Describe your audience and research goal. Makeform creates a media consumption survey covering TV, streaming, social platforms, audio, news, frequency, time spent, and motivations.
Organize survey responses with Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the survey builder
Choose a prompt, adapt it to your population, or send it into the builder. Every example is editable.
Audience
College students studying media habits
Format
Five-minute cross-channel questionnaire
Prompt size
321 chars
Example survey structure
Five-minute cross-channel questionnaire
Which media did you use in the past 7 days?
Time spent on a typical weekday
Your three most-used platforms
Why do you use these media?
Optional demographic questions
Suggested analysis tags
Heavy viewers
Social-first
News avoiders
Give every frequency question a time frame. “In a typical week” is easier to answer and compare than “How often do you watch?”
Step 1
Define
audience, channels, and recall period
Step 2
Generate
screeners, scales, and follow-ups
Step 3
Distribute
share one survey link
Step 4
Compare
segment channel and content habits
Measure habits clearly
Define the channel, unit, and time frame so a quick headline check is not treated like an evening of streaming.
Screen for TV, streaming, social, audio, news, and print before showing channel-specific follow-ups.
Anchor behavior to seven or 30 days and use non-overlapping time ranges.
Non-podcast listeners should bypass podcast questions, shortening the survey and avoiding guesses.
Flexible research briefs
Start with the research decision, then edit the wording, options, and sequence for your sample.
Use defined variables, optional demographics, consistent scales, and neutral wording.
Compare channels, formats, viewing times, and discovery routes.
Study deliberate and incidental exposure, source formats, topic interests, avoidance, payment behavior, and confidence without endorsing a viewpoint.
Capture shared viewing, devices, decision makers, second screens, and weekly routines.
Survey workflow
Generate the structure, then review recall periods, routing, and response options before sharing.
State the research decision, eligibility, geography, and screening criteria.
Start with screeners, followed by consistent frequency, duration, device, content, and motivation questions.
Remove overlaps, define channel terms, and add Other and None where needed.
Preview heavy-user and non-user paths; keep only necessary required questions.
Choose the right measure
Keep these measures separate and use only those supported by your research question.
Field guide
These six blocks cover reach, intensity, context, and meaning without cataloging every app.
Eligibility and scope
Screen for eligibility, then specify a typical day, seven days, or 30 days. Keep the period consistent within a block.
Channel reach
Use recognizable channel categories before brands. The selections distinguish non-users and route later questions.
Frequency and duration
Frequency counts occasions or days; duration estimates time. Ask separately with non-overlapping ranges.
Platforms and devices
Service selections show platform reach; devices reveal context. Ask for a primary choice only when needed.
Content and motivation
Genres explain what attracts attention; motivations explain the medium's role.
Context and segments
Co-use, multitasking, and household setting add context. Keep sensitive demographics optional.
Related tools
Continue with focused tools for media usage, consumer choices, brands, lifestyle, markets, or classroom polls.
Study discovery, purchase, and post-purchase behavior.
Open toolMeasure associations, awareness, consideration, and brand impressions.
Open toolPlace media habits alongside routines, interests, activities, and preferences.
Open toolCollect a quick classroom opinion or check before building a longer study.
Open toolFAQ
Answers for researchers, students, and marketers.
It measures the channels, platforms, devices, formats, and content people use, plus frequency, duration, context, and motivation. It can cover TV, streaming, social media, news, print, podcasts, and radio. Focus the measures on a defined research decision.
Ask about use in a defined period, frequency, duration, platform or source, device, content, timing, and motivation. Distinguish intentional news visits from incidental discovery. Separate TV formats when relevant, and route social follow-ups by selected platform.
Specify a context such as a typical weekday in the past seven days. Use non-overlapping time bands and ask frequency separately: many brief checks differ from one long session.
Keep questions tied to the analysis plan. Screen for channel use, route respondents past irrelevant blocks, test every mobile path, and remove duplicated questions, unused demographics, and exhaustive platform lists.
Use neutral wording, balanced options, and consistent recall periods. Do not favor a source, platform, screen-time level, or viewpoint. Include None, Other, Not sure, and Prefer not to answer where appropriate.
Yes. Start with a multi-select channel screener and show follow-ups only for selected channels. Provide a route for None of these and preview every branch before distribution.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses for generating, editing, publishing, and collecting answers. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge. Tailor and test the generated survey before sharing.
Code channels separately, preserve questionnaire units and time frames, and treat frequency, duration, preference, and motivation as distinct measures. Keep comments separate from scales and report the wording and sample context with results.
Build a survey people can answer consistently.
