The Internet Vs. the Television: Which Is the Primary Source of Media Entertainment?

The Internet vs. The Television:

Which is the Primary Source of Media Entertainment?

Submitted by

Anna Bettina Bautista

Mico Cortez

John Nathaniel Laxamana

Erlaine Vanessa Lumanog

Niko Lorenzo Peralta

Daryll Santillan

March 28, 2008

Introduction

In the year 1953, the television was introduced to the Philippines. The primary broadcasting network then was ABS-CBN (which was formerly known as Bolinao), pioneering color television service, programs and films. Programs being telecast at the time were mostly borrowed films from the foreign embassies, imported cowboy movies and actual coverage of a variety of events (Anastacio, 2000).

The internet on the other hand was brought to the Philippines in March 1994 by the Philippine Network Foundation (PHNET), a consortium of private and government institutions enabled the Filipinos to be connected live via a 64kbps link to sprint in the United States then considered to be the country’s public gateway to the Internet (Austin, 20007). Since then, it has rapidly gained popularity as a media source of entertainment.

Yet before the internet’s emergence, people turned to the television for entertainment. The television was able to meet the entertainment needs of the people by fusing the entertainment mediums of the time вЂ" the audio and visual interfaces of radio and print.

However, the internet as a cybernetic space fuses all these traditional forms of entertainment media: the television, the radio and print media, with a click of the mouse. We are in the age where the development of the information society is being encountered; therefore, this paper will examine if this kind of impact is trickling down to the lifestyle of the Filipino youth today.

With the entertainment habits of this generation becoming more dynamic and interactive, and with the numerous accessible technologies available, it is likely that their preference for the medium by which entertainment is transmitted has changed. Thus, this paper aims to answer the question, is the Internet replacing the Television as the primary source of entertainment media for the Filipino youth.

Objectives

The researchers aim to answer this question by gathering relevant data from respondents aged 18-22 in the middle to upper class bracket and aim to identify why the internet is emerging as such by using Dimmick and Rothenbuhler’s Theory of Niche and La Rose and Eastin’s Theory of Internet Uses and Gratification. Additionally, it will also show the social, economic, and domestic implications of the emergence of the internet as a source of media entertainment.

Significance

The findings of this study will directly state the reasons and the implications of the internet replacing the television as the primary source of entertainment. We are currently traversing the line that distinguishes the industrial age from the information society and this will reflect how far this development has reached at this point.

It will also tackle an important social impact about the youth, being the new generation as the main market of the media and how their preferences affect the kind of media that should prevail. It can be inferred that the way to appeal to the youth and incoming generations is through a more vibrant way of marketing which in turn should be a more lucrative form of business for companies.

It will clarify however, that television products such as series, soaps and other programs are not weakening in terms of audience appeal but instead, are being marketed through the internet. Because the internet is said to have both connectivity and interactivity, the internet can provide more than viewing but also interaction such as file sharing, chatting and the like to the youth, drawing more attraction from them.

Background

A study conducted by IBM (International Business Machines) Institute for Business Value was geared toward addressing one particular aspect that has become a growing concern for media companies: effective advertising. Because consumers are now seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community in mobile and internet entertainment, they felt the need to respond in such a way that they go beyond the traditional creative roles to become brokers of consumer insights.

At this point, cable companies must evolve to home media portals, broadcasters and publishers must race toward new media formats. Marketers are now being coerced to experiment and make advertising more compelling or else risk being ignored (IBM). One significant finding that their study was able to come up with was that in lieu of entertainment, there has been an immense preferential shift from television viewing to internet surfing, with the users practically using both media with the same purpose. Hence, similar studies were conducted in order to prove this kind of development.

Thus, the research question will weigh which form of media is more preferred by the youth as their source of entertainment. It will highlight the nature of both media вЂ" the television as the key provider of basic forms of entertainment and the internet as a more dynamic and digital system that allow for convergence in technology: broadcasting, cable, telecommunication and computer services, and the fusion of entertainment sources (Tuazon, 2002).

Theoretical Conceptual Framework

To undertake the exploration of the competition between the television and the internet, this paper will use Dimmick and Rothenbuhler’s (1994) Theory of the Niche to explain how media technologies interact in the multi-dimensional resource space of the environment. (Dimmick, Kline, and Stafford, 2000). This theory was derived from population ecology and is a method of explaining competition within the media environment and the consequences of a rise of a new medium. In this approach, media environments are seen as ecological spaces, with populations of that environment competing for its resources.

According to this theory, if two mediums’ niches compete for the same resources because they