Media Consumption and Emotional Regulation: A Digital Data Story

April 6th, 2025

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8659a6_f6ddaa0a559b4dce93f09491046b525c/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

"A Data Story About the Link Between Media Consumption and Emotional Regulation"

Throughout the semester, CTS2010 allowed me to thoroughly explore the various contexts surrounding the microphone. Through my map and timeline assignment, I felt I had gained such a deep understanding of the technology that I struggled to find a new topic that felt equally engaging. The contexts of live performance and political use were especially compelling, making it difficult to choose something that could match that level of interest. Eventually, I landed on the topic of how media arts can impact mental health.

After much reflection, I've come to realize that the question of whether media consumption serves as a tool for emotional regulation is one that has already been explored extensively and is supported by a significant amount of existing research. At the time I created my survey, I believed that examining the links between music and mental health would lead to an insightful data story. However, in hindsight, I regret not diving into more nuanced or complex topics related to my chosen technology, as many of my classmates did.

That’s not to say I’m not proud of my final result. Video editing is a tedious and time-consuming process, and I believe the final project turned out to be engaging, despite the limitations of what I could do with the data. I decided to go with a “YouTube-style” analysis, featuring a (hopefully) engaging voiceover and upbeat soundtracks. I aimed to include bits of humour throughout, while still keeping the content educational and effectively highlighting how my classmates use media to influence their emotional state.

"Video editing timeline" by Peter Stumpf, via Unsplash.

To ensure that my project still included elements of the microphone, I created a short introduction simulating the beginning of a live vocal performance. This not only tied back to the technology, but also reiterated my love for music and the performing arts, an interest that has been central to all my previous work. I felt that explicitly referencing the microphone throughout the video wouldn’t have blended well with my findings and might have made the objective harder for viewers to follow. Instead, I worked around this by subtly incorporating the microphone through brief, intentional snippets using stock footage from Envato Elements. If I were to do it again, I’d definitely choose a topic that allowed me to focus more directly on the microphone itself, rather than on a related context that drew attention away from it. I want this experience to serve as a reminder to not let every ambitious idea take over, and to stay grounded in a clear and focused narrative.

"Simple microphone shot on the stage" by Matthias Wagner, via Unsplash.

I also wanted to briefly address the limited use of scholarly sources in my video. As I mentioned in the introduction, there are already numerous studies that explore aspects of my research question, or even answer it entirely. I felt that relying too heavily on outside research would leave little room for me to offer my own meaningful contribution. In that sense, this project became a valuable learning experience, as it pushed me to get creative with my approach and transform relatively basic information iznto something entertaining and engaging through visualization. That being said, I did still reference an article from the Journal of Advertising Research about how watching television can influence emotion, as I felt it added some scholarly weight without overpowering the personal nature of the piece.

Overall, while I feel that I did the best I could, what I have taken away from this assignment is the importance of carefully thinking through my research argument before starting a data analytics project. I definitely struggled with having too many ideas and not enough time to fully develop them. In my dataset assignment, I mentioned that there were aspects of my survey I wish I had paid more attention to, such as including more questions about positive emotional regulation rather than focusing mainly on coping mechanisms for mental health challenges.

I want to emphasize that the limitations I encountered were not necessarily due to the survey design itself, but rather the research question I chose. In hindsight, I could have written more effective survey questions if I had been clearer about what I wanted to learn. The biggest mistake I made was not selecting a more nuanced or complex topic that could have supported a deeper and more meaningful analysis.

"Notebook work with statistics on sofa business" by Lukas Blazec via Unsplash.

Regardless of my concerns, I’m leaving this class with more research knowledge than I had before, and I’ll definitely make sure to put more thought into the research component of future projects so that my creative output can be even stronger. I also came out of this experience a better editor and now have another project under my belt using Adobe Creative Cloud platforms. And in the future, I promise to invest in a better microphone (because the sound quality could definitely use some work!) 

I hope you enjoyed coming along this journey with me. This is Melissa, signing off!