Media Use and Production Diary

Introduction:

Over the course of ten days, I have been recording the various sources and platforms that I gather my news from. The results from this experiment have been quite revealing, and I’ve see a much more news hungry side of me than I ever thought existed. However it was also interesting to see just how I have compared with my fellow class mates and I get the feeling that we do not all see eye to eye on what our predominant media is.

The Results: 

Media use in Minutes Per Day	16/03/2012	17/03/2012	18/03/2012	19/03/2012	20/03/2012	21/03/2012	22/03/2012	23/03/2012	24/03/2012	25/03/2012	Cumulative results
Newspaper (hard copies)	30	0	45	30	20	0	30	15	15	45	230
Radio	0	0	15	0	15	0	0	10	5	0	45
Television	60	60	60	60	75	60	80	65	50	45	615
Smart Phone	35	30	30	25	45	40	20	15	30	25	295
Blogs	15	30	0	0	0	25	15	5	5	10	105
Facebook	30	10	0	15	10	20	5	25	30	15	160
Internet( BBC, Courier Mail, Brisbane times etc)	60	45	50	65	45	45	30	60	55	35	490
Total Minutes											1940

 

 

 

During the 10 days I recorded this information, I have accumulated 1940 minutes of media use, specifically news information. This equates to approximately 1 1/3 days of news absorption. TV was the dominant medium, garnering a whooping 32% of Media consumed, followed by internet news at 25%. Both traditional newspapers and smart phone news got 12% and 15% respectively, but the real winner of my attention was the television. 

Analysis:

 

Over the course of the ten days, I found myself constantly using the same programs and venturing to the same websites everyday, with little variety to spice any of it up. For my TV news, I spent the majority of my time on Channel ten, watching things like The Project, the 5pm news (on occasion) and their new morning show. For internet usage, the main website visited was the BBC, with news on the Syrian Uprising being the one ongoing story I followed most religiously. This evidence suggest, that while I personally believe that old people are creatures of habit, it might just be that we youngsters abuse familiarity just as ferociously.

What did strike me as unusual behavior, at least were I am concerned, is that my use of the internet has significantly increased. While my use of the internet for news came in at roughly 75 minutes a day, my general usage was up at 190 minutes a day, which is more than 3hours!

Evaluation of Media and Production Use:

 

Media Production: 

I thought I would discuss my media production first, because it was the one that struck me as the most unusual. Whilst I've never particularly thought of myself as someone who frequently produces his own media, thinking back over my ten days of recorded information, as well as in the past, I've come to realize that I produce far more than I thought. 

For example, on the day that I've typed this evaluation, I've put out 2 posts on facebook, 3 links on twitter and done some more work on my blogs (more will be up soon, I promise). Along with all this, I've also realized, that during my youth, I actually produced and made my own internet show, as well as some embarrassing clip art videos that can only be described as fan fiction (O the horror). This revelation of sorts, has reawakened my mind somewhat and made me appreciate how simple it is to involve myself in media production, but also on how much I have enjoyed it. For your viewing pleasure, I thought that I would add one of my videos from YouTube. This one was the most popular, so enjoy! Doctor Evil Pants.

Internet (Facebook, Internet News and Blogs):

When I first begun this media diary, I was originally planning on having internet fall under one category, however I found that I frequented 3 main sources so much, that each was actually large enough to form its own category, Facebook, Internet News and Blogs. 

These fields were particularly interesting, because they showed just how similar we are with one another, but how different we are based on the finer details. For example, while I spent a large portion of my time everyday, roughly 3-3.5hours on the net, my time was not spent dominated by Facebook. Rather I caught myself frequenting sites such as the BBC or The Escapist far more often, while facebook languished in the background, fed on nothing but pity checks and likes. I also noticed, that while 32% of the cohort are reading blogs, I never give the light of day to any but a select few, who also constitute the ones I go to for news. 

When it came to news however, I did notice that there were some marked similarities between me and the rest of the cohort. For example, Internet News rated at number 2 with TV gaining a slight edge, which was very similar to my own experience and even though Facebook was one of the things I went to for news the least (falling 5th in percentage), it was still very much the same as the rest of the group, as it finished 4th in percentage. 

In short, I was actually surprised by how many small differences and similarities between us, which just stands to prove that, while we are very similar, we are also very different.

Traditional Media (Newspapers, Radio and Television):

 Over the course of the 10 days, I found myself using far more traditional media than I thought I ever would. Television came in at number one for both my source of media and my source of news, with newspapers only be edged out by smart phones to place 4th in the number of sources for news. Radio was used very sparingly, but due to me not driving and a poor phone battery, I rarely ever go to it.

I found, that the main reason I turn into the TV for news and media so often, was that it provided me with the opportunity to relax and let everything come to me without any sort of mental energy required. It proved that after a stressful day, that it was much easier to turn to something like the Project, because it not only provides information on the events, but a light breezy form of entertainment. I'm not sure whether or not this was the reasoning with the rest of my fellow students, but it was interesting to note that most people gathered their news from TV, with internet, newspaper and facebook falling behind.

In a similar vein, newspapers provided me with a great way to relax on those tedious train rides home and it must be send, while it is a very old person thing to do, I thoroughly enjoyed waking up in the mornings to a nice cup of tea and a Sunday Mail. It seems too, that the rest of the cohort feels the same, because newspapers actually came in significantly higher than I expected in terms of number of readers, mirroring my own with both falling within the top 5 (3 and 4 respectively) of top sources for news, who says traditional media is dead!

Smart Phone:

 This is honestly the form of media that surprised me the most, because I would never consider how much use I actually get out of my phone. What was particularly surprising was that this appears to be something endemic, at least in regards to the rest of Jour1111. For example, in the top sources of news for the grade are, TV, Internet News, Newspapers, Facebook and Radio, while for me, they were TV, Internet News, Smart Phone, Newspapers and Facebook. Even if I were to consider the other category which would likely house Smart Phone news, it comes it at a 3.5%, or 15 people out of 436 people. This news genuinely shocked me, because 15% of all my news was gathered from my phone and I expected everyone else to be in a similar vein.

What was also surprising, was that I use my phone significantly more as a gaming platform than I ever considered. I found myself ideally wasting away hours play games like fruit ninja or Zenonia (yes I'm a nerd) than I did playing actual consoles.

Why Text?

So, seeing as my blog has sat empty and barren for a while now, well more like a couple of days, but going by internet time it’s basically been fossilized, dug up and placed on display at the museum of natural history, so I thought it was high time to actually write something and what better topic to start with than the importance of text. To be more specific, I’m referring to the importance of text in Journalism. Now I’m not necessarily an expert on the topic of text in Journalism, however I do have my own personal bias towards the realm of text, that being I absolutely adore it and was the inspiration for my coming to journalism, so I will have a strong opinion on the topic.

Speaking for myself and possibly regurgitating some of what Skye Doherty (Guest speaker at the most recent lecture) said, text is one of the most wonderful aspects of journalism. It provides the author with near unparalleled creative control of their work, can be worked on literally at any time, from any location (within reason) and most of all it is fun. That may come as a shock to some of our less than savvy writers out there, but I defy you to find a person who hasn’t enjoyed writing at some point in the life, just look at all the Fan Fiction writers.

Text in journalism is one of those amazing things that are more of a hybrid field, rather than something completely unique, combining elements of creative writing and informative writing. While some may say informative writing and journalism are one in the same, I will point out that while studying psychology, little expositions and spurts of flamboyant language were frowned upon and standard simple writing was the norm. To say though, that journalistic text actually has a standard form would be a lie, as the various new fields (and to an extent the old ones) have begun to develop a style that is endemic.

Take hypertext for a moment, the standard writing style for internet based news and a portion of which was talked about during the lecture. As Skye put it during the lecture, hypertext does not follow the standard set up presented by traditional news (tabloids, broadsheets etc.), but rather something unique to the internet. Where a broadsheet would have the most important news starting from the top left, hypertext can begin and appear based on what the site is partial to. 

For example, in a story on the Brisbane Times website, the main story will usually contain not only information on the topic, but links to other related news and other significant stories adorning the sides, steadily becoming less important as you scroll down the screen. Other websites, such as the BBC, will not only occupy their paragraphs with some other suggested media, but have archives of nearly every other piece of news based on that topic that can be found and in many cases, create individual timelines to provide the reader with a clear and linear path to obtaining that information, less they want to be the man who jumped in the deep before he learnt how to swim.

As noted by Skye though, hypertext or at least the headlines, have to be slightly closer to the letter, to make it easier on the overburdened search engines. This does remove the possibility for such enlightening titles as “Pants down Mr. Brown, Gordon Browns secret shame,” but it does not hamper the stories creativity, though in my opinion a mysterious title has always drawn me in more than say “Gordon Brown caught naked and drunk outside 10 Downing Street,” I don’t know, that might just be me. 

For me that part that stood out was that the various ways in which text is delivered, require different tactics and different means of presentation as opposed to the just one. For example, when writing for a broadsheet, one must apply the standard method that journalists have honed for years, catchy headline, overt picture, tantalising intro and a strong story that elaborates on the already enticing intellectual feast. When the same story is then transferred across to an online version though, everything has to change. A new straight mans headline must be contrived, new body of text that gets to the point, then elaborates on the final details and in general a smaller more concise piece literature. The same intro can be used but that really will be all that remains of the carcass that was once the headline story. 

As it stands though, text is one of the most integral parts of journalism and its significance cannot be understated. Skye did a wonderful job of explaining what it means to work in text Journalism and based on other lectures, this was one of the most enjoyable.