A fresh new voice!

Flemington, NJ – A new media study among 653 viewers of a FOX News video clip featuring a story about a Pennsylvania school that monitored students at home through laptop webcams revealed that an overwhelming majority of viewers (93 percent) reported that the school violated students’ rights to privacy.  
The study was conducted during Feb. 2-4 by HCD Research using its MediaCurves.com® website to obtain viewers’ perceptions of incident in which a student was accused of selling drugs as a result of photos that were taken of him at home through the laptop’s webcam. To view detailed results go to www.mediacurves.com.

Viewers reported that disturbing (78 percent) and anger (55 percent) were the emotions they felt most while viewing the Fox News video clip. In addition, favorability for school issued laptops for home use declined from an average rating of 4.5 to 3.6 after viewing the video. The majority of viewers (80 percent) reported that the student accused of selling drugs was holding up candy in front of the computer.

Among the findings:

Do you think the school violated this student’s rights of privacy when
watching him outside of school on the laptop’s webcam?

Please indicate how favorable you are of schools issuing student laptops for home use, using a scale of 1-7 where 1 represents, “Not at all favorable” and 7 represents, “Extremely favorable.”

Do you think this school student was selling drugs when being taped by his school’s laptop?

Which of the following emotions did you feel while viewing the video? Please check all that apply.