Assessment 1 - Media Use Diary

Olivia's Media Use & Production Diary

Jour1111 - Assessment 1

   

Media. I has come to be extremely prevalent in my life and I didn’t realise just how much so until I recorded its use and production over a ten day period. I also had reservations as to what the results would show when comparing my media consumpition and production results as opposed to those of my peers, the stereotypical tech-savvy generation.

MEDIA USE DIARY

Figure 1 - Media Use (min)

Figure 1 - Media Use (min)

Firstly I find the amount of television the data shows I watch quite surprising. Just under 15 hours over 10 days seems huge for me. I don't consider myself a big television consumer. It is poignant, however, to take into consideration the fact the majority of my viewing was the Olympics. It certainly impacted my results as generally I like to watch the news headlines and certain current affairs shows including Landline and 60 minutes and not alot else.  

Despite this, comparatively to the 67.3% of the JOUR1111 cohort who listed they watch 1 or more hours of T.V most days, I do not watch a lot of television even with the increase in hours the Olympic Games had.

My pattern of tuning into the news and certain shows is definately a behaviour which has been influenced by my parents who play the news at home from about 5:30pm onwards. Having moved out recently has meant my own television consumption in this respect has decreased although I do, as I mentioned, like to watch it when I can.

Figure 2 - Media Use Visual Comparative Graph

The other medium I spend the most of my time using, which figure 2 shows, is social networking, in particular the site Facebook. As with 95.8% of my JOUR1111 peers, I have one Facebook account to which the majority of my networking time is dedicated.

 

Personally, I use it to keep up to date with my friends, particularly those who live overseas. Due to its nature, it does enable the occasional bits and pieces of news items but for the most part it is not where I tend to retrieve my dose of worldly issues.

I am particularly interested in telling people's stories in a journalistic sense and feel this media interaction is a reflection of that. I enjoy communicating with people about their lives and sharing views and opinions and thus find Facebook a convenient way through which to reach many people.

Whilst unlike 102 of the JOUR1111 participants, I did have a Twitter account before the commencement of this course, however I cannot admit to knowing how it worked or ever using it.

 

MEDIA PRODUCTION DIARY

Figure 3 - Media Production Diary (#)

As my media production diary and the graph below both make evident, I have a much more expansive and greater level of media use than production. This is what I expected the results would show before I began, not only for me but the vast majority of the JOUR1111 class.


Figure 4 - Media Production Visual Comparative Graph (#)

As the survey and my own data supports, generally people's relationship with media is one based on take, not so much give, terms. Almost 62% of the 167 people who responded said they didn't have either a Twitter account or blog before starting JOUR1111, yet 83% still manage to spend 2-6 or more hours on the internet every day. 

It is also interesting to consider my text message production over the ten day period. Whilst it isn't entirely a true representation of my average texting due to the fact that I ran out of credit mid way through, I do not find that I am an overall excessive text messager. I regard my phone as a means of necessary communication and tehrefore perform the bare minimum communication on it as possible so as to conserve money.

Whilst it is a relatively cheap form of communication, I prefer to use my mobile to make calls to home. This is indicative of my preferred choice of communication between people, conversing and face to face contact rather than through virtual means.

I also regard the fact I did not get my first phone until the beginning of this year as having an effect on this. It allowed me to develop a healthy, independence in relation to communication and media and as a result I do not rely heavily upon my phone as my primary communicative means.

This is shown when examining the survey as I am only 1 of 35 out of 167 who do not have an internet enabled smart phone which in turn means I do not have access to any of the apps they offer either. 

Unlike my JOUR1111 counterparts, my main source of news is not online ''newspapers''. Rather, I prefer to watch the news headlines on television, read paper newspapers or listen to the radio -old media. My radio consumption has been all but eliminated since moving however, hence it not being included in my media diary.

Main News Sources

Overall I feel my relationship with media and communication greatly reflects my personality and interests, as well as the behavioural environment I have grown up around. I enjoy communicating with people and keeping up to date with the current local and world news as well as listening to others' perspectives on them. Whilst I don't think I over use media it certainly contributes immensley to satisfying these things and if I were to decide to pursue a career in journalism I think I would need to become even more adept in it.