Asking media consumers about their consumption - weird idea

The investment bank Morgan Stanley has published a report on teenage media consumption written by a fifteen year old.

The intern was asked by the company’s media and research department to describe how he and his friends "consumed media" like games consoles, cell phones, television and the Internet...

Morgan's head of media analysts said his report was "one of the clearest and most thought provoking insights" the company had seen. So they decided to publish it, and to much interest among its clients, which include media investors and executives.

This article in Forbes gives a balanced account of the paper. You can also download the full research paper.

To be honest it didn’t say anything that came as a great shock. Anybody who looks at generational media consumption data should already know this stuff. The fact that the guys at Morgan Stanley were so shocked goes some way to explaining the chaos in the financial markets?

How about Morgan Stanley media analysts trying another idea and have somebody in their 60s and 70s write a paper about their media consumption? Why do I think it will not happen? Dick Stroud