The Development, Evaluation, and Implementation of a Motivations Scale in the Context of the Second Screen Experience

Abstract

Increasingly TV viewers are engaging in the Second Screen Experience (SSE): using secondary screens to discuss television shows while watching them. This research explores motivations to engage in the SSE through analysis of the results of an online survey of second screen (SS) users. The core component of this survey was the Second Screen Experience: Motivations Scale (SSE-MS), a new 30-item questionnaire developed as a main element of this research. The goal was to assess motivations of engaging in the SSE, and to explore factors such as Demographics, TV Viewing Habits, and SS Use variables that are related to the use of the SS (what, where, when, and how the SS is used). This research was based on the Uses and Gratifications (U & G) framework and conducted in three stages: (1) scale development, (2) creation, and (3) testing on a sample of 450 participants. The SSE-MS contained subscales assessing Cognitive, Personal Identity, Social Integration, and Diversion motivations via the SSE. All motivations were endorsed by participants, with the endorsement of Diversion slightly higher than Cognitive, which was slightly higher in turn than Personal Identity and Social Integration. Interestingly, living arrangements and occupations were related to the use of a SS to fulfill needs, while age, gender, education, income, and place of residence were not. With regard to TV Viewing Habits, the use of the SS to fulfill needs was related to the social situation of TV viewing (e.g., with family, alone), the choice of TV programming (i.e., genres), and the emotional connection with TV shows (e.g., shows followed on social media). Finally, for SS Use, the study revealed that the use of the SS to fulfill needs was related to the physical company, and the type of social media outlets (e.g., blogs, forums), but not to other activities (e.g., work, shopping) or to the type of SS (e.g., dual screens, split screens). In addition to contributing to research on the SSE, this research produced a valid, reliable, and easy to use scale capable of determining the motivations for using a SS to talk about TV while watching that TV.