M'sian youths still tuned in to mass media

Petaling Jaya - Most single youngsters in Malaysia aged 15 to 24 years have not yet abandoned mass media, despite the image of them as being glued to the Internet.

A GroupM Malaysia 3D survey found that four out of 10 top weekday activities among them are watching television, reading the newspaper, listening to the radio and using the phone.

GroupM's latest monthly newsletter MediaMatters revealed the results of the poll which covered 3,000 respondents aged 15 to 49 years. The survey period was end-March to early June.

The media communications group said reading newspapers was more of a daytime activity while watching TV got more popular from 7pm and tapered off from 12 midnight.

During the weekends, the four communication-based activities remained among their top 10 activities.

"In fact, watching television starts earlier and listening to radio moves up a few levels to 6th ranking on weekends from 9th on weekdays," it said.

Shopping and visiting malls were the popular weekend activities between 12 noon and 10pm for these so-called "fledglings", MediaMatters said.

Young Malaysian men spend their weekends differently from the women.

"Among the top 10 activities that young men are most likely to engage in are riding their motorbikes and chilling out at mamak stalls.

"Reading the newspaper is ranked third," the report said.

Among the young women, socialising occurs during shopping and visiting the malls.

Watching television remains popular, but reading the newspaper is ranked after shopping.

"Activation and disseminating information on brands in shopping malls would be more ideal to reach these young women while increasing presence in mamak stalls may attract the male fledglings," the newsletter said.

Surprisingly, using the computer is not on the top 10 activities list.

However, working or using the computer seems more significant on weekdays among fledglings in market centres.

Ownership of computers and notebooks are higher among them compared to other urban and rural fledglings.

The report concluded: "Mass media like television, newspaper, radio and mobile phone are still a big part of the fledglings in Malaysia. It is how they use media and at what part of the day that matters."

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ann/20101229/tmy-m-sian-youths-still-tuned-in-to-mass-d2ec26b.html