Assignment One: Media Use Journal

Although I was already aware of the obscene amount of time I waste on different types of media, having to log it for ten days really opened up my eyes more. I'm sure that I should have maintained my media use accordingly to how much I would usually use it. But after working out on the first day, the 7^th, that I managed to spend 7 hours using media but doing nothing productive, and had worked for 5 hours that day, I made a very conscious decision to try to cut back the time I was on the internet and watching TV. I am hoping this change will continue now that I have finished my media diary, and so far, it is.

Figure 1 illustrates my time, in minutes (except for texting); spent on the four categories all my media use can be broken into. These are social networking, such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, texting, internet use and watching TV and movies. As previously mentioned there is a drop in most media use following the first day, with an exception to the 9^th and the 14^th. The only major factor that alters my media use is work, for example, on the 12^th I worked 12.5 hours, so aside from the amount of texts I sent and received, which was consistent throughout the ten days, my time on the internet and watching TV significantly dropped.

Figure Two graphs my total time, in hours, over the ten days using various forms of media in comparison to the average of these times. This graph reinforces the point that my media use follows no real pattern and holds no real consistency as it varies so much from the average.

The only two types of media that I used that haven’t been included in my diary are listening to music and using my computer for things other that the internet or watching movies. The reason for this is that I use them too much, more so in regards to music. The only times I don’t listen to music is at work, in university lectures and tutorials, and only occasionally when around friends. The only things I used my computer for was logging my media use each day/every couple of days and writing another assignment.

In the survey most people submitted, the amount of time the majority of people, 24.8%, claimed they spent on the internet per day was between 3-4 hours, and 27.9% of people said they watched around 1-2 hours of TV a day. Figure Three compares these two answers with my use of internet and TV over the ten days. It can be seen there is no real pattern between my use and the results of the survey, some days I spend a lot more than the majorities estimate and other days I spend a lot less time online or watching TV.

I don’t think my media use follows and kind of pattern, particularly in regards to journalism. The only types of media I used in the ten day period that relate to journalism or communications are Facebook, Twitter, and I only saw the news and the Olympics when they were already on the TV, as I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to turn them on. I think this is something I need to work on, not just to help contribute more to this course but to broaden my knowledge of what is happening outside my own bubble.

Lecture 2: New News

Lecture two was about the new types of news. We began by looking at the old types of media such as newspapers, magazines and radio, and then progressed through the different types of the web (Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0). Web 1.0 was the first kind of internet where the focus was on companies and was advertisement friendly. Web 2.0 was the start of the social web, with sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, narrowing the focus to social groups. The focus of Web 3.0 is on the individual, particularly due to the use of smart phones. From here, the question of what this wil mean for the news was raised. The two main points were hyperlocalisation, where one can narrow their news intake from areas such as entertainment and sporting to news in relation to the area they live in and specific content delivery. The advantages listed for specific content delivery were the ability to limit what news a person views to their preferences and through this, advertising companies will be able to advertise certain products to an audience who will be more susceptible to this product. The disadvantage, which I believe outweighs the advantages, are the realistic potential for ignorance. For example, if one only consumes celebrity gossip ‘news’, it is unlikely they will ever hear or see much of more important news subjects such as elections, war and other social problems that may effect their lives.

The lecture also covered the new trend many online newspapers are following of making people pay for their news. When I first heard this, I thought it was a bit stupid and although through the rest of the lecture I understood the reasoning behind it, it was not until I was explaining this concept to a friend that I fully understood why newspapers are justified in charging for online news. As Dr Redman pointed out through a creative demonstration, once a person or group of people have been given something they believe they are entitled to it, when in fact they are not, they hold the belief that they should continue to be entitled to it. In my opinion, charging people to read the news does have one particular large disadvantage, what if people stop reading the news. I have never bought a news paper in my life, and I am sure neither have many others, so what if charging for online news stops people being involved in the news?

Lecture 1

Unfortunately, I missed the first lecture, I did not realise my stupidity until the second lecture and witnessed what a great speaker Dr Redman is, but here is my summary after watching it on lectopia. Unlike most lectures in week one, that only offer a summary of the course I most likely could have read in the course profile, Dr Redman jumped straight into different peoples opinions on journalism. From Philip Graham’s inspiring belief that “journalism is the first draft of history” to Edward Eggleston’s cynical opinion that “journalism is organised gossip” it can be identified that due to the many differing types of journalism there are a wide variety of opinions on the significance of journalists. Often when I think of journalism the phrase ‘dying art/career’ springs to mind, but now I can see that it is not journalism that is dying, it is just as it expands through the ever changing forms of technology that types of journalism, such as print newspapers, may be slowly dying out. The lecture also covered the difference between studying journalism and doing journalism, plus reasons for studying journalism even if one is not interested in becoming a journalist. From this lecture, I can tell JOUR1111 is going to be a fun, and somewhat challenging course this semester, and I am looking forward to expanding my horizons and learning many new things.

Introduction to my blog

I am currently studying Arts this year with the hope that by the end of it I will miraculously know what career I want to follow. I am relatively certain that I want to be a journalist, hence my choice of JOUR1111, but I am not sure what kind of journalist. As with most 19 year olds or at least the ones I know, my career path choices always change. At the moment, I think I want to get involved in fashion journalism but this has bought me to a place where I am questioning what journalism is. Is it any kind of reporting, about anything? When I was young if someone had of asked me what I thought journalism was I would have just assumed it referred to a man or woman who reported news stories for a newspaper. Not tabloid magazines, just your basic finance, world or local news. As I've gotten older I understand that those who report news on the TV are journalists, those that seem to find glee in reporting on the trials and tribulations of the rich and famous are journalists, there are journalists for online papers, freelance journalists and I am sure many others that I have yet to encounter. I'm beginning to realise that with journalism, stories don’t always fit into black and white categories, and through this course I'm hoping to not only be able to make a solid choice on my future career path but to gain a better understanding of what journalism is and what it entails.