My Personal Media Use and Production Diary

Media in the modern, technologically driven 21^st century is a large part of society that has influenced the way we act and perceive things, the way we receive and share information and how we spend our time, both at work and leisure. The world has become attached to technology and the media that is broadcasted from it. In this Media Use and Production Diary, I will discuss how I use and produce media, identify trends that emerge when comparing my media-usage to others and analyse how these trends and my usage of media influence my relationship to Journalism and Communication.

Over the period of ten days my personal media use and production was recorded, showing the amount of time I spent in contact with media platforms. As shown in graph 1, a lot of my leisure time is used for entertainment, not on the internet. My lifestyle has an effect on why this is. Most of the hours in the entertainment category coming from the hours I spend listening to my iPod each day, because I catch public transport to and from University and to work, I spend travel time listening to it. On Saturdays, with my job of being a rowing coach, it means that I am traveling to and from the Sunshine Coast for competitions and am often too tired to do much else aside from rest and listen to music on breaks. This can be seen in table 1 where I spent Saturday, 10^th of August, listening to my iPod for 6 hours. Because of how much time I spend listening to my iPod, this also effects how often I listen to the radio, which is usually one or two days a week for nothing more than an hour.

Graph 1 and table 1 also depict that I spend a lot of time on the internet for personal uses. I watch several hours of streamed television shows on the internet each week, this is because I do not have Foxtel at home, and generally dislike most television shows on free-TV. In my opinion, the shows that I enjoy watching, for example HBO’s Game of Thrones, as well as several animes (Japanese animation) that only appear on television in other countries, Foxtel or online streaming, before their release onto DVDs. I also access websites, such as IGN.com and DeviantArt because they play a large part in staying connected about the latest news to do with some of my hobbies, like console and computer gaming. These these hobbies play a big part in my life and I am able to stay in contact with several friends I have made through them, especially through blogs and personal messaging on DeviantArt.

It can also be seen, especially in table 1, that I spend several hours on social networking sites, generally these sites are usually accessed via my phone almost daily as well. This is because of how easy it is to access, the Facebook app was the first thing I installed on my SmartPhone and it has been incredibly useful. Sometimes I opt for messaging someone through Facebook instead of text messaging as it can be a simpler way to invite them to events or send documents to them. It is also a relaxed and easy way for me to stay in contact with several of my cousins.

MEDIA	Aug. 6th (Mon)	Aug. 7th (Tue)	Aug. 8th (Wed)	Aug. 9th (Thu)	Aug. 10th (Fri)	Aug. 11th (Sat)	Aug. 12th (Sun)	Aug. 13th (Mon)	Aug. 14th (Tue)	Aug. 15th (Wed)
Television	0.5	0	0	0	0.5	1	0.5	0	0	0
Radio	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Newspaper (not online)	0.5	0.5	0	0.5	0	0	0.25	0	0.5	0
Magazine	0	0	0	0	0	0.25	0	0	0	0
iPod	3	2	4	2	3	6	3	2	2	4
Facebook	2	1	1	0	1	0	2	2	1	1
DeviantArt	0.5	0	0	0	0.25	0	1	0	1	0
Tumblr	0	1	0	0	0.5	0	0.5	0	0	1
Youtube	1	0	0	2	3	0	1	1	0	0.5
Ebay	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.25	0	0	0
IGN.com	0.5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
TV Programs (streamed online)	0	0	0	2	0	3	0	1	0	1
Online Newspapers	0	0.5	0	0	0	0	0.5	0.25	0	0
Email (incl. MyUQ)	1	0.5	0	0.5	0	0	0.25	0	0.5	0
SmartPhone Usage (total, incl. internet access)	1	1	0.25	1	0	0.5	0.25	0	1	1
Assessment – Blogging - Research	0.5	0	1	0	1	0	3	1	0	3

 Table 1: Shows the approximate amount of time I spent accessing media and its sources.

 

 Graph 1: Shows a comparison of the typed of media I used across the recorded 10 days.

 Print media isn’t a particularly large part of my life; this is because most of the news feeds I read are shared through Facebook and other social networking sites. I don’t read many magazines; this is because I usually don’t care much for their content. Gossip magazines are not what I find particularly interesting though it is aimed at my age group. Newspapers I tend to read are online, such as brisbametimes.com.au, and since beginning JOUR1111 I have been accessing The Australian Online through the UQ Library website. However, I do read MX Brisbane almost every weekday as it offers entertainment on the bus ride home after work or University. 

Comparing the data I have collected about myself with the data collected by surveying the JOUR1111 students, I fit under the same general categories as most of the other students. I am part of the 95.8% that has one Facebook account and uses it regularly and since starting JOUR1111 and signing-up for a Twitter page to create a JOUR1111 Twitter community, I was part of the 52.1% of the students that didn’t have an account before then. Similarities can also be seen between the amount of time I spend accessing the internet and what I do on the internet, like social networking and watching streamed TV shows, with a large number of people in the course, this can be seen in table 2 and table 3 taken from the JOUR1111 survey. 

 

Table 2: Graph of data taken from JOUR1111 survey, depicting what the students taking the course do online.

I connect with Journalism and Communications through the way I access media; this is predominately through Facebook as information is so accessible through newsfeeds. However, I was not as socially connected before JOUR1111 as I did not have Twitter where I now have easy access to the latest news from online newspapers and an easy way to discuss and follow the things that interest me. Before JOUR1111 I was one of the many people worldwide who knew about blogging, read and followed several blogs, but I never tried writing my own. I think that since starting JOUR1111 I have become closer to journalism and media, expanding the ways I produce, view and hear about media. The connection I have to journalism has become a much more dominant part of my life as I grow more and more aware of the new online world we have on the World Wide Web.

In conclusion, the way I access, use and produce media is based on my lifestyle. Overall it follows the general trends of JOUR1111 students, accessing social networking sites for news more frequently than traditional media. Since starting my studies in journalism, my exposure to news through sites, such as Twitter, blogs and online newspapers has expanded and I believe it will continue to expand.