The article How Teenagers Consume The Media: The Report That Shook The City is a report that was written by a fifteen year old boy in the UK. Most of his statistics and facts are not supported and not cited, however he actually sounds fairly credible. The point of the article is to determine the nature of effective media in regards to teenagers. What I understand after reading the article is that teens, at least in the UK, don't consume all that much media. One of the major themes in his article was that teens don't like advertisements. The only advertisements that teens could stomach were outdoor advertisements that were unique. Teens despised pop-up and commercial television advertisements, and opted to listen to the radio via the Internet where stations are advertisement-free. Mr. Robson did have some interesting things to say about the kinds of technology that teens preferred. I was surprised that teens in the UK mostly wanted types of technology that were low cost. I would have to say the opposite is true in the United States (at least for what I can see with my own eyes). Teens in the UK would apparently rather watch a pirated movie than actually go the movies, and they would also prefer to have the most basic cable package because it is so much cheaper. I was also surprised to read what Mr. Robson had to say about cell phone preferences, that teens would rather have a basic phone to call and text, provided that it was a touch screen model. In the United States it seems like teens want every crazy option there is for their cell phones; navigation, mobile Internet, mobile tv, bluetooth, etc.
Why was this article controversial when it was published by Morgan Stanley?
I would have to guess that the reason this article was controversial when it was published was because of the author's credibility. In all reality, the only credibility that the author has is his age--he is in fact a teenager. Ironically, for this same reason, he has very little credibility. He does not have a degree or any real world experience in advertising or marketing, and his statistics and his facts have no references. Several times in his article he gave statistics and no support, he could have made them up for all the reader knows. I believe it was this lack of credibility that made the article controversial. There are probably many experts in technology and media or related fields that have never had anything published by Morgan Stanley, and I'm sure they were annoyed at reading an article by a fifteen year old.
Why Would Morgan Stanley publish an article written by a fifteen year old?
I believe that Morgan Stanley published this article because they probably figured they could get the inside dope on what teenagers want and find appealing in terms of technology and media by having one of them write an article. However, I doubt that a fifteen year old boy is capable of answering this question completely. I don't believe that he did the research necessary to identify with an entire generation of teenagers. I think that at best, he may be able to speak for a small sample of teenagers that are close to him in age, economic status, and vicinity.
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