JOUR1111 Assessment 1: Personal Media Usage and Production Diary

Table 1: Person Media Usage and Production Diary

The above table was constructed in Excel, and displays a log of my media usage and production over a 10 day period ( 2^nd August 2012 – 11^th August 2012). The total minutes and hours of media usage and production for each media platform have been calculated, as well as the total minutes and hours per day. The highlighted sections show the total minutes and hours of media usage and production for the entire 10 day period.

Now that my media usage has been logged, it is necessary to compare my findings with those from a survey recently undertaken by my JOUR1111 peers, and organised by the School of Journalism and Communication at The University of Queensland. In order to do this I have constructed various graphs using the data from my Personal Media Use and Production Diary.

Graph 1: Person Media and Production Use Over a 10 Day Period

The above pie graph shows how much each media type was used over a period of 10 days. As is illustrated, Tumblr was the most consumed media type, followed by the iPod. Collectively they make up 34% (19% + 15% = 34%) of the total media consumption and production. Therefore, the above pie graph and calculations suggest that I am rely heavily on both these forms of media.

There is no legitimate reason for the high usage of social networking site Tumblr, it is not a compulsory activity, rather it is something I enjoy and have become heavily dependent upon. The degree of usage could be contributed to the fact that I run three blogs, that all need to be updated daily, and also to the fact that my dependence has now reached a stage in which I struggle to go a day without checking in. Now, although Tumblr has experienced rapid growth in the past two years, my results are not consistent with my fellow JOUR1111 students. In a survey conducted by UQ’s School of Journalism and Communication, it was found that only 3.6% of students had three or more blogs before creating their JOUR1111 Blogger account, significantly less than the 61.8% of students who had no pre existing blogs.  

The high usage of my iPod is due to the fact that I rarely partake in an activity (particularly of the academic and physical kind) without listening to music. I listen to it whilst walking to classes, working on assignments, exercising, ‘surfing’ the web, reading a books and magazines; it is something that constantly surrounds me, that I thrive off. And this seems to also be the general consensus amongst my peers, with 84.8% listening to music via their iPod/iPhone/Smart Phone, and 83.6% listening to music on their computer. (Statistics taken from the survey conducted by UQ’s School of Journalism and Communication)

It is common knowledge that Smart Phones, and in particular the iPhone, are heavily relied upon by a large percentage of the modern world’s population, myself included. Then why, I hear you ask, is my iPhone usage so low. The reason for this is that I, embarrassingly, didn’t get an iPhone until the 7^th August 2012, and was without a mobile phone for more than a week leading up to that. Had I had access to an iPhone for the entire 10 day period, my usage amount would have been considerably higher.

As can be seen in Graph 1: Personal Media and Production Use over a 10 Day Period, a large amount of my media usage occurs online, particularly on social networking sites. The graph below focuses on this, displaying my internet usage over the 10 day period.

Graph 2: Internet Usage over a 10 Day Period

Clearly, Tumblr is used the most, followed by general browsing. Being a university student influences this result as the General Browsing figure is largely due to the assignment research conducted by me. If this data had been logged during a holiday period, I have no doubt that Tumblr would still rate the highest, however, Facebook and Skype would have a higher ranking as I rely upon these sites for long distance communication. Also, the amount of time spent on social networking site Blogger would significantly decrease as I am only using this blog in an academic platform.

As I stated earlier, a majority of my time online is spent on social networking sites (Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, Skype and Email). Therefore, like many of my peers and the modern day population, I am a “Prod-User”. In lamens terms; I am a user of social networking who is relied upon by these social networking sites to produce media in order for them to remain active.  Sites such as Tumblr and YouTube would not be able to function if users were not constantly posting and sharing both textual and visual communication with the world. And a majority of users, myself included, would not be able to function without these sites. It’s the perfect example of a symbiotic relationship.

After graphing my internet usage over a 10 day period, I was interested to see what my internet usage was per day, and then calculate a daily average.

Graph 3: Internet Usage per Day over a 10 Day Period

The graph above shows my internet usage over the 10 day period, with my highest usage occurring on Day 3, which is a Saturday. This was expected, as I have no university classes and often no assignment work over the weekends, resulting in more ‘down time’. The calculation below outlines my average daily internet usage;

3.8 + 2.5 + 8.8 + 5.5 + 3.7 + 5.2 + 2.4 + 5.4 + 2.3 + 4.2 = 43.8 hours

43.8 ÷ 10 = 4.38 hours

According to the above equation, my average internet usage per day is 4.38 hours. In a survey conducted by The School of Journalism and Communication, it was found that a majority, 24.8%, of JOUR1111 students spend between 3 to 4 hours on the internet each day. Therefore, my daily internet usage is just above the average of those students in JOUR1111. If the 10 day log occurred over a holiday period, my internet usage would be significantly higher, and would most likely reflect Day 3’s usage data.

Graph 4: News

The above graph showcases the different ways in which I access my news. According to the data, I most commonly access my news via online news which is correspondent with my peers, as 78.2% of them also access their news online (Statistics taken from the survey conducted by UQ’s School of Journalism and Communication). Online news has become increasingly popular in the past few years and, unlike print news, it is a form of news media that is readily available and easily accessible at all times. It also gives users better access to international news, and gives them the opportunity to tailor their World Wide Web, through a new phenomenon known as Web 3.0. Web 3.0 ends the hassle of scrolling through endless information, or in particular news, that is of no personal interest and welcomes a world custom to you. This is particularly appealing to me as my second highest consumption of news media is magazines, and the only magazines that I read are ones with topics that interest me, such as film and television. However, through online news, with the addition of Web 3.0, consumers run the risk of hyperlocalisation; becoming trapped in their own little bubble of information without regard to other world news.

After completing a thorough analysis of my media usage and production, it can be seen that I use a lot of new media, particularly online media such as Tumblr. From the above information it can be seen that I strongly rely on new media in my relationship with Journalism and Communication.