Media and Technology Stats and Studies – April 22, 2013

A Horowitz Associates report found that, while Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans are as likely as their White counterparts to have access to over-the-top (OTT) platforms - such as Netflix, Roku, and Hulu - they are more likely to use them regularly to watch video content. Half of Black (49%) and Hispanic (53%) consumers watch OTT content at least weekly, as do almost two-thirds (61%) of Asians. In contrast, 39% of White consumers watch OTT content on at least a weekly basis.

The results of a Zogby Analytics poll of 1,000 adults revealed that, among all internet privacy-related issues, just 4% of respondents were concerned about cyber-bullying. Paradoxically, a 2011 Ohio State University study found that African American and Hispanic students who were cyber-bulllying victims showed sharper grade point average declines than other racial and ethnic groups. Thirty-nine percent of respondents to the Zogby poll were concerned about identity theft, 33% about viruses and malware, 12% about government surveillance, and 4% about targeted advertising.

An analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data conducted by Dice shows gains in women working in tech. However, most of the gains were seen in consulting jobs, rather than full-time positions. Forty-six percent of consulting jobs were awarded to women, but women comprise just 31% of the tech sector overall.Forrester Research reported a double digit gap in online TV viewing between younger and older TV viewers. Twenty-seven percent of young viewers between the ages of 18-24 watch TV online 5 or more hours per week, compared to 12% among 25-49 year olds and 9% of 35-44-year-olds. Nielsen also released a report assessing behavior among younger viewers. The Nielsen report found that, in the fourth quarter of 2012, teens watched video on mobile phones to a greater degree than any other age group surveyed, consuming 18% more video on their mobile devices than 18- to 24-year-olds and 46% more than persons ages 25-34. The Nielsen report also found that 42% of young adults are African American, Latino, or Hispanic.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported a 111% spike in mobile advertising spending in 2012. Advertisers spent $3.4 billion on mobile advertising last year.

A Nielsen/Newspaper Association of America report found readers to be less engaged viewing local newspaper websites on their mobile phones than they were viewing national news websites. Just 8% of respondents viewed a local newspaper website on their mobile phone “today”, compared to 43% for those viewing a national newspaper website.

A Simon-Kucher and Partners study of 2,700 high-end decision-makers at international media companies predicted 90% of online content would be behind a paywall by the end of the next three years.

Viewers flocked to TV news outlets for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday. NBC reported the largest audience, with 8.8 million viewers tuning into its 10 p.m. special report.

The Center for Digital Education and National School Boards Association reported a 44% increase in the number of school districts overall that use social networks, with 74% now reporting a social media presence. Thirty-two percent of districts reported a lack of computers as the biggest obstacle to preparing for upcoming Common Core online assessments.

Amazon is gaining on Apple in music downloads. According to NPD Group, Amazon had 22% of the music download market in 2012, compared to 15% in 2008. Apple iTunes’ share slipped from 69% in 2009 to 63% in 2012.

Social media usage is declining in the U.S., according to Experian Marketing Services. In 2010, users spent 30% of their time online using social networks. That number has declined to 27%.

Verizon saw a 16% growth in profits in the first quarter of 2013.

Intel’s overall first-quarter revenues declined 2.5% to $12.6 billion compared to last year. The company’s net income dropped 25%. The earning results reinforced existing doubts about the health of the PC market.

Media and Technology Stats and Studies – March 18, 2013

CRA: Computing Degree Enrollments Soar, Foreign Students Dominate Among Advanced Computing Degrees Awarded in U.S., Hispanics Show Sharp Declines Among Computer Engineering Grads

The Computer Research Association has released a report showing the number of new undergraduate majors pursuing degrees in computer science at doctorate-granting institutions has grown by more than 29% over last year. The report evaluated three degrees: computer science (CS), computer engineering (CE) and information-related, computing disciplines (I). While Black or African-Americans comprised just 4.5% of students awarded CS Bachelor’s degrees, this number rose from 3.6% the year before. Among students awarded I Bachelor’s degrees, 8.4% were African-American, compared to 6.9% the year prior. African-Americans did, however, see a slight decline in representation among students awarded CE Bachelor’s degrees, as the proportion dropped from 5.9% to 5.2%.

For Hispanics, the most recent CRA report found an increase in representation among CS Bachelor’s degrees awarded, but declines in Hispanic representation among those graduating with CE and I undergraduate degrees. Hispanics comprised 6.3% of those awarded CS Bachelor’s degrees between 2011 and 2012, compared to 5.4% the year before. However, the proportion of Hispanics awarded I Bachelor’s degrees was down slightly from 8.6% to 8.4% year-to-year.  The report found a significant decline in the number of Hispanic students obtaining CE undergraduate degrees: The percentage of CE Bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanics was 4.9% in 2012, compared to 8.1% the previous year.

The report also evaluated Master’s and Ph.D. degrees awarded. “Nonresident Aliens” comprised 53.8% of Master’s degrees and 50.1% of doctorates awarded across all three disciplines combined, dwarfing the proportion of such degrees awarded Black or African-Americans and Hispanics. Black or African-Americans comprised just 2.7% of Master’s and 2% of Ph.D.’s awarded across the three disciplines.  Hispanics were represented among 2.5% of CS, CE and I Master’s degree graduates and 1.4% of such Ph.D.’s. Interestingly, Nonresident Aliens comprised just 6.9% of students awarded Bachelor’s degrees across all three disciplines, compared to 5.3% of degrees awarded to students who identified as Black or African American and 6.5% of Hispanics.

NCES Report: Most Algebra I and Geometry Courses Are Not Rigorous

A National Center for Education Statistics report showed 73% of students who took an “honors” Algebra I course were actually taught material ranked as intermediate, with less than 20% receiving instruction ranked as “rigorous.” Among students taking “honors” Geometry, just 33% actually received a rigorous curriculum. A larger percentage of Hispanic (19%) and Asian/Pacific Islander students (24%) took a beginner level Algebra course, compared to 12 percent of White students. The report also concluded that a larger percentage of White students (37%) enrolled in “honors” Geometry courses actually received rigorous instruction, compared to 12% of such Black and 17% of such Hispanic students.

Commentary

Only 3 Women Are Directing Blockbuster Movies in 2013, and That’s a Problem

Other Reports:

PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that 67% of healthcare industry CIOs report they are facing IT staffing shortages, up from 59% in 2010.

Intel awarded $630,000 to 10 high school student scientists. The winners of the Intel Science Talent Search bested 1,700 entrants.

Pew: One in Four Teenagers Accesses the Internet Primarily Via a Mobile Device

WSJ: The Surprising Numbers Behind Apps. Among the report’s findings, apps are expected to yield $25 billion in revenue in 2012 from users who spend an average of 2 hours per day using them, most of the time (43%) playing games. Also, 94% of app developers are men making less than $15,000 per year developing apps.

Rootmetrics: AT&T Beats Verizon on Speed; Verizon Beats AT&T in LTE Coverage. The study showed average speeds of 18.6 Mbps down and 9 Mbps on the uplink for AT&T, compared to 14.3 Mbps down and 8.5 Mbps up for Verizon. However, LTE testers connected to a Verizon LTE signal 93.2% of the time, compared to 81.7% for AT&T.

AT&T researchers have reportedly sent a 100Gbit/second signal across 12,000 km on a 100GHz-spaced grid. This is an improvement over its previous record sending a 100Gbit/second signal 3,000 km using a 50GHz grid.

Study: TV Tops Movies and Music Among Millennials. A Magid Generational Strategies study showed Millennials favor TV programming over movies and music and many (45%) are willing to watch advertising if doing so will allow them to access full-length TV content without having to pay a subscription fee.

University of Cambridge and Microsoft: Facebook “Likes” Predict Intelligence, Age, Voting History and Sexuality. Among other examples, the study of 58,000 Facebook users showed a positive correlation between likes for “thunderstorms” and high intelligence, likes for “being confused after waking up from naps” and being a straight male, and likes for the band Slayer and being a smoker.

Nielsen: “Zero TV” Households Hit 5 Million in U.S. The number of viewers who have chosen to forgo “traditional TV” offered via cable and satellite in favor of relying exclusively on computers, smartphones and tablets for content is up by 2 million since 2007.

SUNY reported it will invest $300,000 to expose more of its undergraduates to resume-building STEM research opportunities.

Global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported 97% of businesses will make no change to their benefit allowing employees to telecommute. A Stanford University study also found a 13% increase in productivity among call center workers randomly assigned to telecommute.

 

Media and Technology Stats and Studies – March 1, 2013

Women’s Media Center Report: Representation of Women in Media Has Stagnated

In a report entitled ”The Status of Women in the U.S. Media, 2013“, the Women’s Media Center reported that the percentage of women working in newspaper newsrooms was 36.9 in 2012–exactly the same proportion reported in 1999.  The report also found that if current hiring trends continue at their current pace, women will not reach parity with men in leadership roles until 2085.  Male bylines outnumber those of their female counterparts by a 3 to 1 margin.

Columbia University: Online Courses May Harm Minority Students

Columbia released a large-scale report based on a survey of 40,000 community and technical college students suggesting students of color actually fare worse when they take courses online in lieu of a traditional classroom setting. Among the report’s findings, taking a course online correlated with a 0.15-0.4 grade reduction based on a 4.0 scale. However, the study did not control for the quality of on-line programs and contradicts another large-scale study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education showing a favorable impact of on-line learning on student outcomes.

Georgetown University: Associates STEM Degree-holders Earn More than Some Bachelor’s Degree Holders

Community college graduates with STEM degrees out earn non-STEM bachelor’s degree holders, according to the Georgetown University report. However, a 2009 Education Trust Baseline Report showed a community college completion gap of 9 percentage points between minority students (24%) and all students (33%).

Equity and Excellence Commission Submits Report to Department of Education

The report advises the Secretary of Education on strategies for reducing barriers to meaningful educational opportunities. The report outlines a five-part framework focusing on equitable school finance; effective teachers, principals and curricula; early childhood education; mitigating poverty’s effects, and; accountability and governance.

Robin Roberts’ Return to ABC’s Good Morning America Yielded 6.1 Million Viewers

The anchor, who recently underwent a bone marrow transplant, returned to GMA on February 20. Nielsen reported Ms. Roberts’ return to the network resulted in GMA‘s largest audience since November 7, the day after the Presidential election.

Commentary:

The Success of Bounce TV Reflects Changing U.S. Demographics

Other Reports:

The Federal Communications Commission released a white paper reviewing how the United States compares to other nations as it frees spectrum to accomodate what Cisco has estimated to be an expected eighteen-fold increase in spectrum demand between 2011 and 2016. Much of the report focuses on licensed spectrum frequency bands below 2.7 GHz as they comprise the predominant frequencies used to provide mobile broadband services around the world. The U.S. ranks first among the nations it studied in current and pipeline (including pipeline unlicensed) spectrum, with 958 MHz. Australia ranks second with 708 MHz of current and pipeline spectrum. Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and the U.K. were also studied.

The Wireless Broadband Alliance reported that operators attribute 75 percent of their mobile traffic to users accessing personal routers, indicating a preference for using Wi-Fi at home.

Online video viewing was down slightly in December, 2012. Viewers in the UK watch the most TV shows on their tablets. Sixty-six percent of U.S. consumers stream any kind of video two to three times per week.

GSMA: The total number of mobile connections will soar to 7.4 billion this year, exceeding the world population by 300 million.

China announced plans to extend 4M broadband coverage to 70% of the country’s internet users.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) reported the U.S. stands in 14th place worldwide in the number of people with high speed broadband connections.

GSMA: Mobile health could save developed countries $400 billion in 2017 by improving care for sudden health incidents, remote patient monitoring, mobile access to electronic health records, and implementing SMS messaging for appointment and medication reminders.

IFPI: Spurred by Digital Downloading,  Global Recorded Music Revenues Grew for the First Time Since 1999

The University of Texas at Austin has released a data tool enabling policymakers to track emerging conflicts in Africa.

T-Mobile has continued to lose contract customers, but the losses have been offset by an increase in prepaid customers.

A petition on the White House website asking the U.S. government to permit mobile phones to be “unlocked” (i.e. registered to a different carrier than the one to which the phone was configured at the time of purchase) reached the threshold of 100,000 signatures required to receive consideration.

Sprint saved $1 billion via its phone refurbishment program.

The four mainstream television networks are recording a historic decline in ratings, down 23 percent compared to the same week last year.

Nielsen: Many advertisers fail to target women in shows, such as Walking Dead, that deliver a high number of female viewers but contain themes not traditionally considered appealing to women.

The USA Network had the highest ratings among cable networks in February, with AMC’s Walking Dead episodes occupying the top 3 shows for the month.

IAB: Even though shoppers use their smartphones while shopping, 38% actually end up purchasing their items in-store.

IAB: Microtargeting accounted for $130 million in political ad spending in 2012.

Education professionals report lack of funding as the main impediment to widespread implementation of educational technology in the classroom.

A JD Power survey found nearly one-third (29%) of customers affected by Hurricane Sandy learned about power outages by listening to the radio. Thirty-seven percent learned of power outages by calling their phone company.  Seventeen percent learned by visiting their power company’s website.

Sixty-eight percent of marketers reported they will increase spending on big data initiatives. Forty-nine percent of respondents cited website analytics data as the best source of consumer information.

Sinclair Broadcasting will acquire five Cox TV stations.

RAB: Radio’s Online Revenues Grew By 22% in 2012

Nielsen: With 40.3 million viewers, the Oscars returned its best audience in 3 years.

Consumer satisfaction with online travel companies has dropped by 2.6 percent–to 76 percent–putting the industry behind other e-commerce retailers. Amazon still leads among all e-commerce retailers irrespective of industry.

Report: STEM jobs are up 15% in Florida

A team of Stanford University researchers has developed a lithium battery that extends battery life by a factor of ten.

From Lilly Ledbetter to Broadband Access: Reframing Women’s Equity

by Nicol Turner-Lee, Ph.D.
originally published at Politic365

Last month, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act celebrated its third anniversary as the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Obama.  The Act was initiated by Lilly Ledbetter who realized that she was unfairly compensated for doing the same work of her male counterparts.  Expanding the statute of limitations on fair pay lawsuits for women, the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act marked a significant step in addressing ongoing wage disparities that exist between men and women.  According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, women made 77.4% of what men make in 2010, with women’s average earnings amounting to $36,931 compared to men’s average earnings of $47,715. In the same study, African American women made an average of $32,290. The unfortunate reality is that more is at stake for women when they earn less, particularly their ability to care for their children, parents, and possibly dislocated spouses.  Further, the lack of access to learning opportunities and career management tools make it harder for women to advance in our new economy, making advances in pay futile if women are unable to secure competitive jobs.

Pay issues are but one of several inequities that exist between men and women.  Recent research suggests that women, on average spend more on health care services.  An article in Modern Physician found that in 2004 women spent $6,000 per capita on health care services, while men only spent $4,540. According to the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, “the number of working-age women who spent 10 percent or more of their income on premiums and out-of-pocket costs rose from 25 percent in 2005 to 33 percent in 2010.” Due in part to the crippling recession and rising health care costs, approximately 27 million women of working age also did not have health insurance as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.  For African American women who are more susceptible to chronic diseases that include heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, the lack of access to health care can be fatal, and it’s unfortunate that unfair pay exacerbates these trends.

Child care costs can also be a substantial burden to women that earn less, and impact their ability to effectively maintain employment.  According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, the average percentage of monthly income spent on child care expenditures for a female, single parent ranges from 11.7 percent to 12.6 percent.  In compensating for these significant costs, women are sometimes forced to put off long term educational goals due to child care issues or delay starting a family.  Missing work for even legitimate child care reasons can often prompt a pink slip for women, especially women of color without a backup plan.  In most cases, equitable pay makes it possible for women to engage more fully in the workforce, advance their skills, and alleviate the immediate and often urgent concerns of their households.

Further, women require the tools to be competitive and nimble in the nation’s emerging information economy.  More job prospects have migrated to the web, altering search strategies.  Access to preventative and diagnostic health care applications are increasingly present on the web.  Many times information that supports learning opportunities is available exclusively on the Internet.  Networks among women who have experienced the joys and challenges of caring for children and elderly parents are populating the web in record numbers. While many women struggle to make ends meet, the virtual world offers opportunities and access that can quite frankly advance their careers, and simplify their lives.

In a time where broadband Internet is rapidly changing how we live, learn and earn, the need to ensure that more women have adequately adopted broadband is immediate.  The good news is that women in general and more so women of color are increasing their use.  Recent research from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that 69 percent of African American women regularly go online to access health, education, and employment information, a promising trend of broadband use in the African American community.   And, more women are turning to mobile technology to assist in real time response and management of their work responsibilities and personal duties.  When income and educational attainment are added into the picture, the unfortunate reality is that low-income women often place broadband access as the lowest priority as they work to make sure their family’s basic needs are met.  Choosing food over a broadband connection is a pretty simple decision for low-income women.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 is addressing one of the most critical inequalities experienced by women today – the inability to make comparable and livable wages as their male counterparts.  However, higher wages for women are not just about principle.  Having the money to effectuate every aspect of one’s life from health care to child care to broadband access helps level the playing for women, and removes the undue stress and possibly death associated with our lifestyles.  Understanding the intersection of fair pay with other inequalities, and identifying the tools required to compete in the nation’s new economy will be essential to women’s future livelihood.

Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee is Vice President and Director of the Media and Technology Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC.  More information on Dr. Turner-Lee and her work can be found at the Joint Center website.