TV habits heavy among college students, studies say

It's the boob tube, the idiot box, the TV, the television.\nNo matter what term college students use to describe their televisions, the Student Monitor is interested in only one thing: How college students interact with TV. The Monitor, a group that studies and compiles market research of college students, claims 96 percent of college students nationally watch television regularly.\nAnd according to the Monitor's data, as well as other numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research, they watch it a lot.\nThe average time spent watching television is around 11 hours per week, or 1.5 hours per day, according to a study conducted by the Monitor in 2004.\nThe Nielsen Media Research rating system puts the figures even higher at three hours and 41 minutes of TV watched per day, according to information published by The Associated Press.This figure is still roughly one hour less than the average American watches.\nHowever, assistant professor of communication and culture Ted Striphas believes the data gathered might not accurately reflect the actual time spent actively watching a program. He put more emphasis on the quality of the viewing. \n"People routinely turn on the TV as background noise, much as they do with radio, to accompany their daily routines," Striphas said. "Does this mean we're watching? Probably not."\nNielsen has tried for years to tabulate college students' viewing habits accurately but has not found a successful way to do so; the organization gathers information solely through the times the television is reportedly on, as well as journals from "Nielsen families," or randomly selected testers. These methods can lead to discrepancies among the statistics the company provides, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.\nFree time factors into how much TV students watch. And many college students, such as sophomore Danny Marsh, tend not to have a lot of extra time on their hands.\n"I don't watch a lot of TV now because there is a lot less time now with more school work, and the free time I do have I would like to spend doing something else," Marsh said. "I also don't believe students around here don't watch as much TV as these agencies claim."\nSophomore Cody Carter agreed with Marsh -- although he is one student who does claim to watch a lot of TV, with a self-described amount near that of the Nielsen figures.\n"Everyone makes fun of me for the amount of TV I watch," Carter said. "So I get the general feeling that most people just do not watch the three plus hours which I do."\nAlthough Carter manages to keep up with his schoolwork while maintaining his TV-habit, many students cited academics as a reason for not watching too much TV. However, some professors don't believe having the television on necessarily effects students' school work.\nTelecommunications professor Annie Lang said the effects of television on homework generally are minimal. Although a student might finish only two assignments instead of three, studies show it will not affect the outcome of the final grade, she said.\nAlthough recorded figures and students' opinions might not quite match, statistics typically reflect the quantity rather than the quality of the television students are viewing. \n"If we keep the quality of television watching in mind along with researchers' claims about the quantity, a whole different picture of television's social uses starts to emerge," Striphas said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ryne Shadday at rshadday@indiana.edu.