Media Consumption Diary

Yuhuan HU (Shane)

I tracked my media consumption behavior between Jan 26th (Thursday) and Jan 27th (Friday) and here is an overview of my consumption behavior.

48 hours media consumption

Generally, in this 48 hours’ diary, my media consumption time is 467 minutes in total and more than a half of the time I spend is watching video on a computer. The time I spend on my laptop is almost double than my phone, and not surprisingly, there is not a second I consume media through paper, but I listen to the radio for about 35 minutes when an Uber driver accompanies me. Despite the consumption time I spend on different devices, I am curious about what content I consumed on that respectively, so I draw the following charts as below.

Content consumption on different devices

As you can see, each device fulfills my different need very well. I watch videos through my computer, reading articles (documents) and browse news via smart phone, even though the news sometimes comes out of a car stereo when I take an Uber. Most of the time, these devices won’t cross the line of each other despite listening to the music. According to the bar charts above, it shows that music consumption time almost the same on different devices, though I do use a computer more often because of limited data (2.5GB/month) and storage (16GB) of my phone.

You might be shocked if you look carefully about the video consumption time during the last 48 hours, is nearly 250 minutes which mean 120 minutes per day! Did I watch two movies on my laptop and left assignments behind? Well, the answer is negative, the reason why I watch the video for 4 hours is that the Jan 27th is the Chinese Lunar New Year and there was a 5-hours-long GALA Show presented by CCTV from 4.00 am to 9.00 am (PST). Considering that it is not available through the U.S.cable, I watch the GALA Show on my laptop. However, it is not my daily behavior, so I regardless of the Gala Show in the following analysis. Below is the standard media consumption chart of me.

media consumption in different devices (left) media consumption in different content(right)

I rely on my smart phone a lot. Typically, I check the Email when I wake up but still in bed. I do not subscribe to any newsletters since I prefer to browse it flexibly through the News App from Apple.Inc. After checking the mailbox, I spend at least 30 minutes on the articles I subscribed from various Self-Media on WeChat (a Cross-platform and instant messaging application developed by Tencent). Such as TTFilm (a film review “blogger”), Dealmoon (discount collection), guokr.com (Chinese version of DISCOVERY), ChineseinLA.com (Updated news in L.A. for Chinese), and shenyebagua818 (Gossip news, a Chinese version of PEOPLE), etc. I only browse the U.S. News (Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal,

NYTimes) when I am waiting for an Uber or in a restroom. Most of the time, I get Chinese news through Chinese media as it is difficult to get them in American mainstream media.

However, there is no boundary in terms of the music. I spend 40 minutes and 35 minutes on Chinese media and American Media respectively, and I subscribe both Netease Music (Chinese Music Company) and Apple Music on my phone and laptop. The reason why I double pay it is because of the limitation of copyright; sometimes I cannot search what I want especially some niche foreigner music in Netease and vice versa.

U.S. media utility &Chinese media utility (left) Media consumption in different time(right)

Moreover, according to the pie chart above, in terms of the media consumption period, I figure out that most of my activities located in the evening and afternoon, which are 52% and 31% respectively. I assume that it is because I usually spend about 20 to 30 minutes to read articles or browse the news after having a meal. And I enjoy lying in bed as well, reading some articles before sleep. Similarly, those Chinese Self-Medias on WeChat prefer to update their articles between 5 pm to 10 pm.

In conclusion, here are some insights I mentioned above:

1. Despite some special event like Chinese New Year, my daily media consumption led by smartphone, which daily consuming time is 81 minutes, followed by computer use of 15 minutes per day.
2. I won’t consume media through radio only if I am in a Uber and the content I consumed depends on the driver’s choice.
3. Each device has their unique function to fulfill my need. I prefer to listen to music on the computer rather than the smartphone because of the small storage and limited data. On the other hand, I don’t watch video on my phone because I enjoy on a bigger screen.
4. I prefer read Chinese entertainment news than American’s, and I meet such need mainly through Chinese Social Media (WeChat) as Facebook and Twitter cannot fulfill that.
5. I pay for music consumption in two different platforms (Netease Music and Apple Music) because of the limited choices of each one.
6. I tend to consume media after 6.00 pm, and most of my media consumption activities are located around the sleeping time and before/after having a meal. Considering that is most people’s habit, it is a shrewd move that the Self-Media I subscribed usually post their content between 5.00 pm to 10.00 pm.