Process / pipelineIntensive longitudinal self-report methods
Media-Use Diary Method
The media-use diary method has participants record their media use repeatedly over days or weeks, close to when it happens, capturing everyday media behavior in its natural context with minimal retrospective bias. It yields intensive longitudinal data that reveal how media use varies within individuals across time and situations, not just averaged across people.
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Sources
- Bolger, N., Davis, A., & Rafaeli, E. (2003). Diary methods: Capturing life as it is lived. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 579–616. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145030 ↗
- Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (1987). Validity and reliability of the experience-sampling method. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175(9), 526–536. DOI: 10.1097/00005053-198709000-00004 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Diary Method for Studying Media Use. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/communication/diary-method-media-use
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
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