Monday
Aug102009
Ofcom Scotland Communications Market report 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009 at 3:41PM
Recently I attended the launch of the Ofcom Scotland Communications Market report, published on August 6th 2009. http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/cmrscot. Ofcom staff presented the report and much of the discussion centred round the decline in spending by BBC Scotland and STV and there was concern about low Broadband take-up in Glasgow. There is really only one page (p.99, Figure 5.25) detailing Internet use in Scotland and does not give comparative figures for other parts of the UK. The two highest categories: Any and General surfing/ browsing don’t really mean much. Although sending and receiving email is the largest meaningful category (77%) there is no breakdown between work and leisure. Finding/downloading info for work comes in quite high at 28% for a serious activity and there is clearly possible further work here.
Ofcom’s commitment to media literacy is not in doubt as it is specified in Section 11 of the Communications Act 2003 which requires it to promote media literacy. Ofcom also has a definition of media literacy:
‘the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of content’
which must take its place alongside the CILIP definition of information literacy.
However Ofcom (UK) has recently produced a range of information reports in a Digital lifestyles series including:
Digital lifestyles: adults aged 60 and over
Digital lifestyles: young adults aged 16-24
Digital lifestyles: parents of children under 16
Digital lifestyles: hesitants, resistors and economisers
These reports, although not usually containing regional breakdowns, give a lot of information, useful to the IL specialist. For example the 16-24 report Figure 4 p. 9 give a list of Internet activity carried out at least once a week. This rates Work/studies information second (48% all; 60% 16-24) which shows a high level of purposeful activity. On p.14; Figure 8 lists Interest and confidence in using Internet functions. Joining in debates come out lowest. The research was done in 2007. Would the same question asked now produce different results? Figure 18 on p.24 lists checks made when visiting websites and has a strong IL ‘feel’ as it includes questions like: How up to date the information is and Who has created the page and why.
The parents of children under 16 report contains the worrying statistic (p.23) that only a fifth of parents are very confident in being able to tell if a website is truthful and reliable.
Food for thought obviously.
Ofcom’s commitment to media literacy is not in doubt as it is specified in Section 11 of the Communications Act 2003 which requires it to promote media literacy. Ofcom also has a definition of media literacy:
‘the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of content’
which must take its place alongside the CILIP definition of information literacy.
However Ofcom (UK) has recently produced a range of information reports in a Digital lifestyles series including:
Digital lifestyles: adults aged 60 and over
Digital lifestyles: young adults aged 16-24
Digital lifestyles: parents of children under 16
Digital lifestyles: hesitants, resistors and economisers
These reports, although not usually containing regional breakdowns, give a lot of information, useful to the IL specialist. For example the 16-24 report Figure 4 p. 9 give a list of Internet activity carried out at least once a week. This rates Work/studies information second (48% all; 60% 16-24) which shows a high level of purposeful activity. On p.14; Figure 8 lists Interest and confidence in using Internet functions. Joining in debates come out lowest. The research was done in 2007. Would the same question asked now produce different results? Figure 18 on p.24 lists checks made when visiting websites and has a strong IL ‘feel’ as it includes questions like: How up to date the information is and Who has created the page and why.
The parents of children under 16 report contains the worrying statistic (p.23) that only a fifth of parents are very confident in being able to tell if a website is truthful and reliable.
Food for thought obviously.
Reader Comments (1)
Couple of points of interest to add to John's post:
Six in ten households in Scotland (60%) have a broadband connection compared to 68% across the UK as a whole. the highest was Aberdeen at 72%, Glasgow was the lowest at 39%. The report also highlights the broadband 'not-spots' where those living in those areas cannot properly acces, or fully benefit from the full experience of using online services which require higher downloading speeds or Internet telephony services. The exact scale of the problem is difficult to ascertain although the Digitial Britain reports estimated that around 11% of UK housholds are unable to get broadband at 2Mb/s. It doesn't give figures for Scotland but does say that the Scottish Government has been funding an initiative to address 'not-spots'.
One in five households in Scotland use social networking sites = 20% up 5%. UK wide average is 30% with Aberdeen the highest (31%) and Glasgow the lowest (12%).
One in seven people (14%) in Scotland used a mobile phone to access the internet, comapred to 20% across the UK. The highest in Scotland is Aberdeen (19%) and in the Highlands and Islands (21%).
More than one in four households in Scotland (27%) are mobile onlyfor their telecoms needs. The highest level was found in Glasgow (27%) which has lower than average income levels. They were more likely to rely soley on their mobile for their telecoms needs than in any other UK city (UK as a whole is 12%). The figure for Scotland is 15%.
Useful information when you look at the discussions about Web 2.0 and the use of mobile technology in learning.