Knowledge-based resources and their international exchange become more and more important. In 2006, the European heads of states and governments decided to make the European Union (EU) the “most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world” (European Commission, 2006). To achieve this goal, information and communication technologies (ICT) are essential. At least since this agreement, media competence is considered a necessary key skill for professional life.

Especially employees with an academic background are expected to be able to use modern ICT in a professional manner within their daily work and, with regard to interactive internet technologies, new requirements arise in many occupational fields (Schmidt-Hertha et al., 2011). But how are young professionals getting prepared for these new challenges and where do they learn the professional handling of the different devices? In Germany – as this might be true for many other countries as well – media competence and the use of ICT is neither a separated school subject nor taught in regular university courses. Even if the use of ICT is promoted in different subjects in school, what students learn about media mainly depends on the teachers’ personal interest and qualification because of this lack of regulation. According to previous studies, media literacy is first of all acquired in informal settings, e.g. in families and peer groups (Notten, Kraaykamp and Konig, 2012). Beyond that, it seems that media skills acquired during leisure time are hardly ever transferred to university contexts (Schulmeister, 2009). In addition, students start their university studies with very different levels of knowledge and skills related to media (Clauson et al., 2013). In the field of higher education students are then expected to use digital media for different study-related tasks such as conducting desktop research, creating and giving presentations or using the computer for communication (Stauder, 2013). In addition, they are expected to be familiar with all relevant kinds of ICT applications. Although it is not clear so far to what extend university studies contribute to the development of media literacy and – even more important – if they are able to prepare students to make use of ICT in their professional life. However, there is a strong consensus on the necessity of media competence for using digital media efficiently (Hesse et al., 2006; Kerres and Voß, 2006). But how exactly are students using different digital devices and in which context does this usage take place?

Previous studies have primarily concentrated on the period of media use of students within the context of university studies or of students in general. Such investigations show that students extensively use digital media and more intensively than other user groups (e.g. Kleimann et al., 2008; Margaryan et al., 2011; Waycott et al., 2010). Even though, there are significant differences between various subjects of study (Schmidt-Hertha and Rott, 2014). So far, it has not been investigated whether students use media context-specific in different ways. In a recent research project, we tried to gain some insights into students’ development of media literacy and the changes in media use during the course of students’ university studies. We investigated students’ media usage of students during an average week in the middle of the semester with the help of semi-standardized media diaries to examine students’ context-specific media habits.

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