The table below presents my personal media usage of both old
and new media over a period of 10 days. The numbers represent the amount of
time (in hours) that I spent on a given day utilizing the corresponding media form.
New Media Usage
|
Day 1
|
Day 2
|
Day 3
|
Day 4
|
Day 5
|
Day 6
|
Day 7
|
Day 8
|
Day 9
|
Day 10
|
Total
|
Facebook
|
1.5
|
1.5
|
1
|
1.5
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
1.5
|
1.5
|
1
|
15.5
|
Twitter
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
5
|
Reading Blogs
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
5.5
|
Emailing
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
Skype
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
Reading online news
|
0.5
|
0
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
General surfing and browsing
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1.5
|
Banking
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Shopping
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
Studying and Research
|
1
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
8.5
|
Playing LAN games
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Listening to music from streamed
radio
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
1.5
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
11.5
|
Downloading podcasts
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
Watching streamed TV Programs
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
Downloading entertainment
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Total New Media
Usage
|
4
|
3.5
|
4
|
4.5
|
7
|
11
|
10.5
|
6.5
|
3
|
5.5
|
59.5
|
Old Media Usage
|
Day 1
|
Day 2
|
Day 3
|
Day 4
|
Day 5
|
Day 6
|
Day 7
|
Day 8
|
Day 9
|
Day 10
|
Total
|
Newspaper
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
Magazines
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
Television
|
1.5
|
1
|
0.5
|
1
|
0.5
|
1
|
0
|
1.5
|
1
|
0.5
|
8.5
|
Radio
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0.5
|
Total Old Media
Usage
|
1.5
|
1
|
0.5
|
1
|
0.5
|
1.5
|
0.5
|
2
|
1
|
0.5
|
10
|
Total Media
Usage
|
5.5
|
4.5
|
4.5
|
5.5
|
7.5
|
12.5
|
11
|
8.5
|
4
|
6
|
69.5
|
Figure 1: Table logging my personal media use over a 10 day period.
Figure 2 depicts the relationship between my usage of old
and new media. It is evident that personally I rely on new media, primarily the
internet and social networking as the source of media that I principally use to
communicate and receive my news. In summary 86% of my media usage comes from an
online source. This trend of new media is becoming more global with people
spending triple the amount of time on the internet than they did a decade ago
(ABC News, 29/03/2012). As the internet becomes a more prominent aspect of our lives
the sources of old media such as newspaper, the radio and even television are
becoming increasingly used less in comparison to what new media, particularly the
internet. To gain a further understanding and analysis of my media use Figure 3
presents graphically my new media and online data usage.
Figure 3: Personal
online date usage.
Figure 3 illustrates that my primary use of online data comes
from the use of social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and Skype) with a
total usage of over 20 hours. This is significant considering that this use
makes up 43% of my average media usage over ten days and just over 50% of my
online data usage. Figure 3 shows a total of 59.5 hours internet usage over a
ten day period. While the usage of social networking sites may seem high, having
only one Facebook account puts me in a similar category as 95% of the other
student in JOUR1111.
Finally, Figure 4 represents the prominent areas of online
usage for me in comparison to that of the average JOUR1111 student calculated
from the survey. This shows us that while my overall usage is higher than others;
social networking remains the prominent source of online data use for JOUR1111
students. What was surprising is that as
Journalism students less than 10% of our time was spent reading online news.
Figure 4: My prominent online usage compared to the average JOUR1111.
This information provides a strong indication that new media
(media based largely on the internet) is vastly becoming the major source of
media for today’s generation. The corollary
of this is that old media (newspapers, magazines and television) may be slowly
becoming obsolete within our society. In addition this survey indicates that
the main usage of the internet is through social networking sites. So what does
this mean for the world of Journalism and Communications? When attempting to
reach out to a target audience such as the average JOUR1111 student (Females
between the ages of 17-20) it is essential that methods of communication be focussed
on social networking sites where the most prominent media usage occurs. With only
7% of our time spent searching for online news it is critical that if the
commercial media companies focus attention on providing news through online
sources.
In summary, this investigation has highlighted how
embarrassing my Facebook use is compared to other sources of news. It also
indicates that as the next generation grows older, the focus must increasingly switch
from old to new media to bring the news to an increasingly internet based
society.
