Aussies Are Multi-Tasking Media Gluttons

It’s no surprise that Australians are consuming more media in the Internet age: after all, there’s so much more to choose from. Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson at the Courier Mail reports that a Nielsen Online study found the average Australian now spends a total of 89.2 hours a week consuming media in all forms. The Internet leads the charge, accounting for 16.1 hours. If you’re thinking that sounds like a lot of waking hours, you’d be right. I suspect that’s partly because people will often multitask (the study found almost half of us listen to the radio while surfing the Web), but also because trying to divide these activities up is a bit pointless. If you’re watching TV or reading a newspaper online, does that count as Internet hours, TV hours or newspaper hours? And who really has time to count anyway?