August 21st, 2009
Is "online" a destination? There's confusion over different types of media
The other evening I was at an event organized at Razorfish: “Brand Relationships in a Social Media World.”
One of the slides shared during the presentation by Garrick Schmitt, GVP Experience Planning at Razorfish showed that “50% of Americans spend more time online than with any other media.”
This comparison was made against time spent with television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. But is “online” a media entity in the same way a newspaper is, or television program is? Most of the time people go online to read newspapers, to watch television programs, to listen to radio podcasts. It’s not an apples to apples comparison of “online.”
Online is a communications channel, it’s a superset of newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Neither of those can carry the others. So, to make the statement that “50% of Americans spend more time online than with any other media” is meaningless.
Better, would be to say, compare time spent on social media networks such as MySpace and FaceBook, with TV, radio, etc.
Tom Foremski reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley at the intersection of technology and media. He also writes at Silicon Valley Watcher. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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