THE DEVELOPMENT, EVALUATION, AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MOTIVATIONS SCALE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SECOND SCREEN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Increasingly TV viewers are engaging in the Second Screen Experience (SSE): using secondary screens to discuss television shows while watching them. This dissertation explores motivations to engage in the SSE through in-depth analysis of the results of an online survey of second screen (SS) users. The core component of this online survey was the Second Screen Experience: Motivations Scale (SSE-MS), a new 30-item questionnaire developed as a main element of this research. The ultimate goal of the research was to assess the motivations for engaging in the SSE, and then to explore factors such as Demographic, TV Viewing Habits, and Second Screen Use variables that are related to the use of the SS (who, what, where, when, and how the SS is used).

This research was conducted in three stages. Stage 1 was the development of the SSE-MS, which was based on the widely used Uses and Gratifications (U & G) framework. The resulting questionnaire contained subscales assessing the fulfillment of Cognitive, Personal Identity, Social Integration, and Diversion needs via the SSE. The items comprising these subscales used a common stem-and-completion format and a five-point response scale to itemize gratifications sought and/or received through the SSE. In Stage 2, the reliability and validity of the SSE-MS was established using a sample of 348 undergraduate students. In Stage 3, a sample of 450 participants (primarily, but not exclusively, undergraduate) was employed to assess the motivations for SS use and to relate the subscales of the SSE-MS to Demographic, TV Viewing Habits, and Second Screen Use variables.

All motivations were endorsed by participants, with the endorsement of Diversion needs slightly higher than Cognitive needs, which was slightly higher in turn than Personal Identity and Social Integration. A profile analysis of the results reveals that there were distinct groupings of participants based on Demographics and TV Viewing Habits variables. Interestingly, living arrangements and occupations were related to the use of a SS to fulfill needs, while age, gender, education, income, and place of residence were not. With regard to TV Viewing Habits, the use of the SS to fulfill needs was related to the social situation of TV viewing (e.g., with family, with friends, with roommates, alone), the choice of TV programming (i.e., genres), and the emotional connection with particular TV shows (e.g., shows followed on social media); however, use of the SS was not related to the intensity of TV watching (e.g., hours per day) or the distinction between video on demand and live TV. Finally, for Second Screen Use, the study revealed that the use of the SS to fulfill needs was related to the social context of SS use (i.e., type and actions of physical company) and the type of social media outlets used on the SS (e.g., blogs, forums), but not to other activities that might be used on a SS (e.g., work, shopping) or to the type of SS (e.g., dual screens, split screens).

In addition to contributing to research on the SSE, this dissertation produced a valid, reliable, and easy to use scale capable of determining the motivations for using a SS to talk about TV while watching that TV.