The net’s social divide… Gender salary gap… Consumer entertainment spending soars… Where the young things are… Internet news on the rise… Who does the housework? Quote of the day…

Social networking class division

Rich kids use Facebook and working class kids are hooked on MySpace. That’s the contention of a PhD candidate Danah Boyd at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.

Boyd writes: “MySpace and Facebook are new representations of the class divide in American youth… The goodie-two-shoes, jocks, athletes, or other ‘good’ kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasise education and going to college. They are part of what we’d call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honours classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.”

“MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, “burnouts”, “alternative kids”, “art fags”, punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn’t play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after school. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracised at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.”

Should we be surprised? It’s called social networking after all.

Men and women salary gap

Men between the ages of 15 and 64 on average earned between $600 and $799 a week before tax, while the median income for women of the same age was $400 to $599.

Source: Census 2006

Consumer entertainment spending heads for $US2 trillion

It’s a given that the global media and entertainment industry is on the grow, 6.4% per annum in fact – but PricewaterhouseCoopers’ finding that global consumer entertainment spending will hit $US2 trillion by 2011 is still pretty mind boggling.

And, according to a MarketingVox report on PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2007-2011, half of that spending will be on convergent platforms: watching TV online, playing computer games on your mobile phone … that sort of thing.

Other choice tidbits from the report:

• Double-digit growth is expected for digital and mobile spending in each geographic region during the next five years, rising to $153 billion by 2011.

• Within the next five years, nearly half of the total industry growth is expected to be generated through online and wireless technologies; during the same period, broadband households will grow by 300 million to 540 million subscribers, and wireless subscribers will increase by 1.1 billion to 3.4 billion.

• The migration to digital formats is having an adverse impact on competing revenue streams, while consumer-generated media is accelerating content fragmentation.

• Global advertising will increase at a 5.4% annually during the forecast period, rising to $531 billion in 2011 from $407 billion in 2006:

• Internet will remain the fastest-growing advertising medium, with a projected 18.3% annual growth, reaching $73 billion in 2011. By 2011, online advertising will comprise 14% of the global advertising market.

Where the young things are

Four out of five areas with the highest proportion of babies and toddlers were in Queensland.

Source: Census 2006

Internet news on the rise

The number of Australians who go online to get their news fix has increased 6.5% since August 2004 to 9.5%, according to a new Roy Morgan Research Survey.

Youngsters are leading the way: 15% of 14–17 year olds, 11% of 18–24 year olds, 16% of 25–34 year olds and 11% of 35–49 year olds said the internet was their main source of Australian news and current affairs, compared to just 6.5% of those aged 50–64 and 1% of the 65-plus age group.

Television remains the medium most Australians turn to for local news and current affairs, with 53.5% reporting it as their main source of Australian news, followed by newspapers (20.5%) and Radio (18%).

But journalists are even less popular than they used to be: only 28% think the media is doing a good job of “keeping Australians informed on subjects that Australians should know about”, just ahead of the 24% who think it is doing a poor job.

Who does the housework?

22% of Sydneysiders say they do no housework, the highest proportion of any Australian capital.

Source: Census 2006

Quote of the Day

I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn’t here.

– George W Bush