Pushing your buttons : a usage study of the medium within arm's reach - the mobile radio receiver

As the media landscape changes, how media users navigate through it becomes more important to understand. Broadcast radio provides a relatively controlled subject for this sort of study. Since most people use radio in their vehicles, companies have spent years refining the manner in which the interface functions. The preset channel buttons are an aspect of this refinement. This study seeks to determine whether these buttons have a measurable impact on the manner in which media users access programming. Further, the study also seeks to examine whether Zillmann and Bryant's theory of Affect-Dependent Stimulus Arrangement plays a role in channel changing activity and what program elements cause channel this behavior.