Media Diary Assignment

For this assignment i want you go keep track of all the media you use - newspapers, CDs, DVDs, books, the Web, email, MP3s, etc. Keep a written record for 5 days (10/23 thru 10/27 - Thursday thru Monday) of the media used, the length of time, and a brief description of why you were using it (for homework, for entertainment, to spend time with friends...), and what else you were doing while the media was being used (reading and listening to the radio for instance). Start from the time you get up - do you have a clock radio set to play a radio station as your alarm? Keep a record till you go to bed - do you watch tv to fall asleep? Is there a tv on in the cafeteria? Do you listen to the radio in the car? Is there music the gym? Do you read the school or local newspaper? How about your town newspaper online? Record ALL your media use. You do not have to record using the telephone, but do include using instant messenger.

This can be a hand written record - don't take time typing it - these are your notes. You will turn them in - but sloppy handwriting won't count against you. However you want to include details - these are your research notes and the more information you have in them, the easier part two of the assignment will be to write. Part of your grade depends on the thoroughness of the data - is there a page for each day, are there entries for different times during the day, for each entry is there info on what media, why used, how long, what you were doing, etc.

For the second part of the assignment, I want you to write a 3 page paper about your media use based on the diary.

In the 3-5 pages, answer these questions/cover these topics:

  1. Summarize your media use - totals, types of media you used the most, day you used the most media, the least media, time of day you use media most often, etc.
  2. Why do you use media in general? Identify specific reasons that seemt o go with specific media. Are there moods that cause you to tend to use one media over others?
  3. Do you multi-task - do other things while using media? When and why? Or why not?
  4. Would you say you use mostly traditional media (newsprint, printed magazines, television, radio) or digital (DVD's, CD's, MP3s, the Web, email)
  5. What did you learn about your own media use - anything surprise you abuot the data?

Talk specifically about your media use during the period of time for which you collected data - - don't speak in generalities. Make some tables summarizing your data and refer to them in your paper; actually refer to them by name or number - don't just make a table and staple it to the paper. For instance you could have one table that summarized how many hours you used each media. And you could have another table that looks across all the diary and shows how much time you used media for each purpose - for instance, how much media was used for homework, how much for entertainment, how much for just wasting time, etc. Make use of your notes - be specific, give examples. You can write in the first person - you were the subject of the research and the observations and summaries are all of your behavior so you can use I and Me and My.

For the best grade - be specific, answer all the questions, turn in a media diary (your handwritten raw data). Be sure to have an introduction and a conclusion - they can ge short but they need to be there. Use good grammar. Use the spell checker. Print out your report and hand it in along with your hand written diary and any tables that you make. Put your name on the first line of the first page - don't waste paper with a title page. Staple everything together.

Length: 3-5 pages
Due: 10/31 Friday