Today I was interviewed by a market researcher cum ethnographer. You may remember that a month or so ago I was filling out a questionnaire on my media habits, as well as keeping a diary of what I was watching on TV, listening to on radio, or surfing online—I left out the naughty bits of that. Well, a few days ago I got a phone call that they found my diary so interesting that they wanted to do a more in-depth interview in my home, for which I would receive a honorarium. Well, in my current unemployed state, honorarium was music to my aures, so I agreed. The interviewer came to the house today and we spoke for three hours, most of which conversation she was filming and recording.
She was a young lady who seemed a bit disorganised. When she came to the door I asked her for ID, since she was someone I didn’t know who was going to be in the house. She had no ID. She scrabbled through her bags for a business card, which she failed to find. After a few minutes she offered a credit card with her name and her company’s name on it. I accepted that, and hope that she’s learned her lesson. She sat on the sofa and got her video camera adjusted.
She was quite interested in the house—she asked many questions about my favourite places in the house—did I enjoy my easy chair in the living room more than sitting at my computer? What kinds of TV shows did I watch? Why did I only listen to BBC Radio 4 among the UK radio stations on offer?
In the middle of the interview Daring Squirrel came to the window for her lunch. The interviewer was surprised when I started feeding the squirrel, and filmed that along with everything else.
At the end of the interview I went through the channels on our internet radio: everything from Radio 4 to Radio Australia and Radio New Zealand, with a large number of US news radio stations in various cities and WKCR and WQXR in New York. She put her camera together again and recorded me talking her through the radio.
Afterwards I reflected about the questions she asked me. I find it difficult to believe that there is anyone else in the UK whose media habits are like mine. We hardly ever watch BBC or commercial terrestrial television. I use the iPlayer for radio, but rarely or never use it to time-shift programs I’ve missed. I listen to internet radio stations that couldn’t be heard here over the air. I read the Grauniad …er… Guardian, the Economist (when Royal Mail deigns to deliver it), Private Eye, the Church Times and New Scientist. Not your usual reading material, to be sure.
As for my online habits—since the advent of Twitter and Facebook, my online activity has changed utterly. I used to blog relatively frequently, even if it were only a blog entry titled “Today’s XXX URL:” where XXX would be something funny, or sad, or notable for the day. Nowadays, I tweet such things, and they appear in my blog only when my Twitter aggregator publishes it there at the end of the day. I follow Facebook, republish non @-directed tweets there, and generally keep up with people in that space. I occasionally (but not as often as I used to) use MSN or Yahoo! Messenger to communicate with people. I read my Live Journal Friends page every day. I keep up with emails and email lists, but don’t reply to the lists as often as I once did.
What does this all mean? Am I weird? Out-of-touch? Not acting my age, but acting my shoe size? (Size 9 UK/10 US, if you must know…)
It is very telling that she was relatively uninterested in my iPhone, although she filmed it. She was quite interested in our wireless Skype phone and our various computers. I am very surprised that she wasn’t interested in the iPhone, as I believe that the iP(hone/od Touch) will be a major delivery venue for the media of the future.
She asked me what the BBC or TV in general could do to get me interested in watching TV again. I thought for a long time and said, “Nothing, really.” As for the license fee, I said that it has made the BBC complacent, fat, and sassy. The best thing for the BBC would be for the license fee to be abolished and the BBC have to support itself through advertising or subscription fees (easy to collect when all terrestrial TV broadcasting is ended and only Freeview, Virgin, or Sky carry the BBC). I know that’s not a totally popular view, but most of the BBC output these days is aimed at the lowest common denominator in British society. Since everyone pays the license fee, there must be programs for everyone from the booboisie to the monarchy—which are sometimes the same—and from academics to illiterates.
Yesterday I listened to Sir Terry Wogan on Radio 2—since he’s about to retire, and is a British Institution, I thought I ought to listen at least once. His program segu