Assignment: Media Diary and Analysis

The youth of today live in a very different world to their grandparents and even parents. If the words Ipod, Mac, Tablet or Facebook had been used back when our parents were young it would have been met with a raised eyebrow and quizzical look. What the hell are you talking about?

But in the 21^st century these have become everyday words and they have integrated themselves so heavily into our society that many people would struggle to get through even one day without them.

I do not pretend to be an exception to this rule. Recently I took a diary of my entire media use and production for ten days, taking note of exactly which media I used and produced and for how long. My results showed me that I spent at minimum an eighth of my day using or producing media and at most over half of my entire day. The details of my results can be seen in the table below.

As we can see from my diary many things can be classified as “media” but I have broken them down into five major groups: audio, computer, hardcopy texts, TV and phone. Of these I use and produce most of my media through TV, followed by the computer. The graph below shows I spend 1845 mins watching TV and 1320 mins on the computer in ten days. I also spend a significant amount of time listening to audio media (980 mins) but only a very minute amount of time reading hard-copy texts (395 mins) or using the phone (34 mins).

From this graph we can conclude that I am a modern day media consumption/production freak but how do I compare with most other people my age? Do most people rely on their TVs and computers as much as I do? And if so, what does this media reliance mean for us all?

A survey was conducted of 432 people all currently undertaking the JOUR1111 subject at the Univeristy of Queensland to answer several media use and consumption questions. I have used some of the results from this survey to answer my questions above.

 

From this graph we can see that the majority (29.9%) of people surveyed watch 1-2 hours of TV a day and a staggering 94.9% watch at least some TV every day.

 My TV consumption per day is just over 3 hours, putting me in a relatively small category of high TV consumers (4.9%).

 Next I was interested to see how I compare when it comes to computer use and production.

In this case I am with the majority of my peers, spending between 2-3 hours on the computer each day (see graph below). It is remarkable to note here that 96.8% of people surveyed spend over 1 hour on the computer every day. That is a lot of data being both consumed and produced via this new technology.

 

Clearly new media such the internet, ipods, mobile phones etc. are beginning to take the place of older media like the TV, newspapers, radio and books. This is very apparent for me, as can be seen by the graph below. Over 75% of the media I use and produce is 'new media'.

But what does this change mean for everyone? As a future journalist how does this influence the way I communicate and receive news and other information?

The results of the survey above, showing where the majority of JOUR1111 students get their news from, comes as no surprise. The majority of people get their news either from the computer (via online newspapers, Twitter or Facebook,) or from the TV and this correlates perfectly with the amount of time spent on the computer and watching TV. We can therefore assume that whatever media people use most of, is where they get the majority of their news from.

While some may think that new media is taking over our lives and one day we will rely on it so heavily that we will become the ultimate couch potatoes, I can think of a much more positive perspective. New media has given us the ability to consume and produce media on a much larger scale. This means, as a journalist, if I have something to say or a story to tell I have the potential to reach people all around the world at the click of a finger. I no longer have to grovel to a newspaper publisher or wait to be interviewed on the radio or the television (though these are still both great things to aim for). Ultimately it gives journalists more flexibility to tell a story how we want to (the internet allows for videos/slideshows/photo slides), as quickly we want, and perhaps most importantly, to reach the people who will be interested.