Media Use Dossier

This survey was conducted over a period of 10 days and includes data that covering the use of different media outlets, as well as an analysis and summary of said data. Below is a table outlining which types of media were primarily used, and the amounts that they were used in.

	Television	Radio	Facebook	Other Internet	Music	Books	Newspapers	Gaming
Day 1	120	N/A	45	230	65	100	20	20
Day 2	60	N/A	45	200	140	130	N/A	80
Day 3	200	60	20	150	5	120	N/A	30
Day 4	60	60	40	360	10	300	15	40
Day 5	120	60	25	220	5	70	N/A	70
Day 6	N/A	20	N/A	N/A	180	40	N/A	N/A
Day 7	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	160	30	N/A	N/A
Day 8	60	N/A	30	170	50	60	50	20
Day 9	60	N/A	50	200	60	150	15	15
Day 10	100	60	25	340	N/A	200	N/A	80
Average	78	26	28	187	67.5	120	10	35.5

Initial Findings:

I was quite surprised when I viewed the data I had collected at the end of the 10 day period, mainly due to the fact I had not realised how much time I whiled away on the internet. From a health point of view, the amount of time I spent sitting in front of a screen, an average of 215 minutes per day (not including television hours), is not ideal.

Facebook use, when compared to some people, is minimal. While this was not particularly surprising, I was subconsciously expecting a higher number, mainly because of the emphasis that is put on the amount of time that youths spend on Facebook, and I expected that I too would inherently spend an inordinate amount of time using social media. According to the Official Statistics page on Facebook, users spend on average 42 minutes per day on the site. This is in contrast to my comparatively meagre average of 28 minutes per day.

News consumption was limited during the 10 day period, as I have not had easy access to newspapers during this time. However, I till managed to consume 72 minutes per day of news. This was made up of two news programmes on most nights (ABC News and one of either Channel 9 News or 7 News), as well as and hour of News via ABC Radio National at 12 noon on some days. This Radio station also provided most of my Radio listening, with the only other station accessed being Nova.

Gaming time played a somewhat small, but nevertheless important role in the data, and was used on all days excluding the weekend. The type of gaming was limited to arcade style, portable games such as fruit ninja. A broken X-Box meant that console gaming does not feature in the data at all.

Books played a comparatively large role in media consumption, and they were the only media which was used on all days. As I was reading through The Lord of the Rings at the time, I obviously had to commit many hours to ploughing through the rich text; time well spent!

Data Summary: The data I collected revealed surprises in some areas, while also confirming my suspicions in others. Facebook and general internet use both returned surprising results, although on opposite ends of the spectrum. While Facebook use was found to be significantly less than expected, total internet use was found to be, at times, shockingly high. A particular observation that I used to explain why my actual levels of internet use were far higher than my expected levels, was how quickly time seems to pass when using the internet, The old saying “time flies when you’re having fun” can be aptly connected with this phenomena. Due to there being near endless amounts of entertainment and information on the internet, then mind never becomes restless or bored, meaning time does not drag. This is interesting as it means that greater levels of concentration are required when using the internet to ensure one does not “over-consume”.

Another media device that revealed somewhat surprising results, though not on the level of those of internet consumption, was that of Television use. Prior to conducting the diary, I assumed my daily television use to be significantly lower that what the data eventually presented.

Apart from these mediums, the rest of the data produced unsurprising, vanilla results.

Breakdown of television Use

Breakdown of internet use

Old Media vs New Media: Interestingly, I found that I used old media almost exclusively in my consumption of news. News programmes on television such as ABC News and The Drum were my main sources, and were supplemented through casual listening of ABC Radio National. In contrast, New Media was primarily used for entertainment purposes, and thus figured prominently in data which mainly concerned entertainment. One exception to this were books, which were heavily represented in the data, and were used solely for entertainment purposes. As the chart below shows, the use of Old Media slightly outweighed that of New Media. This came as a surprise as I, like many others, assumed that permeation of new media had become ubiquitous, and that Old Media would be but a footnote in the total data. The fact that this did not prove to be the case, and was in fact quite to the contrary, came as an unexpected, but not unpleasant surprise.

However there is an anomaly within this chart, music has been placed alongside the data of Old Media, even though it was mostly listened to in the Mp3 format, which is undoubtedly a new technology. However, seeing as this is simply a means for accessing the media, and does not fundamentally change how the music is listened to, I made the decision to include music as old media.

Final Analysis: From analysing the data that I collected over a 10 day period, I can draw several conclusions regarding my media use. Firstly, I can safely assume that when compared to the grater scope of peoples, my Facebook use is quite moderate. While the 14% lower average daily use when compared to the average Facebook user (which does not take into account miscellaneous information such as inactive accounts) was surprising on one level, on another it was not. It was more due to societal trends and inherent expectations that I presumed my Facebook intake to be higher, rather than due to some deeply held belief of my own.  

Secondly, I discovered that, contrary to a majority of people, my media consumption remains primarily rooted in the use of old media, in particular books and television. Had I had the access to newspapers that I normally do, I could expect this figure to rise even farther, further cementing my media consumption in Old Media rather than New. This was perhaps the most striking revelation of the survey, and one that was not revealed until all the data was collated and examined. Due to my high levels of internet use, I was naturally expecting consumption to side with New Media. An interesting observation that I made due to discovering this is the different ways in which I consume Old and New media. For myself personally, New Media is generally consumed in large “blocks” of information, and is usually centered around the use of the internet. In contrast, Old Media is made up of an extensive conglomeration of different mediums, and is collected at a steadier rate. 

Paying for News Sites

Ok, well here I am with my first blog. Unfortunately, due to my memory being like a sieve, I can't recall the finer points of lecturer one, so I'm gong to start with a post about lecture two! How's that for mixing it up?

Newspapers have played a huge role in the collection and distribution of news almost since their inception. They provide a relatively cheap, easy and quick way for a large number of people to find information that interests them. However, this convenience has usually entailed a small fee. With the advent of the intenet, the ordinary person was sudeenly bombarded with a wealth of eclectic, and free, information from the comfort of their own homes, which predictably led to the steady decline of newspaper sales. Now, collecting news isn't particularly cheap, so news agencies had to find a new way to recoup costs, namely, moving their product to the net, with an additional subscription fee applied.

Fair enough, you would think. But suprisingly, many people have had a big problem with news agencies such as the New York Times and The Australian charging people for their service, as they beleive that information on the internet should be free, no matter the situation. This is obviously an unrealistic desire, and in my opinion companies that provide us with quality news should not be begrudged trying to make a profit, simply because their content is online. After all, we paid for it happily enough before did we not? Add to that the fact that the online subscriptioin fee is much cheap than buying a printed paper every day, and we are left with the realisation that we do, in fact, have it pretty good.