Read the following excerpt. All around the world, living through this outbreak, we all have one thing in common: We have been banished to our homes with no recourse to our usual forms of entertainment – like visiting the cinema, watching sports, or heading to a restaurant.

So we turn to the Internet and streaming services for respite. This is true in Singapore and around the world. News consumption jumped by 32 percent in February alone in Singapore according to media analytics firm Comscore.

In Asia, an end-March Nielsen whitepaper on media consumption habits suggests television consumption has risen by 60 percent and may shape programming decisions from a media business and advertising perspective, as consumers continue to spend more time at home even after lockdowns are lifted.

This tidal wave in media consumption probably began with a thirst for knowledge regarding the coronavirus situation, where the gravitation to TV has been generated by interest in the news.

This hunger for information has spillovers. More are consuming entertainment to escape the doldrums of the outbreak. In South Korea, television viewing increased in alignment with the spike in coronavirus infections during the last week of February. Dixon, I. (2020, May 09). Commentary: The rise and rise of Netflix in a time of coronavirus Retrieved 31 March 2021, from https://www.marketing-interactive.com/study-trust-in-sg-traditional-media-at-an-all-time-low According to the excerpt, television consumption has risen and may continue to do so as consumers spend more time at home during the pandemic.

You are part of the Mediacorp Channel 5 programming team and your boss would like to examine how this trend affects TV consumption habits. You are asked to prepare a research report proposal to suggest what research should be conducted. In order to do so, you will embark on the following:

i. Conduct secondary research and analyze how media consumption has changed during the pandemic.

ii. Propose a suitable research topic/question and select an appropriate research method that will help you answer/address the research question proposed

iii. Propose FIVE possible survey/interview questions you will pose to the respondents

iv. Appraise the research method (that you are proposing to use) in terms of the usability and relevance in addressing your research study, and evaluate the usefulness of communication research for media organizations.