News & Paper

By the time journalism students arrive at university they are already expert consumers of media. As one gen Y reflects:

“13.5. The number of hours in a week I spend texting. 1189. The number of minutes a week I spend online.  22. The number of hours a week I sit in front of the TV. 54,117. The number of seconds a week I listen to my iPod.”

Multitasking media is the norm for this generation:

“In a 24-hour hour period, I accessed over ten different media of varying genres, including television, a mobile phone, DVD, MP3, newspapers and the Internet.”

Back home, mum and dad are betwixt and between old and new media:

“My mum may turn on a computer once a day for her emails and my dad uses his computer only for business purposes.”

Often, the same content is acquired through the medium of choice:

“I was reading the daily news on the SMH website … my father sat on the lounge reading the printed version.”

For the moment, the convenience of news & paper sits alongside new media:

“I think my family and I all consume generally the same types of media in a day; newspaper, computer and Internet, music, books, television etc.  The main difference in our consumption is the timing.  And this is simply due to our different daily timetables. For example, my dad will take the newspaper with him to work and read it in his breaks, I will read it over breakfast when I wake up, my sister will read it over an afternoon snack after school, and my mum will read it whilst relaxing on the lounge after work.”

The media choices gen Y makes are increasingly linked to their social life:

“I think the demands of our contemporary world [Social Media] have come at the detriment of consuming older media (books, newspapers, documentaries). I think it’s these types of older media that allow people to enrich their lives. But the day-to-day [Social Media] often takes precedence over such consumption. There are only twenty-four hours in a day.”

Born into a media saturated world, gen Y graze on what’s in season:

“Ads superimposed on the cafeteria tables of the Pitt Street Mall food court, along side the giant flat screen TV covering sport results, free newspapers, and the revolving ads around every corner emphasised the saturation of information, media and instant entertainment in our society.”

As my students say:

“If media is easily accessible we are more likely to use it and the more available it is the more important it is.”

The overwhelming media trend amongst gen Y students I teach, is summed up below:
100% own at least one cell phone
100% own or have easy access to a computer
100% own or have easy access to a television receiver.

The mobile, computer and television (in that order) have the attention of generation Y — DVDs, newspapers, MP3 players, books and games consoles have a fight on their hands.

Dr Bruce Fell
Course Coordinator
Bachelor of Media Communication
School of Communication
Charles Sturt University
bfell@csu.edu.au

Tags: dvd, gen y, internet, ipod, Media Consumption, mobile phone, newspapers