Exploring Media's Role in Emotional Regulation

Research question: Can the consumption of media arts act as a tool to improve emotional regulation?

The microphone is the foundation of the media arts we enjoy daily. It captures the essence of the songs we love, whether recorded in a studio or performed live, facilitates the recording of our favorite podcasts and ensures actors' voices are delivered with clarity in shows and films.

From music to movies and podcasts, the microphone is a vital tool that connects us to the media we consume. Whether we’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or just need a moment to relax, media often becomes a go-to outlet to restore emotional equilibrium. This link between media consumption and emotional regulation is what inspired my research as I set out to understand whether my peers also turn to media for the same reasons.

"A woman laying on top of a bed next to a record" by Paige Cody via Unsplash

As a full time university student, it’s no secret that life can get overwhelming. I typically spend the majority of my day tackling my coursework and sometimes forget to practice self-care amid my hectic schedule. Eventually, there comes a moment where I need to close my notebook, take a deep breath and enjoy some well deserved leisure time. More often than not, listening to my favorite songs never fails to lift my spirits when I'm feeling blue. It usually leaves me feeling refreshed and re-energized enough to tackle my remaining tasks, helping me end my day in a productive fashion.

In an attempt to thoroughly investigate this phenomenon, I conducted a cross-sectional survey using Google Forms. As this was my first time creating a survey with the platform, I found it to be an intuitive and user-friendly tool that made the process of collecting responses remarkably straightforward. Most importantly, the platform enabled me to effectively capture key characteristics from a sample set of 15 peers without having to do the work of asking each of them individually. Additionally, I genuinely enjoyed the process of crafting thoughtful survey questions and made a conscious effort to think critically about what I wanted to learn from my sample set. While I encountered some oversights along the way, this experience taught me valuable lessons about how surveys can provide an insightful introduction to the complex world of data analytics!

To gather some general behavioural data, I opted for closed-ended multiple-choice questions about basic media consumption habits. I’m aware that it doesn’t take an entire survey to confirm that university students watch television and listen to music, so this part of the process may have been easier for me than for my peers, whose research questions explored more complex technologies that may not be as widely understood.

Unsurprisingly, the results from these questions aligned with my expectations. Of my 15 respondents, all reported regularly consuming media, having selected the two highest categories. Additionally, considering that 80% of respondents reported consuming media for over three hours per day, it’s clear that media plays a significant role in their daily lives. See Figures 1 and 2 for an overview of participants' media engagement patterns.

Figure 1: Pie chart illustrating the frequency of media engagement. Data collected from the Exploring Your Relationship with Media survey.

Figure 2: Pie chart illustrating participants' media engagement duration. Data collected from the Exploring Your Relationship with Media survey.

Despite these results aligning greatly with my expectations (and likely, yours as well)  they serve as a valuable baseline that will provide greater clarity when I begin to explore the connection between media consumption and self-regulation. 

While the introductory questions may seem to lack depth, their placement was intentional. Jumping straight into questions about stress levels could leave respondents feeling guarded, potentially deterring them from providing thoughtful responses to my open-ended text queries about their personal reasons for consuming media. Since my research question explores elements related to mental health coping mechanisms, I recognize that this topic carries varying levels of sensitivity. I hoped that starting with neutral topics would help ease my peers into the conversation, and I’m pleased to say that this approach proved effective.

As mentioned in the previous section, I included a Likert scale question designed to gauge my peers' general stress levels. Initially, I planned for it to be a five-rank ordered response, but I revised this to reduce the likelihood of fence-sitting. This adjustment was intentional, as I wanted to encourage introspection in the subsequent personal responses. Neutral responses simply would not provide insights that could help me answer my research question.

"Man wearing white top using MacBook" by Tim Gouw via Unsplash

Because this survey was completed by university students, I anticipated that responses would lean toward the higher end of the scale, given the anxiety that often arises during the final weeks of an academic term. My prediction proved accurate, as 13 out of 15 respondents selected one of the two highest options. See Figure 3.

Figure 3: Stress Levels Reported in the Exploring Your Relationship with Media Survey

If I were to conduct this survey again, it would likely have made my life easier to simply ask respondents to describe specifically how media consumption helps them cope with difficult emotions. However, I would still feel somewhat hesitant to ask this directly, as I’d be concerned about making my peers uncomfortable and risking incomplete or skipped responses.

The final questions yielded the most valuable insights of all. The two open-ended response questions, one about how media choices vary depending on emotional state and another about primary reasons for media consumption, provided meaningful and insightful responses. Before we dive into this, I'd like to briefly mention an oversight in the sense that I failed to an open-ended question about positive emotional regulation. While I did ask my peers what type of media they turn to when they want to relax in the form of a multi-select option, I failed to consider whether they even use media as a relaxation tool in the first place. This omission may have unintentionally forced my classmates to select an answer, even if media isn’t part of their relaxation routine.

Fortunately, the open-ended questions helped to fill this gap. Many respondents voluntarily mentioned that they do use media to relax, and their responses included several key terms I was hoping to identify.

"Relaxation, also I like stories."

"TV shows to relax after work and music to get ready/pump me up on the commute to and from work."

"Enjoyment, relieving stress and boredom."

The final question focused on how media preferences vary depending on emotional state. I received some thoughtful responses, many of which explained how media consumption can boost an already positive mood or provide comfort during challenging moments. Surprisingly, the responses were evenly split between positive and negative emotional regulation. Given the growing body of research highlighting the rise of depression among Gen Z and younger millennials, I had expected the majority of responses to describe media as a coping mechanism for poor mental health.

I was pleasantly surprised that, despite my lack of direction in guiding my peers to discuss positive emotional regulation behaviours, the results still addressed both the role of media in enhancing positive moods and in managing negative emotions. They also provided very specific examples of the types of media they turn to and why. One student even mentioned watching video game streamers when feeling sad, which is a form of media I hadn’t given much consideration to when developing my survey.

Sometimes if I'm feeling isolated, I might be more inclined to watch streamers. If I'm sad I'm likely to watch a show. When I'm happy, I might listen to music and read something at the same time.

"Man wearing white top using MacBook" by Florian Olivo via Unsplash

These insights broadened my understanding by introducing perspectives that differ from my own experiences and my passion for music and pop-culture. They also opened up new possibilities for how I might visualize this data to effectively tell a story. While correlation does not imply causation, I can happily acknowledge that from my understanding, media consumption does in fact have a meaningful impact on emotional well-being. My peers provided the thoughtful responses I was hoping for, offering valuable insights to help answer my research question!

Now, I'm new to creating visualizations from datasets, so figuring out how to effectively tell a story with this information will be a learning experience for me. Fortunately, I have work experience in UX design, so I'm quite confident that I will excel at the artistic aspect of this process (in the event that I choose to design an infographic or a poster). I also have some basic charts from the Google Form results, which I can enhance using Flourish or Adobe Creative Suite.

I considered creating a heatmap to compare the Likert scale results on stress levels with the amount of time spent consuming media. While this could reveal an interesting pattern, it only addresses one aspect of my research question, leaving me uncertain about how to represent the full scope of my findings. Looks like I'll need to get creative with my approach. Despite the design flaws in my survey questions, I know that I can make something work.

Although my sample size of 15 students is small, I believe there’s still value in applying some of my data science experience in R Studio to perform a basic correlation analysis. An idea I can potentially explore using my Likert scale results is whether there is a statistical relationship between stress levels and media consumption. Additionally, the individual response section may offer valuable insights, potentially revealing connections between different variables.

The best visualizations for this type of analysis are scatter plots with a regression line, so I’ll do my best to present the findings in a way that’s both visually appealing and easy to understand (even for the less statistically inclined!)

Although a great challenge lies ahead, I’ve already learned so much from designing my survey with Google Forms. I'm excited to continue exploring this nuanced aspect of a technology I’m deeply passionate about. I can’t wait to share my final product. Stay tuned!

"Thank you" via Wix stock images

Works Cited

Blackstone, A. (2012). Chapter 8 survey research: A quantitative technique. Survey research: A quantitative technique. Saylor Academy. https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_principles-of-sociological-inquiry-

qualitative-and-quantitative-methods/s11-survey-research-a-quantitative.html

Cody, P. (2023). A woman laying on top of a bed next to a record. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/a-woman-laying-on-top-of-a-bed-next-to-a-record-eAF5_2E6V0U

Gouw, T. (2016). Man wearing white top using MacBook. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/man-wearing-white-top-using-macbook-1K9T5YiZ2W

Medaris, A. (2023). Gen Z adults and younger millennials are “completely overwhelmed” by stress. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/generation-z-millennials-young-adults-worries

Olivo, F. (2018). Person sitting on gaming chair while playing video game. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/person-sitting-on-gaming-chair-while-playing-video-game-Mf23RF8xArY

Rovnik, V. (2019). Effective charts to show correlation for data reporting. WebDataRocks. https://www.webdatarocks.com/blog/best-charts-to-show-correlation/:

Tuniewicz, M. (2025). Exploring your relationship with media [Google Form]. Google. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsZ759N5XOFazv_szn_5Yj7JbL_YBasUr6yfVBxeT5hoV2Ng/viewform