As a journalism student, maintaining an
avid personal interest in media, current affairs and social networking is
important in the process of understanding the avenue of study as well as the
relationship my personal media use has with the fields of journalism and
communications. Over a period of ten days I recorded my media use and
production of online, print and portable media, which I have compared to the
results of students in my course to analyse my own relationship with journalism
and communications.
In accumulating the information I have outlined
a distinction between media ‘use’ and media ‘production.’
The figures in highlighted green represent
media use, whilst those that are blue represent production. (Note: graph plotted in minutes)
Date
|
Newspapers
|
Magazines
|
Radio
|
Facebook
|
email
|
Online browsing
|
Instagram
|
Blog
|
Twitter
|
Online News
|
Music
|
TV
|
14/03/12
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
120
|
5
|
70
|
30
|
30
|
0
|
20
|
0
|
0
|
15/03/12
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
40
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
60
|
0
|
0
|
120
|
20
|
16/03/12
|
45
|
0
|
30
|
30
|
10
|
40
|
10
|
20
|
10
|
60
|
0
|
0
|
17/03/12
|
0044
|
10
|
110
|
60
|
10
|
90
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
30
|
40
|
0
|
18/03/12
|
30
|
60
|
0
|
10
|
20
|
60
|
10
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
19/03/12
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
30
|
0
|
30
|
10
|
60
|
5
|
30
|
60
|
10
|
20/03/12
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
120
|
5
|
60
|
0
|
90
|
60
|
20
|
21/03/12
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
60
|
0
|
120
|
10
|
20
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
22/03/12
|
0
|
0
|
90
|
30
|
0
|
120
|
5
|
30
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
23/03/12
|
0
|
0
|
140
|
5
|
5
|
10
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
TOTAL
|
75
|
70
|
370
|
390
|
50
|
660
|
85
|
340
|
15
|
230
|
280
|
70
|
Production – Constructing media e.g. posting photos online, sending emails or blogging.
The results of my media use and production
where as follows:
As you can see, the results indicate that a
majority of my time is spent browsing online (25%), followed by Facebook (15%),
Radio (14%) and then Blogging (13%).
Analysis
Online Browsing
What: General web
searching, reading University material, reading articles, looking at artwork.
When: 1 hour a day
on average, using either my laptop or Iphone.
Media use or
produce: Use
Analysis: I use
the internet on a daily basis for keeping up to date with my university
studies, reading materials online, looking at sites of interest (e.g. art work,
sport, fashion) and general browsing. My online browsing consists strictly of
usage rather than production. According to the group survey results, the
majority of our cohort utilizes the internet for 2-3 hours per day, my
individual results present that I use the internet for approximately 1-1.5 hours
each day, aligning me with 22.5% of the group. Whilst my hourly use for general
browsing is not concurrent with the majority of students I have noticed a
rising trend in my daily use, which can be attributed to my growing interest in
current affairs and ‘blog browsing’ since commencing this course. Examining the
group survey results for Journalism 1111, the majority of students (51.1%) fall
within the age bracket of 17-18 year olds, meaning that as members of Generation
Z or the “Net Generation” we have experienced a lifelong use of media and
communications technologies and ubiquitous internet access– which explains my
dependence upon online browsing versus the use of magazines and traditional
forms of print media.
Facebook
What: General
browsing of news feed, instant messaging, connecting with friends and soceities
via groups.
When: Ranging from
30 mins to 2 hours per day
Media use or
produce: Predominantly use, sometimes producing e.g. uploading photos/videos
Analysis: In terms
of statistics I only operate one facebook account, which complies with the
majority (94.7%) of the Journalism cohort who undetook the survey.
Predominantly, my Facebook usage is utilized for keeping up to date with social
and cultural activities within the Residential College I live in, wherein our
College Facebook Group is the primary form of communication. I also use
Facebook to communicate with students within my courses, for example the “First
Year Law” group, which often acts as a study aid and communal ground of sorts
for questions and brainstorming. I have noticed that since I commenced living
on campus my Facebook usage has increased significantly (ranging up to 2 hours
per day) due to my reliance upon it for keeping up with the community I live in,
in comparison to the 91.9% of students who spend a majority of their online
time ‘facebook-ing.’ Whilst I do spend a significant amount of time on
Facebook, I rarely use it for instant messaging or contacting friends for large
periods of time. Unlike 95.4% of the students who undertook the survey, I do
not have a Facebook application on my Iphone, meaning my usage of the social
network is limited to my laptop. It’s intruiging to observe not only my own,
but other student’s dependence and subtle obsessions with Facebook which is a
constituent of a wider global pattern in inernet and social network usage over
the last decade. Facebook Addiction Disorder, colloquially known as FAD is
becoming increasingly prominent amongst users, with US psychologist estimating
that approximately 350 million people worldwide are addicted.
Radio
What: Listening to
music, listening to the news, listening to Hack on Triple J.
When: Travelling
to and from work, at work and driving generally. Occasionally I listen to Hack
online.
Media use or
produce: use
Analysis: I
predominantly listen to the radio whilst I work at my part time job, as it
plays throughout my shift. This consists of primarily music and occasionally
news and traffic/sports/weather reports. When I travel to or from work or uni
in my car I always tune in to Triple J, as I find they not only have an
alternative style of music but there news is always of high quality and
relevancy and in particular their ‘Hack’ segment is always engaging. I found
that radio was a form of media that I could ‘switch off’ to and also engage
with. In observing my habits over the ten days I found that if I heard a news
story or interesting comment on the radio, I would google it later to find out
the entirety of the story, which attributed greatly to my “online browsing”
data. The survey results indicate that a majority (53.9%) of the cohort listen
to radio for less than an hour a day. My radio usage is very limited during the
week as I live at College and thus don’t have ready access to the radio,
however on weekends my usage ranged from 2-4 hours per day. My personal results mirrored that of the
majority (82.9%) of students in that I predominantly listen to radio when
travelling in the car. I find it interesting to note that the amount of time I
spend listening to the radio is almost identical to the time I spend on
Facebook, which on a personal level contradicts popular arguments that suggest
that the radio is in decline for my generation.
In observing my media-related behaviour before and after recording my media use diary I have noted that my interest in current news programs and newsworthy radio segments has increased since beginning Journalism 1111, which is evidenced in my increasing amount of time spent researching news.
What: Blogging
Journalism lectures, blogging for interest, reading other blogs of interest.
When: 30mins – 1
hour per day
Media use or
produce: use and produce (blogging and reading blogs)
Analysis: Staitistics-wise
26.9% of students had one blog before beginning the course, before commencing
Journalism 1111, I had a ‘Tumblr’ account however my production for it was
minimal as I predominantly used it as a photo sharing site for a personal
interest in photography. According to the survey 32.4% of students spend a
majority of their online time reading blogs, whilst this does not consume a
majority of my time, I have expereinced a signigicant increase in the amount of
time I spend blogging since commencing this course - whether it be posting my
own ideas and writing or browsing blogs I find interesting.
Blogs I like:
Overall Reflection
The proportions of
my media use and production did not surprise me, if anything I thought my
Facebook use would be much higher! It was also interesting to note the expanse
of radio I listen to without particuarly attempting to. I found that my media
usage was predominantly in the form of “New Media,” as I rarely use print media
resources.
Although I have always strived to maintain an interest and knowledge in current affairs, I have never considered myself a ‘news addict.’ The results for my online browsing, blogging and radio use were all greater than I predicted, which I attribute to a keener interest in news since commencing the journalism course – I now find myself looking up either ‘The Australian’ or ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ on a daily basis. This burgeoning interest with the news and media demonstrates my strengthening relationship with the areas of journalism and communications, I realise that to be an informed and savvy journalism student I have to use media effectively to stay up to date. It was also intruiging to observe the distinction between my ‘usage’ and ‘production,’ wherein blogging and the occassional facebook update where my predominant forms of authentic media production. In noting this, I have made a decision to get back into photography as not only will it add to my blog but will help me develop photography skills that will be useful to my studies in journalism and communications.
In comparison to
other students – 91.9% of which spend their time social networking my results
present a trend away from the Facebook page and towards “online browsing” which
consists primarily of researching news and stories I find interesting.
