Morgan Stanley’s media analyst business is getting good press after asking 15-year-old intern Matthew Robson to pen its latest research note - giving a teen’s view on digital media. We’re not quite sure how just one career-minded kid with all the right buzzwords can speak for a nation of teenagers (see Suw Charman’s post on that), but here are the highlights (full note here)...

—Newspapers: “No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV. The only newspapers that are read are tabloids and freesheets mainly because of cost; teenagers are very reluctant to pay for a newspaper.”

—Internet: “Facebook is the most common social network, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered and visiting >4 times a week. Teenagers do not use Twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they release that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting Twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.”

—Music: “Teenagers listen to a lot of music, mostly whilst doing something else. They are very reluctant to pay for it (most never having bought a CD) and a large majority (8/10) downloading it illegally from file sharing sites ... Almost all teenagers like to have a ‘hard copy’ of the song (a file of the song that they can keep on their computer and use at will) so that they can transfer it to portable music players and share it with friends ... iTunes is unpopular with many teenagers because of the ‘high price’ (79p per song).”

—Mobile: “As a rule, teenagers have phones on pay as you go ... As most teenagers’ phones have Bluetooth support, and Bluetooth is free, they utilise this feature often to send songs and videos (even though it is illegal) ... Mobile email is not used ... Teenagers do not use the internet features on their mobiles as it costs too much.”

—Cinema: “Teenagers visit the cinema more often when they are in the lower end of teendom (13 and 14) ... at 15, they have to pay the adult price ... Also, it is possible to buy a pirated DVD of the film at the time of release

—Television: “Most teenagers watch television ... they will watch a particular show at a certain time for a number of weeks ... but then they may watch no television for weeks after the (season) has ended.”

—Radio: “Most teenagers nowadays are not regular listeners to radio ... Now with online sites streaming music for free they do not bother.”

—Gaming: “PC gaming has little or no place in the teenage market.”

—Marketing: “Most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing, as often it creates humorous and interesting content. Teenagers see
adverts on websites (pop ups, banner ads) as extremely annoying and pointless.”