Latest Middletown study looks at media consumers
published 10/25/05
A groundbreaking project undertaken just miles from here reveals that people do not spend most of their living day encountering others face to face. The bulk of their days are not used for meditating on the conundrums of the world. They do not spend most of their hours pursuing the physical adventures of play and exercise. Most of their day is not dedicated to sleeping or eating. In fact, in terms of total hours, most of their day is not spent on the job.
What the Middletown Media Studies, conducted just up the road at Ball State University’s Center for Media Design, has determined is that most of us put in a nine-hour day using various media. This observational study followed its subjects from the time they stumbled out of bed in the morning until they stumbled back in at night, measuring the amount of waking hours they engaged in 15 different media. Those media include television, cell phones, the Internet, instant messaging, e-mail, radio, iPods, books, magazines and, of course, newspapers.
The Center for Media Design hoped to discover the media behavior of a typical American community, or “Middletown America.” According to their Web site, the work was to build on the famous sociological look at life in East Central Indiana in the 1920s and 1930s, known as the Middletown Studies. Technically, the research for the Middletown Media Studies did not take place in Middletown but in Muncie-town and Indianapolis-town.
Because it’s an unprecedented look at media behavior, I couldn’t help but do my own personal audit and see how I stacked up with the average Joe from Middletown. Frankly, I’m a little leery of media studies since it’s a way of finding my “address” in the media world, but hey, anything for a colleague…
• TV: “Middletowners” consume four hours each day in front of the tube, which seems to be the national average. I spend 30 minutes surfing among the ruins of the vast wasteland. Maybe it’s the media general’s warning. But it’s probably because of this next category…
• Computer Use: On most days, I probably rack up nearly hours 10 hours working in front of this tube—of course, how do you define “working” in today’s world? My 10 compared to Middletown men and women who logged between two and three hours and then found something better to do.
• Internet: During their hours of computer use, most people put in 90 minutes on the Internet. I’m probably caught in the Web at least a couple of hours each day.
• Radio: I was surprised to learn that people today listen to 80 minutes of radio. If I’m not in the car, I hear no radio. If I’m in the car 80 minutes, I’m average.
• Music: This category included radio, MP3 players and other usage of recorded music. While Mr. and Mrs. Middletown were observed listening to music an hour and a half each day, I would have skewed the study with my eight hours of listening to cliché boomer music such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Band and Rush, who, by the way, do a tune called “Middletown Dreams” on their “Power Windows” project. But this category should have allowed for recorded music played on turntables and 8 tracks.
• All Print Media: I’m a foreigner in Middletown here, too, with the average person spending a half hour daily with books, magazines, newspapers and the such. In this category, I’m Old School with no chance of graduating—and putting in eight hour days with print.
One of the study’s biggest revelations was that during their media day 30 percent of Middletowners used media concurrently. In other words, they watched TV while surfing the Web or they talked on the phone while using the computer. Some read newspapers while they watched TV. Is it multitasking or is it ADD?
When I read a study like this, I want to bring back the late media genius Marshall McLuhan, who once wrote, “All media work us over completely… they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage.”
It’s one thing to ask how we are “consuming” media. Another question is just how it is consuming us.
A groundbreaking project undertaken just miles from here reveals that people do not spend most of their living day encountering others face to face. The bulk of their days are not used for meditating on the conundrums of the world. They do not spend most of their hours pursuing the physical adventures of play and exercise. Most of their day is not dedicated to sleeping or eating. In fact, in terms of total hours, most of their day is not spent on the job.
What the Middletown Media Studies, conducted just up the road at Ball State University’s Center for Media Design, has determined is that most of us put in a nine-hour day using various media. This observational study followed its subjects from the time they stumbled out of bed in the morning until they stumbled back in at night, measuring the amount of waking hours they engaged in 15 different media. Those media include television, cell phones, the Internet, instant messaging, e-mail, radio, iPods, books, magazines and, of course, newspapers.
The Center for Media Design hoped to discover the media behavior of a typical American community, or “Middletown America.” According to their Web site, the work was to build on the famous sociological look at life in East Central Indiana in the 1920s and 1930s, known as the Middletown Studies. Technically, the research for the Middletown Media Studies did not take place in Middletown but in Muncie-town and Indianapolis-town.
Because it’s an unprecedented look at media behavior, I couldn’t help but do my own personal audit and see how I stacked up with the average Joe from Middletown. Frankly, I’m a little leery of media studies since it’s a way of finding my “address” in the media world, but hey, anything for a colleague…
• TV: “Middletowners” consume four hours each day in front of the tube, which seems to be the national average. I spend 30 minutes surfing among the ruins of the vast wasteland. Maybe it’s the media general’s warning. But it’s probably because of this next category…
• Computer Use: On most days, I probably rack up nearly hours 10 hours working in front of this tube—of course, how do you define “working” in today’s world? My 10 compared to Middletown men and women who logged between two and three hours and then found something better to do.
• Internet: During their hours of computer use, most people put in 90 minutes on the Internet. I’m probably caught in the Web at least a couple of hours each day.
• Radio: I was surprised to learn that people today listen to 80 minutes of radio. If I’m not in the car, I hear no radio. If I’m in the car 80 minutes, I’m average.
• Music: This category included radio, MP3 players and other usage of recorded music. While Mr. and Mrs. Middletown were observed listening to music an hour and a half each day, I would have skewed the study with my eight hours of listening to cliché boomer music such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Band and Rush, who, by the way, do a tune called “Middletown Dreams” on their “Power Windows” project. But this category should have allowed for recorded music played on turntables and 8 tracks.
• All Print Media: I’m a foreigner in Middletown here, too, with the average person spending a half hour daily with books, magazines, newspapers and the such. In this category, I’m Old School with no chance of graduating—and putting in eight hour days with print.
One of the study’s biggest revelations was that during their media day 30 percent of Middletowners used media concurrently. In other words, they watched TV while surfing the Web or they talked on the phone while using the computer. Some read newspapers while they watched TV. Is it multitasking or is it ADD?
When I read a study like this, I want to bring back the late media genius Marshall McLuhan, who once wrote, “All media work us over completely… they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage.”
It’s one thing to ask how we are “consuming” media. Another question is just how it is consuming us.
posted by Jack W. Williams | 8:27 PM
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