under half of all […] teens (45 percent) (to say) they enjoy watching online videos ‘a lot.’ Many […] teens watch non-television programming on YouTube frequently enough that […] 31 percent of teens (can) name a favorite YouTube show, channel, or star. Source: www.commonsensemedia.org
12 Complete the missing words in the following text. Despite all our new options, watching TV and listening to music remain the dominant forms of entertainment. Nearly two- (62%) of teens say they watch TV ‘every day’ compared to 24% who daily watch online video such as YouTube or 27% who play mobile games on a daily basis. Nearly three (73%) indicated ‘listen to music’ as their top media entertainment activity. Nearly of the teens (45%) say they use social media ‘every day’ which is than listen to music (66%) or watch TV (58%) and only 36% of teens say they enjoy using social media ‘a lot,’ compared to 73% for music and 45% for TV. Only 10% of teens (14% of girls and 5% of boys) named social media their ‘favorite’ media-related activity, compared with 30% who chose listening to music. Reading also scored at 10%. Source: www.connectsafely.org
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TRACKING: COMMON CENSUS