Most people are aware that TV viewing is on the decline, but it might surprise some people to see just how swift that decline is. New research by Ofcom shows 52% of 16-24-year-olds in the UK watch no broadcast TV at all in an average week. Facts like this are often framed in a discussion about the rise of social media and its ill effects but are less usually considered relative to what we’ll miss about the effects mass-viewing of TV used to have on society. There’s an interesting aspect of this to consider in Northern Ireland. Many people’s sense of national identity has been shaped by TV – what will happen now that is disappearing?
Furthermore, does this diminish or strengthen any of NI’s three main identities of British, Irish, and Northern Irish? If it does, presumably, it will affect politics. RTÉ and other Irish TV stations still have limited availability in NI, whereas BBC and other British stations have always had universal coverage. Does this mean it’s NI’s British identity that has the most to lose?
Some people might argue their sense of identity is fixed, or formed from other sources, so how much or little TV they watch isn’t important. But it’s hard to test that hypothesis for older people. You’d need a control group of people who had grown up in NI watching no TV at all. That might have seemed like a fanciful idea as recently as ten years ago, but not anymore. Now we are about to find out.
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