Moms Are Public Opinion

Many studies on information, media and entertainment industries focus on the supply side. They look at new product configurations, intellectual property regimes, the sustainability of business models, and the like. When such changes are analyzed from the demand side, they need to be embedded in a wider analytical framework that explores the changes in the formation of public opinion.

The more the availability of media sources grows, the more their interchangeability increases during the day, the bigger the number of media aggregators and active users in the spreading of information, and the more the consumer must have an accurate knowledge in relation to media content in a day that can't exceed the 24 hours allocated.

More information does not necessarily make you more more informed. The dizzying increase in the availability of news and information has not gone hand in hand with a corresponding growth in public awareness and ability to select among news items. More often than not, information redundancy leads to media fatigue, and even close-mindedness. The unprepared consumer thus becomes the victim of media bomdardment and become less informed, as his/her attention falls prey to the latest piece of news. Conversely, if the consumer is an active user, information redundancy turns into a wealth of choices and each source provides specific possibilities to enlarge one's information and knowledge.

In the new media context, it is particularly interesting to study the behavior of moms. Mothers are very much aware of the effects that their choices have on the welfare of the household. They often are the family members who filter and preselect information, advising their children on media choices. Also, they usually are the critical decision-makers over purchases and are used to exchange, verify, and administer information in a selective manner within small groups of people. Even if they don't use the Internet, moms are very much Web 2.0 in relation to content and people.

A first study on the management of information redundancy conducted over a sample of 720 moms socially and culturally equipped to deal with a wealth of information stimuli show a correlation between the degree of information awareness and the consumption of information. Mothers who are better able to deal with redundancy are also those who consume comparatively more information coming from more disparate sources. More than half of the moms interviewed exhibit a proactive behavior vis-à-vis information redundancy, even if they differ about information strategies. However, even in a sample made by educated women using various media sources, we have found consumer profiles that betray a certain difficulty in dealing with growing information flows, so that defensive information strategies emerge.

This is a sign that the research trail on people's attitudes with respect to information flows is more promising than comparing different media types, and that apprehending the processes by which information is gathered and shared, by moms and within the family, is crucial when thinking about the evolution of information supply in the near future.