Topic > Multitasking and Television: A Review of the Literature

Since its dominance over radio, television has been a staple of home entertainment. It is the focal point of residents' attention and viewing pleasure. However, the rise of new multimedia technologies, such as cell phones, computers and the Internet, has seen a newfound dominance in home use. This is especially important because increased use of both media may result in a competition for attention between them. This may result in the old medium of television being used simultaneously with these new media. This branches out from other types of multitasking with television, such as eating and talking while watching. The parallel use of television and new multimedia devices has also warranted further studies by many researchers exploring the results of this multitasking phenomenon and its research. Levy and Gardner's (2012) work explores the accuracy of students' speech while simultaneously performing computer tasks. They hypothesize that more complex actions on the primary task, the computer, disrupt speech, the secondary task (Levy & Gardner, 2012, p. 562). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay They link this to television, as it is the primary medium and “well-practiced routines…like eating” are secondary (Levy & Gardner, 2012, p. 560). They explore this through an experiment with two students working together on computers while having a conversation. They concluded that “routine tasks can be performed without interruption of speech” and “more complex tasks [show more] present snags in speech or silence” (Levy & Gardner, 2012, p. 583). The work of Kononova et al. (2014) examines global new and old media multitasking habits among college students. Their research questions investigate multitasking pairs of the most popular media, which media are used most frequently, and which are most used as primary and secondary (Kononova et al., 2014, p. 621). They explored these by asking students to use television, games, music, non-musical audio, phones, and the Internet in different pairs and then rate their frequency and perceived attentiveness in each pair (Kononova et al. , 2014, p. MULTITASKING AND TELEVISION 3 626). They found that “television as a primary medium was often used simultaneously with [a] telephone… and the Internet” (Kononova et al., 2014, p. 627). Contrary to Levy and Gardener's (2012) thinking that television is the primary medium, Kononova et al. (2014) also found that it was used as both primary and secondary, which was interchangeable with other media such as music, phones, and the Internet (p. 560, p. 628). They also concluded that this multimedia multitasking “alters the perception of the attention that individuals pay to media messages” (Kononova et al., 2014, p. 637). Kitterød (2001) further investigates the actual method of recording these behaviors by arguing that the time spent recording secondary activities can influence the recording of primary activities (p. 146). Kitterød (2001) explains that, showing various Norwegian time use studies since 1991, a time series-based diary-type study is unreliable due to the unreliability of human recording (p. 146). Kitterød (2001) also talks about how it is difficult to determine when a person is participating in a primary activity or a secondary activity (p. 150-151). They explain how television can be indeterminate because it is partly “an individual's primary focus and partly an activity.