Media Usage Diary

Old Media VS New Media – Keeping up with the Trends

Over the past ten days, data and figures have been collected and analysed in respect to the amount and types of media that has been utilised. This includes using social mediums such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter; watching news and videos online; reading newspapers and magazine articles and so on. A separate survey was also conducted within the Journalism class in order to discover the media usage of larger populations. Both the personal media usage diary and survey results were discussed and examined in order to compare the data and determine any connections between the two outcomes. Graphs, tables and pie charts have been created to display the figures gathered and an in depth summary of why particular media is utilised more than other media forums has been explained.

The two tables below represent the tallying I have recorded of my particular media usage over days 1 – 3, 4 – 6, and 7 – 10 and then the overall total. The graphs following display the total media usage over the last ten days.  

As observed, Facebook and texting/calling have the highest media usage numbers whilst reading a newspaper, blogging and watching television have the lowest amounts of usage. It is interesting to note that the most popular and common forms of communication (such as Facebooking and texting/calling) have the highest numbers whilst the older forms of reading about world affairs (newspapers) has the lowest number count. This first diary entry could explain the technological change of society and how popular media sites are quickly overtaking older media devices. To investigate this theory further and why this is happening, further analysis of data shall be examined. 

The next set of data displays the amount of hours invested into each of these media devices over a period of ten days. The graph demonstrates the total amount of hours dedicated to each media forum.

As observed, a significant amount of hours is spent on Facebook and Tumblr, two popular and up-to-date communication mediums. On the other hand, a minimum amount of hours is spent on reading newspapers and magazine articles, two slightly older forms of media which come in physical form rather than found online. Once again, these particular statistics display the large emphasis that is placed on technology and how both communicating to others and reading up on current affairs is usually through online sources. The evolution of communication and journalism is rapidly evolving and technology and media sources are entering into a new age. Both graphs and tables have depicted my personal media usage over ten days, however to completely grasp and understand the concept of this technological change, comparisons need to be made against other peer groups.  

The three tables and pie charts below demonstrate the amount of hours spent on the three dominant sources of media daily, used to communicate and learn about current news events: Internet, Television, and Radio.

As observed from the data collected from Journalism students in a media usage survey, the most common amount of time spent on the internet was 2 – 3 hours, watching television 1 – 2 hours and listening to radio under 1 hour. This is a perfect indicator of the amount of time we invest into spending time on the internet to gather information on world news and communicate and interact with others. Watching television and listening to radio is declining and becoming out-dated due to the ever increasing technology allowing information and other communicative devices becoming readily available to the public. So far, the data collected has established the large amount of time spent on media mediums, however, further investigation into why we as a society are rapidly altering our communicative processes and are moving into the technological revolution needs to be explored.   


When comparing my personal results and data with the media usage survey conducted within the Journalism class, there are some very interesting differences and similarities. For example, within the survey conducted, 91.9% of the peer group responded to the question “What do you spend most of your time doing online?” by saying: Social Networking – Facebook. This was then followed by general surfing and browsing (61.3%) and then emailing (53%). In regards to my findings, I also spent most of my time on Facebook or Tumblr, both social networking sites. When observing the results, it seems a large significance is placed upon using the internet on either computers or phones to access websites for studying, communicating with others, emailing, blogging, watching news and so forth.

However, there are two interesting differences between my particular media usage diary and the survey data.  Firstly the larger amount of time that is spent watching television. Whilst a third of the students within Journalism spend 1 – 2 hours a day watching television, I spent 4 hours over ten days watching television. Therefore, on average I am watching television 10 – 15 minutes a day. This is a particularly intriguing statistic due to the revolution of technology changing rapidly and therefore allowing more and more media mediums to become available that are both faster and more efficient. Hence, it is quite interesting that television is still consistently viewed each day instead of watching news and shows online. The second intriguing difference is the newspaper usage. According to the survey, is the third most popular media form to access news. However, compared to my results, I read a newspaper for one hour in the ten days that the study was conducted. Once again it is extremely interesting to observe that “old” media such as newspapers and even television to an extent, is still utilised regularly for news and entertainment value.

Overall, this particular study demonstrates that in this day and age, it is through using new media such as the internet and mobile phones that communication processes are becoming easier and much more efficient. As a society, we have become extremely dependent upon social networking with one another and gathering information and news from online sites rather than physically visiting someone or reading a newspaper. On the other hand, with the figures collected from the survey, it shows that media such as newspapers, magazine articles and television reports, are still utilised from time to time. The behaviour of valuing and manipulating “new” media over “old” media exhibits the behaviour of “following the crowd/trend”.

Due to the ever-changing technological evolution of media, more and more individuals have been converted, which therefore instigates popularity and a new trend to follow. This pattern of following trends and embracing the new and wide range of technology options to communicate, presents the argument that society’s behaviour is dependent on others. If a particular media device is embraced by one individual and has more potential and newer features than older media resources, the rest of society shall follow and hence the progression of technology begins. Journalism students are most likely to embrace these changes due to the nature of Journalism, the need to utilise new media options and the necessity to keep ahead of the game.  However, this does not mean that long-standing media such as newspapers are disregarded altogether. Ultimately, advanced media is embraced more and more today due to the ever changing technological age and large popularity surrounding new and innovative devices.