Binge Watching: Motivations and Factors Behind Young Adults' Addiction to Television

This research proposal aims to evaluate the factors and motivation behind binge watching TV in adults. The research hypothesis is that identifying the factors may help to take actions in the area and engage young adults in other activities for entertainment. The proposed research methodology includes quantitative research design, online survey method, and random sampling method. The research participants will include college students and young employees between the age of 15 to 35 years. Ethical considerations will be taken care of.

Running head: BINGE WATCHING
Binge watching
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Introduction:
With the increase in engaging and attractive television content, binge watching
television has become a new form of addiction in adults. As binge watching is associated
with higher sedentary time and less amount of physical activity, it is going to have negative
impact on health of individuals (Walton-Pattison, Dombrowski and Presseau (2018). To find
appropriate intervention to reduce addiction to television, finding the motivation behind the
binge watching TV among young adult is important.
Aim:
The aim of the research proposal is to propose a research design to evaluate the
factors and motivation behind binge watching TV in adults. The research hypothesis is that
identifying the factors may help to take actions in the area and engage young adults in other
activities for entertainment. The research question that will guide the research process and fiil
the gap in past research are as follows:
What are the factors and motivation behind young adults to engage in binge watching TV?
Literature review:
Review of past research shows several types of research done to gain idea
about the additive potential of television binge watching. The study by Riddle et al. (2018)
explains that binge watching can be intentional and unintentional and online survey method
was used to explore both types of binge watching. Majority of participants reported having
engaged in intentional binging in the past. However, one major finding was that binging
pattern was dependent on time as some engaged in binge watching during semester breaks,
whereas other did so in the weekend. Despite this outcome, the gap left behind in past study

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was that the number of hours spent in binge watching was not considered and the factors
motivating individual to prefer binge watching television was not reported. Hence, it cannot
be inferred from the study why adults preferred binging instead of other activities. Therefore,
developing a research design that specifically considers the motivational aspects of binge
watching is important.
The significance of the study by Walton-Pattison, Dombrowski and Presseau (2018) it
explored about the theoretical correlates of television binge watching. Unlike the above
study, this study evaluated duration of binge watching by using an online questionnaire.
Average binge watching among participants was 1.42 days per week. In addition, variation in
binge watching was seen based on different intention and outcome expectation among
participants. The study revealed the use of findings to develop theory and interventions
related to binge watching. The limitation of the study was dependence on self-report
suggesting the need for collective objective data on binge watching. In view of this limitation,
review of motivation behind binge watching can help to interpret whether contextual factors
or real-time versus on-demand service influence the rate of binge watching.
Significance of the research:
There are two rationales for investigating about the motivation behind binge watching
television among young adults. The first rationale is that understanding and interpreting
motivation will help to uncover theoretical idea regarding the reasons for extreme
engagement in certain behaviour in adults. It will also help to identify the areas where change
in needed to control binge watching. In the past, various theories has been applied to mass
media content and matching relevant theory with relative media content can help to interpret
how addiction to television watching can be controlled (Pena, 2015).

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The benefits of new research in the area of binge watching is that it will help to
develop understanding regarding the practical steps that can be taken to prevent binge
watching from becoming an addiction. Shim and Kim (2018) investigated about the effect
of the motivations for binge-watching and the role of individual differences in media
consumption behaviour. The results revealed that people prefer binge watching to satisfy
their enjoyment. However, the gap in the study was that it failed to evaluate the types of
content viewed by binge watchers. This was important to understand what kind of program
genres lead to binge watching. This research proposal will address these limitations found in
past research too.
Proposed research methodology:
Participants: Research participants for the study will include college students and young
employees between the age of 15 to 35 years. The main rationale for selecting two
participants group is to understand how binge watching frequency differs in two groups of
people having different opportunities for leisure.
Sampling method: As there are two types of research samples, the participants will be
recruited from two types of settings of Melbourne. College students will be recruited from
two or three colleges and employees will be contacted via online mode. Random sampling
method will be applied to collect response from as many samples until desired sample size is
achieved. The advantage of random sampling is that it is an unbiased representation of a
group without any possibility for bias (Patten & Newhart, 2017). It is expected to conduct
research with at least 200 samples.
Design framework: As the aim of the research is to uncover motivation as well as different
patterns of binge watching, quantitative research design will be used. The main rationale for
quantitative research design is that the study aims to uncover not only motivations but also

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different types of genres viewed by participants and frequency of binge watching.
Quantitative research helps to give unbiased results for target population of interest (Bryman,
2017). Hence, quantitative approach with the use of open and close questions will favour
collecting appropriate data.
Data collection: Data collection will be done using quantitative approach by the use of online
survey and the main rationale for this is the convenience of the method. In addition, the
method can save time in interpreting and analysing outcomes. The online survey method will
be used to collect response from participants and the significance of quantitative approach is
that it will help to compare statistical significance of binge watching frequency and types of
genres preferred by participants. Open ended question will be used for motivation related
questionnaire and close ended questions will be used for frequency and types of genre
watched related questionnaire.
Ethical consideration: All ethical responsibilities such as ethical approval for research from
relevant Ethic Committee in Melbourne will be taken and colleges and companies will be
contacted for permission regarding contacting students or employees. All participants will be
recruited in the research after fulfilling informed consent criteria (Roberts, 2015)
Scope and problems:
This research has the scope to collect both objective and subjective data related to
binge watching television. However, as the study does not used any structured tool for data
assessment, there is a possibility of bias in the study findings. To address this limitation,
questions will be developed after conducting critical review of research on types of program
genres and expected frequency of binge watching.

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References:
Bryman, A. (2017). Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their
integration. In Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78).
Routledge.
Patten, M. L., & Newhart, M. (2017). Understanding research methods: An overview of the
essentials. Routledge.
Pena, L. L. (2015). Breaking binge: Exploring the effects of binge watching on television
viewer reception. Retrieved from: https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1283&context=etd
Riddle, K., Peebles, A., Davis, C., Xu, F., & Schroeder, E. (2018). The addictive potential of
television binge watching: Comparing intentional and unintentional
binges. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 7(4), 589.
Roberts, L. D. (2015). Ethical issues in conducting qualitative research in online
communities. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(3), 314-325.
Shim, H., & Kim, K. J. (2018). An exploration of the motivations for binge-watching and the
role of individual differences. Computers in Human Behavior, 82, 94-100.
Walton-Pattison, E., Dombrowski, S. U., & Presseau, J. (2018). ‘Just one more episode’:
Frequency and theoretical correlates of television binge watching. Journal of health
psychology, 23(1), 17-24.