Study suggests Canadians spend 6x more time using the internet than reading magazines

A study of media use by the international communications company Fleishman Hillard suggests that Canadians are just about at the median when it comes to such activities as reading magazines, internet access and listening to music. The international survey was clearly intended to study internet use compared with other media, and it does, but the comparison across several countries suggests some interesting variations.

Clearly, the internet is the most impactful medium, says the study, called the Digital Influence Index. Impact is measured not only by the amount of times spent but also the relative importance they attribute to that medium. 

•  On average, individuals across the 7 countries measured, including Canada, spent around 13 hours a week online, not including e-mail. The Chinese spent the most (15 hours), the Japanese the least (11 hours) and the Germans spent the lowest per cent of their weekly media time online. Canada spends at the high end, about 13.1 hours. 
• Canadians spent 2.2 hours a week reading magazines, compared wtih China (3.1), Germany (2.6), the U.S. (2.2), the UK (2.1), Japan (2.0) and France (1.9).
• The most time spent on e-mail per week is 4.6 hours in the U.S., compared with 4.2 in the UK, 4.1 in Canada, 3.6 in Germany, 3.3 in China, 3.2 in Japan, 3.1 in France.
• Watching television is 15.5 hours in the UK, 14.1 in Canada, 14.0 in the U.S. 13.1 in the U.S., 12.0 in Japan, 10.8 in France and 6.7 in China.
• Canadians are the champs when it comes to playing offline video games: 4.5 hours a week, compared with 4.3 in the UK, 4.0 in China, 3.8 in France, 3.8 in Gramany, 3.6 in the U.S., 3.0 in Japan

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The report indicated the relative importance of various information services to respondents and, in Canada, advice from family, friends and colleagues came out a strong number one (28%) and magazines came out at 5%. The internet came out at 21%.

The research was carried out by Harris Interactive based on a comprehensive 15-minute online survey among a representative sample of 4,243 internet users in China, the U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingsom. (Some caution must be taken in assessing the data since it was garnered from panels that had already been assembled for other purposes by Harris and since it reflects the view of people who skew in as internet users.)