Second Screen Phenomenon and News Consumption in Pakistan

Abstract

This study examined the impact of demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, education, and income) on audience activity for second screen news consumption. Second screen phenomenon is a hybrid media process that refers to complementary and simultaneous use of television and a second web-connected screen i.e. smartphone, tablet or laptop for media consumption. Audience activity for news consumption in the context of second screen phenomenon is still under researched. An online survey based on purposive sampling was conducted from January 4th, 2017 to March 17th, 2017. A total of 520 respondents were surveyed out of which 400 were deemed relevant based on the study’s inclusion criteria. After conducting descriptive statistics, crosstabulations and binary logistics regression analysis our results showed that gender and age were significant predictor of audience activity at various intervals of news consumption through second screening. Our study contributes to the existing literature by identifying the predictors for changing news consumption patterns in new media eco system and helps in better understanding of contemporary media audiences.