Media Use Diary: Monday, March 12, 2012 to Wednesday, March 21, 2012

 Over a period of ten days, my media usage was recorded and then analysed.

1. Media Usage (Tabular Form)

Note that all values below are in minutes, for convenience. 

Recorded Data	Mobile Phone (texting, calling, games, etc.)	Internet Access (via iPad, Laptop, Mobile Phone)						Radio (via internet, or actual radio)	Television (via internet or actual television)
		Emails	Facebook	Twitter	Blogger	Research and studying	Reading news articles
Day One 12th March	15	5	50	20	0	40	15	20	45 Doctor Who
Day Two 13th March	10	5	60	30	30 (1) 45 (2)	80	15	20	20 How I Met Your Mother
Day Three 14th March	10	10	90	40	40 (3)  25 (4)	30	15	20	45 Glee
Day Four 15th March	20	5	75	35	0	0	15	0	45 Doctor Who
Day Five 16th March	15	10	60	30	20 Reading only	0	15	20	20 The Big Bang Theory
Day Six 17th March	45 Played Sudoku	10	100	40	20 Reading only	120	15	0	45 Doctor Who
Day Seven 18th March	20	5	100	25	0	120	15	0	45 Doctor Who
Day Eight 19th March	15	5	50	30	0	50	15	20	45 Doctor Who
Day Nine 20th March	10	5	90	35	0	80	15	20	20 How I Met Your Mother
Day Ten 21st March	20	10	80	30	0	30	15	20	45 Glee

2. Comparisons with the Majority

2.1 Mobile Phone

The graph demonstrates that my phone is in usage for non-internet purposes for only about 10 to 20 minutes per day. A serious outlier that occurs on Saturday (Day 6) may be excluded from analysis, as in this instance I was playing a mobile game out of the normal routine. The survey does not record the amount of time people typically use their phones, however it can be extrapolated from the large number of applications people have reported owning that smartphones a revery commonly used devices. It may be deduced from this that I use my smartphone device far less often than most other people. This suggests that my relationship with journalism and communication is lessened through the smartphone medium.

2.2. Internet Access via. mediums of laptop, iPad and mobile phone.

 

It can be extrapolated from this data that I have a very close and intimate connection with my immediate social surroundings, and I am constantly exposed to news deemed interesting by my fellow peers. As an example of this, I can point out that it did not take long after the first release of the Kony 2012 video for me to be sent a link via Facebook. Similarly, this high level of social media usage heightens the amount of general interest stories I have access to. Twitter and Facebook are two simple means of sharing this sort of information. Being actively online for approximately 14 hours each week exposes me to these common interest stories in very substantial doses, strengthening my connection to journalism and communication.

Teenagers are clearly becoming productive encyclopedias of the social realm, spending hours each day and night taking in all the local news story and the topics their friends are interested in.Only 19.2% of the JOUR1111 students have a smartphone with a Twitter-enabled application, and 67.7% (approximately 2 in every 3 students) reported maintaining no Twitter accounts at all prior to joining the class.Twitter is more company- and individual-oriented than Facebook, which is more inclusive of social groups instead. Twitter is more of a news repository than Facebook is, so it can be suggested that my small, yet constant usage of the site proves that I do feel the need to connect with local media outlets, celebrities and news sources to really get a firm understanding of the facts and the "what's on" of the world around me. Through Twitter, I am very intimately connected with the worlds of journalism and communication.

The time spent reading news articles, having now become routine for me, is negligible in data analysis. I spend approximately 15 minutes each day having a quick read through The Brisbane Times' website on my iPad, which provides a consistent and clear connection between myself and the larger worlds of journalism and communcation, and gives me a direct relationship with local, national and global news.

2.3. Radio

I listen to the radio via my mobile phone on the train to the University of Queensland every day I attend. As I have no courses scheduled on Thursday of any week, I only listen to the radio four times per week for approximately the same amount of time in each case. This behaviour resembles that of the rest of those surveyed, as the most prominent duration of radio exposure was less than 1 daily hour. This level of usage exposes me only to morning radio stations, which generally do consist of the occasional news bulletin. Typically, radio bulletin are short and to-the-point, as listeners can not simply pause or rewind to listen again, and there is no option to read over it a second time. As I generally alternate between radio stations 97.3 and b105, I only really get to here about one bulletin per day, which accounts for a very minimal amount of exposure to radio-journalism. It is clear that my relationships with journalism and communication are not strengthened very much through the radio medium.

2.4. Television

 

I watch virtually no broadcast television on the average week, and watch my shows entirely online and without ads. As such, I am exposed to little sources of journalistic value via the television, and of the little time I am exposed to television in general, I am just watching a show. On Tuesdays, regular airings of How I Met Your Mother, a 20-minute long show without ads, make up the entirety of my television viewing. The rest of the week consisted of watching catch-up episodes of Glee on Wednesdays, and Doctor Who every other day of the week. As a result of this consistency, there is little variation shown here. In the survey, it was noted that, on average, 60 to 120 minutes of television is viewed by the majority each day. In both cases, my usage of the television medium is well below average. The fact that I watch no broadcast television at all serves to prove that I rarely ever see media advertisements and breaking news bulletins. A strong relationship to journalism and communication definitely requires this connection.