Pew Report on Generational Differences in Online Activity

Just released, Generations Online in 2009, from Pew Intenet & American Life Project. This report tracks internet use across generations.

From the Report's Overview:

"...the biggest online trend is that, while the very youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, certain key internet uses are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. These online activities include seeking health information, purchasing products, making travel reservations, and downloading podcasts.

Even in areas that are still dominated by Millennials, older generations are making notable gains. While the youngest generations are still significantly more likely to use social network sites, the fastest growth has come from internet users 74 and older: social network site usage for this oldest cohort has quadrupled since 2008, from 4% to 16%.

The primary adult data in this report is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans' use of the Internet. The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between April 29 and May 30, 2010, among a sample of 2,252 adults ages 18 and older, including 744 reached on a cell phone. Interviews were conducted in English."

ComScore Data Mine

comScore, a leading source of digital market intelligence and most preferred measurement service, has the goods when it comes to internet usage trends. But like Nielsen, comScore data is proprietary. Both release valuable “crumbs” to the public—more general less client-centered data in the form of reports and posts. The place to find such data for comScore is their Data Mine site that boasts "colorful, bite-sized graphical representations of the best discoveries we unearth from our data."

Recent and/or popular topics include: Smartphone Penetration by Age, Visitor Demographics to Facebook.com, Twitter.com Top 10 Global Markets, Share of Global Internet Audience by Region, Top 10 Ad Networks in U.S., and Orkut, Facebook and Twitter Growth in Brazil. These aren't really articles or reports but rather abstract length summations that usually include graph and pie chart data, just the sort of info you can't find when you need it. Notice these releases aren't limited to the US market.

The site is divided into these categories so far: Advertising, Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Banking/Finance, Coupon, E-Commerce, Engagement, Europe, Latin America, Mobile, North America, Online Video, Search, Social Networking, and U.S.

You can sign up for email updates or RSS feeds. Or just bookmark the site for future consult.

2010 Leisure Market Research Handbook

I just discovered that The 2010 Leisure Market Research Handbook (Richard K. Miller & Associates) is available in Business Source Complete, an EBSCO database that resides in the same suite of databases as Communication & Mass Media Complete (tell me you aren't forgetting when you go in to CMMC to select other appropriate databases!).

The book is broken up into chapters but they all look to be there. So what kind of data is in the Leisure Market Research Handbook? Demographics on leisure activities which includes lots of media usage (along with bird watching and sport card collecting) details. Special sections include film viewing, home entertainment, photography, radio listening, television viewing, video games, and online activities. There is also city-by-city breakdowns so you can compare rock concert attendance or video gaming from Akron, Ohio to Wilmington, Delaware.

I like not having to buy the book since it's available in this handy format, the trick it to remember it's here!

Business Source Complete can be entered directly into the Find It box on the ASC homepage, or just click into the first Communication database listed in the center column, Communication & Mass Media Complete (you may want other things in there), then be sure to click on "Select databases" to add Business Source Complete.

Policy Map

Policy Map, a recent addition to the Penn Library website, is a great resource to go to for up to date demographic data. Just tap in a city or zip code and you have access to thousands of indicators related to demographics, crime, money and income, real estate, education, energy, and health. In addition to zip code and city, you can search by census tract, state, county, school districts, and legislative or Congressional districts. Policy Map generates its data in the form of maps, data tables and reports which can be easily exported as jpegs or pdfs. The number of indicators is noteworthy. You can get demographic breakdowns for ethnicity, religion, voting, etc. from a lot of sources but Policy Map offers many additional profile handles as illustrated by a search I did comparing obesity figures in Philadelphia in 2008 versus 2006.

This resource is available from the ASC Library homepage.

Demographic Data Books

I've just updated our New Strategist publications. We now have the latest editions of:

The Millenials: Americans Born 1977 to 1974
Generation X: Americans Born 1965 to 1976
The Baby Boom: American Born 1946 to 1964
Older Americans: A Changing Market
Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What
Who's Buying: Entertainment
Who's Buying: Information Products and Services

These books include demographic data on media consumption as well as larger context profiles (eduction, health, housing, income, etc.) of groups broken down by age, race, and gender. The data is rounded up from various sources (always cited) such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of the Census, Pew Research Center, National Endowment for the Arts, Federal Reserve Board, National Center for Health Statistics, and others.

In addition to these old standards, three additional volumes devoted to Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans provide even deeper data. They are:

Who We Are: Asians
Who We Are: Blacks
Who We Are: Hispanics

These titles are all available in ASC Library Reference.