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Tag: Pew Research Center

  • Only 22 per cent Pakistanis support freedom on the internet

    Only 22 per cent Pakistanis support freedom on the internet

    NEW DELHI: Even as the Lahore High Court in Pakistan continues to debate on whether the ban on YouTube should be lifted, a survey has revealed that a mere 22 per cent of Pakistanis want internet that is free of official censorship from the government.

     

    Pakistan scored the lowest percentage out of the 24 developing countries where the use of internet is either prohibited or limited.

     

    India did not figure in the survey as there are no restrictions on internet in this country.

     

    Pew Research Center said while Venezuela topped the list with 69 per cent wanting freedom of the internet, the other country at the bottom was Uganda with 49 per cent wanting the internet to be free.

     

    Most of the other countries in the poll said that they wanted an internet free from censorship.

    Pakistan had banned YouTube after the showing of what it termed as an offensive film, but has not lifted the ban even after the film was removed.

     

    With the ban on YouTube for the past 17 months, famous singer Ali Gul Pir has released a song ‘Kholo BC’ to mock government for its inability to lift the ban on such a useful online platform. With main focus on YouTube ban, Ali and his fellow artiste Adil Omer have touched upon various issues related to Pakistani society, its Youth and the dichotomy present in the behavior of its ruling elite.

     

    According to the US-based Pakistani website MoreMagazine, this song is perhaps the most controversial song released by Ali till date and is almost matched to the norm breaking music that was once produced by beygairat brigad, but their songs were banned in cyber space because of them mocking the Pakistan Army.

     

    A censorship-free internet is a priority for most people in emerging countries, especially the younger population, according to the Pew report.

     

    Pew Research Center interviewed nearly 22,000 people in 24 emerging and developing countries. In 22 of those 24 countries, the majority of respondents think “it is important that people have access to the internet without government censorship.”

     

    The strength of censorship opposition varied by country, as well as other factors. Support of internet freedom is prevalent in Latin American countries as well as Lebanon and Egypt, Pew said.

     

    Not surprisingly, anti-censorship sentiment tends to be strong in nations where internet use is more common, such as Chile and Argentina. The trend is reversed in less connected nations like Uganda.

     

    But two countries bucked that trend: internet-freedom support in Russia (63 per cent) and Pakistan (22 per cent) came in low compared with the level of Internet penetration in those countries.

     

    Age is also a major factor: In 14 of the 24 countries surveyed, people ages 18-29 are more likely than those 50 or older to think a free Internet is important. In nations including Russia and Lebanon, that age gap came in at 20 percentage points or more.

     

    “These age differences suggest that support for internet freedom will only become more widespread with the passage of time,” Pew said in its report.

  • Newspaper industry shrinks 43% since 2000 due to digital invasion

    Newspaper industry shrinks 43% since 2000 due to digital invasion

    MUMBAI: Newspapers need to develop revenue models for the digital era as they face massive erosion in ad revenues due to migration of advertisers to new media as they target youth audiences. However, they can learn from an encouraging trend: traditional news brands are finding outlets in mobile technology.

    A mounting body of evidence finds that the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption, strengthening the appeal of traditional news brands and even boosting reading of long-form journalism.

    But the evidence also shows that technology companies are strengthening their grip on who profits, according to the 2012 State of the News Media report by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

    The study finds that rather than replacing media consumption on digital devices, people who go mobile are getting news on all their devices. They also appear to be getting it more often, and reading for longer periods of time.

    For example, about a third (34 per cent) of desktop/laptop news consumers now also get news on a smartphone. About a quarter (27 per cent) of smartphone news consumers also get news on a tablet.

    These digital news consumers are also a large percentage of the smart phone/tablet population and most of those individuals (78%) still get news on the desktop or laptop as well.

    A PEJ survey of more than 3,000 adults also finds that the reputation or brand of a news organisation, a very traditional idea, is the most important factor in determining where consumers go for news, and that is even truer on mobile devices than on laptops or desktops.

    Despite the explosion in social media use through the likes of Facebook and Twitter, recommendations from friends are not a major factor yet in steering news consumption, the report says.

    The report also notes that there are already signs of closer financial ties between technology giants and news. A case in point is YouTube’s plans to become a producer of original television content by funding Reuters to produce original news shows.

    Yahoo recently signed a content partnership with ABC News for the network to be its near sole provider of news video. AOL, after seeing less than stellar success with its attempts to produce its own original content.

    With the launch of its Social Reader, Facebook has created partnerships with The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and others. In March 2012 Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes purchased the 98-year-old New Republic magazine.

    In 2011, traditional news operations also took new steps to monetise the web in their own right. The Associated Press launched a partnership with more than two dozen news companies to license news content and collect royalties from aggregators.

    About a tenth of surviving U.S. dailies have launched some sort of digital subscription plan or pay wall. However, the research finds that these efforts are still limited and that few news companies have made much progress in some key new digital areas.

    The problems of newspapers also became more acute in 2011 as losses in print advertising dollars outpaced gains in digital revenue by a factor of roughly 10 to 1, a ratio even worse than in 2010. When circulation and advertising revenue are combined, the newspaper industry has shrunk 43 per cent since 2000.

    In sum, the news industry is not much closer to a new revenue model than a year earlier and has lost more ground to rivals in the technology industry. But growing evidence also suggests that news is becoming a more important and pervasive part of people’s lives. That, in the end, could prove a saving factor for the future of journalism, the study concluded.

  • 74 per cent Americans use mobile phones in emergency situations: Study

    74 per cent Americans use mobile phones in emergency situations: Study

    MUMBAI: Usage of cell phones has become an internal part of today’s life all around the globe. According to Americans, their cell phones aid them during emergencies and fill in their free time. It is interesting to note that around eight per cent had used their cells to vote in contests that had appeared on television, such as American Idol.

    The findings emerge in a national survey of cell phone owners by the Pew Research Center’s Pew Internet & American Life Project, the Associated Press and AOL.

    The result indicated that many also report driving unsafely while on their cells and they say they don’t like the new intrusions and public annoyances cell phones bring to their lives – not to mention their monthly bills.

    The cell phone has become an integral and, for some, essential communications tool that has helped owners gain help in emergencies. Fully 74 per cent of the Americans who own mobile phones say they have used their hand-held device in an emergency and gained valuable help.

    Another striking impact of mobile technology is that Americans are using their cell phones to shift the way they spend their time. Some 41 per cent of cell phone owners say they fill in free time when they are traveling or waiting for someone by making phone calls.

    While 44 per cent say they wait to make most of their cell calls for the hours when they do not count against their “anytime” minutes in their basic calling plan.

    At the same time, there are new challenges associated with cell phone use. More than a quarter of cell phone owners (28 per cent) admit they sometimes do not drive as safely as they should while they use their mobile devices. Among cell phone users, men (32 per cent) are more likely than women (25 per cent) to admit they sometimes don’t drive as safely as they should.

    Furthermore, 82 per cent of all Americans and 86 per cent of cell users report being irritated at least occasionally by loud and annoying cell users who conduct their calls in public places. Indeed, nearly one in ten cell phone owners (eight per cent) admit they themselves have drawn criticism or irritated stares from others when they are using their cell phones in public.

    For some, the cell phone has become so central to their communications needs that they lose track of the expenses associated with their phones. Some 36 per cent of cell owners say they have been shocked from time to time at the size of their monthly bills.

    When it comes to the features Americans would like to add to their cell phones, the desire for maps tops the charts by a clear margin. Fully 47 per cent of cell owners say they would like this feature and 38 per cent say they would like to have instant messages from select friends sent to their cells. Some 24 per cent of cell owners say they would like to use their phones to conduct searches for services such as movie listings, weather reports, and stock quotes. And a similar 24 per cent of cell owners would like to add email to their mobile-phone functionality.

    A third of cell owners (35 per cent) already use text messaging features on their phones and another 13per cent would like to add that capacity to their phone.

    Some 19 per cent of cell owners say they would like to add the capacity to take still pictures to their cells.

    The findings provide a detailed picture of the role of the cell phone in modern life, including how the use of cell phones has helped people become more spontaneous and prolific in their communication patterns. Half the survey was conducted among cell phone owners on their cell phones – one of the largest such samples ever conducted.

    In all, 1,503 people were surveyed between March 8 and March 28 – 752 of them on their landline phones and 751 on their cell phones. Some 1,286 cell phone users were interviewed in the sample. The overall sample and the cell-phone user sample have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

    It is likely that many of the behaviors reported here will intensify in coming years as more people become attached to and reliant on their mobile phones informs the official release.

    Indeed, 23 per cent of those who currently have landline phones say they are very likely or somewhat likely to convert to being only cell phone users.

    Other overall findings – interruptions, deception, texting spam and “American Idol” In this survey of adult cell users, more than a third say their cell phones have enabled some type of unwelcome intrusion in their lives.

    24 per cent of cell-using adults report they often feel like they have to answer their cell phones even when it interrupts a meeting or a meal.
    22 per cent believe that “too many” people try to get in touch with them because others know they have a cell phone.

    The reasons for this become clear when cell owners describe how they use their phones: Fully 52 per cent of all cell owners say they keep their phone on all the time and 81 per cent of cell-only users say the device is always on. At times, mobile phones are used abet some white lies: 22 per cent of cell owners say they are not always truthful about exactly where they are when they are on the phone. Younger users are much more likely to say they are not always honest about where they are: 39 per cent of cell users ages 18-29 say that.

    Spam has invaded cell phones, too. About one in six cell owners (18 per cent) report receiving unsolicited text messages on their phones from advertisers.

    Asked if they had used their cells to vote in contests that had appeared on television, such as “American Idol,” 8 per cent of cell owners said they had done that.

    Cell phone users are split in how attuned they are to making calls at times when it is less expensive to do so. Some 41 per cent say they try to place most of their phone calls when they know the minutes they use won’t cost them extra money, while 58 per cent report they don’t concentrate the use of their phones to those off peak hours.