My Media Use And Production Diary!

The Task:

For a period of 10 days we were asked to log our personal media use and production. This will allow myself to evaluate my personal relationship with Journalism and Communication.

The Execution: 

	Audio		TV	Internet			Mobile	Press
	Ipod	Radio	(All)	Social Networks	Research/ University	Other: eg Banking, TVlinks	Calls & Texts	(All types)
12/03/12	445			125	35		66	10
13/03/12	10	10	90	250	360	70	78
14/03/12	460		60	60			56	5
15/03/12	25		90	380	300	45	76
16/03/12	10	12	30	390	20		102
17/03/12	15	6		75		110	72	20
18/03/12	10			130	150	25	58
19/03/12	400			240	20	10	60	10
20/03/12	6	10		125	320	42	100
21/03/12	425		60	355	10		52	5
Total:	1806	38	330	2130	1215	302	720	50
Minutes:	1844		330	3650			720	50

Out of the 240 hours of the recording of my Media use and Production, a whopping 110 of those hours were spent engrossed in the different types of media. This information alone shows the immediate interaction I have on a day-to-day basis with media. It is interesting to see that 61 of those hours was spent on the internet. However through a survey conducted of 436 University students by The University of Queensland JOUR1111, I am not the only one spending large amounts of time on the internet on a daily basis. These were the results:

  So why are so many of us turning to the internet as one of our main forms of media? What  

    about the old media? Through an analysis of my results I will establish some answers to these questions.

The information from these two charts illustrate two main points about my connection with Journalism and Communication:

1)       The underlying most important factor of the relationship between media and its users is  

       convenience      

2)      It is mainly used to connect an individual to its wider community/world – remember:      

      connection works both ways

It is clear from these results that around half of my media use is spent on the Internet. Even further, that almost 3 quarters of that time is spent on social networks.  Though it seems, I am not the only one whose media-use shows a similar result, once again these results are from a survey conducted by the University of Queensland JOUR1111 co-ordinators: 

Through reflecting over my dossier, and the survey results of my class, I have discovered the main uses for using media are: staying connected, news, organisation, entertainment and buying/selling items.

The reason my internet use is noticeably much larger then the other types of media is because not only does it allow me to stay connected to the world, but the connection works both ways, and allows the world to stay connected to me.  Another major influence is convenience. Through just  the one type of media, Internet, I can access components of nearly every type of media available.

This type of media has adapted to my needs and wants as a user and it allows me to hear the world’s opinions, and to express my own. 

1.      Staying connected to people via social networks, it allows me to voice my opinion and to stay up-to-date with my personal world  

2.      News: Online news is becoming more and more popular as it is free, easily-accessible, up-to-date and there are various versions of the stories and events happening around the world

3.      To keep organised: events, reminders e.g. birthday reminders on Facebook

4.       Entertainment: music, video clips, movies, TV shows, information on entertainment

5.       Buying/selling items: ebay, online classifieds etc, all offering a larger variety of online shopping  

This is similar for other new media such as smart phones which offers their users countless benefits with everyday tools e.g. internet, iPod,  text messaging, calls. They offer more in one easy location. This has had a negative effect on the old types of media, which only serve one purpose, to report the news, whereas, the ‘new media’ is interactive and intertwines journalism and communication. This is reflected in my use of the ‘old media’ or should I say lack-there-of. The most popular and successful types of media are those, which adapt to suite the people’s wants and needs, the ‘new media’. People interact with media when it is convenient and because it is now a major form of communication. 

The communication side of things:  


An extremely important point to note is that my two most frequently and regular used (everyday basis) media, as shown in my dossier, are both tools for communication e.g. my mobile and social networks. My relationship to media is largely influenced by communication and to connecting to others. Humans like to feel that their opinions matter and they want them to be heard, which intertwines with the media production side of this assignment. We communicate with the world by different types of media. Here is my media production over the 10 day period:  

Type:	Production	Total production:
Facebook	1 photo post, 53 Facebook posts	54 Facebook posts
Blogger	6 blog posts, 12 photos posts, 1 video post	19 Blogger posts
Twitter	4 tweet posts	4 Twitter posts
Phone	279 text messages	279 text messages
Email	11 emails	11 Emails

As can be observed above I am a perfect example of a user’s need to communicate with others. The use of my smartphone demonstrates that I prefer to communicate with those I share a personal relationship with; this is done through texting and Facebook.  Media has removed the need for intimate face-to-face ways of communicating to people. Text messaging is the most convenient form of communication. You can communicate with someone using text from within the comforts of your room, to essentially, people all over the world.  To reiterate, it once again comes down to convenience for the user. It is far easier to send a quick text then to call or visit someone. It is far easier to use Facebook to comment or message someone then with physical communication, which is also demonstrated in the above chart. I have had little exposure to the blogging world, though as I am increasingly interacting with it I find that I enjoy expressing my opinion for my follower’s -which is predominantly strangers. I want the world to know what I have to say. The benefits of internet when communicating to the world is not only the ability to have your opinion known, but it gives you the ability to voice your opinion with the option of not being known. It gives one a sense of anonymity. It gives the power of Journalism to anyone, not just those who write for newspapers, or are on TV.   

Therefore, my 2 main key factors of media which directly relates to my relationship with Journalism and Communication is:

1.     Convenience

2.     The ability to connect to my wider world – and for my wider world to connect to me: media is no longer a one sided thing, I no longer just get told, but I can have my own opinion, I can be apart of Journalism through my communication via Media. 

My problem? The solution. 


What could be the problem with my current relationship with Media, consequently Journalism and Communication?

As predominantly of my time is spent on Social networking websites, my mobile,  listening to my iPod etc, my world knowledge is extremely limited to the events happening around me. Whilst you may get the posts on Facebook, Twitter, and even Hotmail news about news events and stories, you only get quick updates rather than the full objective story with all the details. I am very rarely exposed to anything other than social news, or the latest and top stories/gossip. As an aspiring journalist it is extremely important for me to have a better world knowledge and to know about what is happening in places all over the world, and not just the news that directly affects me and my community. My solution to this limited relationship of mine to Journalism and Communication is that I decrease my usage of Facebook, and instead regularly watch the news, or read a newspaper, or even just read the news online through BBC or ABC News etc. Another solution is that I switch to a radio station which covers world events and the latest news instead of listening to my iPod so much. For my smartphone instead of having apps for entertainment I can get apps which give me constant updates with the news and current events.   These are simple solutions which will increase my world knowledge dramatically. These solutions should be promoted to others as I know I am not the only one with this limited world knowledge. People sometimes need the more traditional media to break away from this convenient shell of themselves. While it may not be convenient to go out of your way to watch the news on the television, you will be educated a lot more then if you were to spend that time on Facebook. The world is a big place, so much happens out there that we don't learn about because we are consumed with our own little worlds. This needs to be resolved.