Media Use Diary

My Media Use- Raw Data

Day	TV/Movies	Facebook	Newspaper	Phone (calls and txts)	Twitter	General Reading (Magazines/Novels)	Radio	Online News	Blogging	Youtube	Total (mins)
1	0	30	0	15	0	0	0	20	0	15	80
2	120	45	0	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	185
3	0	25	0	27	0	15	0	20	0	0	87
4	10	15	0	70	0	0	0	0	0	0	95
5	30	30	10	20	20	0	0	0	20	0	130
6	65	40	0	20	0	30	0	5	0	30	190
7	5	35	0	15	10	0	0	10	5	10	90
8	120	25	0	20	0	25	0	20	0	0	210
9	120	40	0	20	5	30	0	15	15	0	245
10	0	30	0		0	0	20	0	0	20	70
Total (mins)	470	315	10	227	35	100	20	90	40	75	1382

Graph:

Analysis

On average I spent 55.5 minutes online everyday. Only 3.2% of the JOUR1111 cohort spends less than an hour online! The only time I access the internet is when I’m at home because I do not have a smartphone (77.3% of JOUR1111 owns one) that easily connects to the internet which may be a contributing factor to my small percentage. Another point to consider is my home environment, an on-campus university college. There is very little time for browsing the internet at my leisure due to a constant stream of social activities available.  I’m close, however, to belonging with the 1-2 hour group which consists of 22.5% of my peers, a considerable percentage increase from my 3.2%.

Peer Internet Usage:

While on the internet, the site I spent most of my time on was undoubtedly Facebook. I am with the majority of my peers on this one. This reflects the fact that 17-20 year olds (the majority of the JOUR1111 cohort) are driven by social networking. I contribute very little to my friends’ Facebook experience with minimal status updates and photo uploads though. The reason behind my hesitance to post on Facebook is that I don’t feel the need to tell my ‘friends’ (Facey friends are just a collection of people I kind of know mixed with my good pals) everything I’m up to/brag about what I’ve done/think of witty or emotional lines to impress upon them the depth of my psyche. My good pals already know all that about me! Why keep the excess friends? Simple: I like to read what they’re up to, read them brag and giggle as they express the depth of their psyche – and that is the honest truth. It seems in relation to media communication I’m much more of a taker than a giver.

I thought I was much more on top of news and current affairs but I don’t even check the news daily. Looking at Day 2 for example, I spent a total of 185 minutes using media and I didn’t spend a single minute on getting the day’s news (none of Day 2’s television use included watching news). 

Day	TV/Movies	Facebook	Newspaper	Phone	Twitter	General Reading (Magazines/Novels)	Radio	Online News	Blogging	Youtube	Total (mins)
2	120	45	0	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	185

I did a little asking around at my college and I got so much of the same response, “it feels like we live in our own little bubble” and “since moving in I don’t know what’s going on in the world.” I’m going to compare college life to a school camp – you are swept up in the day to day news of your very small surroundings that you become naïve to outside dramas and real world journalism.

When I do access news however, my main source is online. Very little of the total of my internet time is spent on news sites though! I kept track of the way I viewed the sites and my main technique is scanning headlines, I used these as summary notes of the day and only pursued one or two news stories of interest. This, I think, is a result of a shortened attention span from using sites such as Facebook and twitter that deliver information in a certain number of characters or less. After this analysis I’ve decided to put in a conscious effort to check ACTUAL news more often than my Facey newsfeed. Thanks JOUR1111 J

As a note: My TV usage seems like it should be a major feature of my analysis, however the large spike in TV/Movies is due to the fact that I went to the cinemas twice during these 10 days. There wasn't really too much depth to analyse which is why I chose to focus on internet.