Click-y click.
Whenever I sit in Central Station, I notice
the people surrounding me absolutely enthralled with their smart phones. Judging by these behaviours, I imagine that they too would be surprised with their amount of media usage...
So, what was it that surprised me?
The interesting perception I made was as I used media I was usually multitasking. Most frequently I found myself on Facebook and “studying” at the same time.
Surprisingly, I was so
interested in my own habits that I started
the assessment again (I know, crazy right?!).
I divided my media use and
production diary into whole hours spent using media platforms (whole hours out of my entire day) and underneath I recorded the amount of time I was spending using particular media on those platforms
(including hours multitasking).
Media usage measured in hours over 10 days
Media Used
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
TOTAL
|
Desktop
Computer
Study
Online Newspaper
Facebook
Tumblr
Emails
General
Web Browsing
Blogger
Twitter
|
2
1
0.25
1.5
1
0.25
0.5
0
0
|
1
0.25
0
0.5
0.5
0.25
0.5
1
0.5
|
3
1
0.5
2
1
0
1
1
0.25
|
3
1.5
0
2
0.5
0.5
1
0
0.25
|
1
0
0
0.5
0
0
1
0
0
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
|
2
1
0.5
1.5
0.5
0.25
1
0.5
0.25
|
1
0.5
0
1
0.5
0
0
0
0
|
13
5.25
1.25
9
4
1.25
5
2.5
1.25
|
Laptop
Computer
Study
Online
Newspaper
Facebook
Tumblr
Emails
General
Web Browsing
Twitter
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
|
3
2
0.5
2
1
0.5
1
0.25
|
4
2.5
0.5
3
2
1
1.5
0.25
|
4
3
1
3
1
0
2
0.5
|
5
3
1
3
2
1
2
0
|
2
1
0
1
0.5
0.25
0.5
0
|
1
0
0.25
0.5
0.25
0.25
1
0
|
19
11.5
3.25
12.5
6.75
3
8
1
|
Smart
Phone
Calls
Texting
Games
Facebook
|
2
0.5
0.75
0.5
0.25
|
3
1
1
0
1
|
1
0
0.5
0
0.5
|
4
2
1
0.5
0.5
|
2
0
0.5
0.5
1
|
1
0.5
0.25
0
0.25
|
2
1
0.5
0.25
0.25
|
1
0
0.5
0
0.5
|
2
1
0.5
0.5
0
|
1.5
0
0.5
0.5
0.5
|
19.5
6
6
2.75
4.75
|
Television
News
Broadcasts
Leisure
Shows
|
2
1.5
0.5
|
2
1
1
|
1.5
1
0.5
|
2
1
1
|
3
1
2
|
3
1
2
|
1
0.5
0.5
|
2
1
1
|
3
1
2
|
2
1
1
|
21.5
10
11.5
|
Radio
News
Broadcasts
Leisure
shows
|
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
|
1
0.5
0.5
|
0
0
0
|
0.5
0.5
0
|
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
|
0.5
0.25
0.25
|
0
0
0
|
2
1.25
0.75
|
Newspaper
Local
State
|
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
|
1
1
0
|
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
|
0.5
0
0.5
|
0
0
0
|
0
0
0
|
1
1
0
|
2.5
2
0.5
|
Basically, I use a lot of media on a daily basis. I use my desktop computer, laptop and smart phone more than radio and newspaper. While the television is in use for the most amount of hours, I never used it as a primary media source. I found from the total time on certain platforms, I am a true procrastinator.
Separately I recorded hours spent producing content.
 |
| My total media use compared to media production in units of hours |
On these websites that allow for production elements, my graph demonstrates I am active in my internet usage.
The most prominent conclusions I came to from my own and the cohort's media habits were:
- New Media of the internet and smart phones is
in, while old media of newspapers are fading out
- Facebook really is taking
over our lives
- The immediate accessibility of the internet
had both negative and positives
The shift to New Media
Breakfast and dinner with my partner is spent in front of
the TV watching news. My
results emphasise the amount of time I spent on the internet across various
platforms. 79% of JOUR1111 students,
including myself, watch less than 2 hours of television a day. Since an average newscast is 1 hour, we can assume, television is in most cases used where we can leave the TV playing in the
background, until an important story comes on. The lack of use of radio suggests the same, with 82.9% listening in the car. These old
media platforms are now used when convenient whilst we’re engaging in other
primary activities.
The television is still powerful for Journalism,
being the main source of News (however, closely followed by Facebook with 48.4% of students) but no longer
regarded by a majority as a strong ‘leisure activity’.
Power of social networking
When comparing my results to the rest of the class, I am average in most areas. I have a few different types of social networking sites and blogs, making my internet usage across platforms somewhat excessive. However, what the survey failed to find out was
the frequency in which the class happened to log in and check their Facebook accounts. And this was where I must call myself, an ‘addict’. I found interesting statistics that sum up my own usage as a 19 year old pretty accurately:
I am an avid Facebook consumer, but even more as shown in my graph, I am a
Facebook producer. I am engaged in many “Groups” and “Pages” which I am
constantly updating and creating comments, photos and messages.
I
had no idea I relied so heavily on Facebook, for sharing personal news as well
as world news.
Facebook is rapidly growing to be a huge part of Journalism and
Communication, whether we like it or not.
Wonders of accessibility
With 77.3% of students using an internet enabled smart phone, we have the ability to constantly be on the internet. Since I
bought a smart phone, my media use has at least doubled. Just like the people at
Central, we never want to do nothing, because we have the ability to do
almost anything.
The positives, however, of the media I could interact with, over 50% overall of my time was spent producing, not just consuming. With new media I am an active member of the online community, something I would never do if it was limited to Newspaper.
What does this mean for journalism?
I asked myself why this was happening and came to the conclusion that these 3 trends are entirely related.
- The rise in technology has created a surge in ‘citizen journalists’ and the immediate availability of news and entertainment on the internet has decreased the need for old media.
- Wifi has enabled the use of smart phones or laptops virtually anywhere meaning an increase in use, and subsequent increase in online media use and production.
- Social Media has penetrated the traditional media types for journalism and communication. Alushka Rajaram of socialmedianews.com says “turn your Television on to any given News channel during a breaking news story and you’ll be greeted with information from Facebook and Twitter at least every hour”.
- Not only is the frequency in which these platforms are updated far more impressive than old media, but being able engage in discussion and create content on your own, certainly has a strong appeal, adding to the great appeal of social networking for news.
The Guardian article “Mobile and the news media's imploding business model” suggests there is a “bleak or non-existent future for news professionals in a mobile-dominated world” as the shift to online media has subsequently lead to the loss of profit in Journalism industry, and looking at my results alone, I can completely see why.
Let’s just say after this investigation to my own Media habits, I’ll be putting my computers down for longer, and buying newspapers more frequently…
(Even more fun statistics about social media's impact on the world here.)
