3. Cell Phone Applications

The use of the cellphone as a game playing device is one that most people don’t consider, Moran said. "[Gaming] ... is being done on a PC, a console, or a handheld (like a GameBoy). Very rarely does a handset (cell phone) enter the equation. For GenXers (25-41 years old), gaming is the second most common thing they use their phones for, after use as a camera or for texting. 65% of millennials and 55% of GenXers consider gaming to be an important feature on a cell phone."

The report shows clearly that the use of digital media has changed the way people are using media and, according to Moran, justify the study’s title: The State of the Media Democracy. "The metaphor is that ten years ago there was a media oligopoly, it was not a dictatorship, because there wasn’t just one unique source. However, the record companies were determining how you consumed their product, when you consumed it, and where you consumed it. Now it has changed. There is now a shift of power from the creators to the users. I can now use media in a slew of different ways. "

"MP3 wasn’t created to make things easier for them (the producers), MP4 for video wasn’t created for the producers. They helped foster democracy. Now, I can create media (using MP3, MP4, and other codecs). I’ve got the tools, knowledge and distribution platform that the oligopoly used to have. I can make a great video, share it instantaneously across the planet, put ads on it, and can become the manufacturer and publisher of my own content. I can be successful or not depending on how my audience is reacting to it," Moran continued.

This isn’t to suggest that networks are threatened by the "democratization" of media, Moran notes. People "still love network programming. They now want to share it, to interact with it, to play with it. One question is, ’How do you do that in the constraints of a legal system.’ It’s turning into a democracy, everyone will participate in creating and consuming the content at the same time." Moran concluded that "people will make a lot of money just figuring out how to do it."

The results of the survey will not be publicly circulated, but general results will be made available, as they were for this article.