Thursday 29 March 2012

JOUR1111- Personal Media Use and Production Diary

My name is Jemma and I am a 17-year-old studying a Bachelor of Arts degree. I decided to study journalism because I have always been interested in the always-transforming nature of the industry. The various different facets of the profession fascinate me and I hope to learn the basic skills of a journalist.

Media Usage Log 

Days
16/03
17/03
18/03
19/03
20/03
21/03
22/03
23/03
24/03
25/03
Total
Facebook
128
30
40
30
45
50
30
50
60
50
513
Online News
15
15
5
5
10
15
10
10
5
5
95
Blogs
3
5
3
2
2
4
5
5
2
2
33
Tumblr
2
2
3
2
5
3
2
1
0
1
21
University
0
0
0
260
120
150
160
120
120
120
1050
Television
180
0
60
180
90
40
50
200
50
60
910
iPhone music & Apps
30
10
20
15
15
15
20
20
10
20
175
Magazines
10
0
0
10
0
10
0
10
10
0
50
Book
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
30
0
0
30
Online TV shows
0
0
0
0
40
0
0
0
43
43
126
Online shopping
10
0
0
0
0
10
10
0
0
0
20
YouTube
10
9
10
12
4
3
4
3
18
4
77
Total
388
71
141
516
331
300
291
449
318
325
3130



Figure 1




Figure 2



After completing a media usage survey for ten days, I have gathered together all of the media outlets I interact with on a daily basis. I learnt a lot about my media usage habits from this task. For example, I was very surprised at the amount of time I spend on Facebook and watching television. These statistics are depicted in Figures 1 and 2. After completing the log, I was astounded because I always thought these types of New Media were a minority in my life. Furthermore, I discovered that I am a student who spends a lot of time on types of New Media and barely any on Old Media. Examples of the difference between are shown in the image below.




In my opinion, the survey that the entire cohort completed was extremely useful for this task. The results in comparison to my results were not surprising. Most students were 17-18 years old, female, had a Facebook account and an Internet-enabled smart phone. My three main contributors of media usage were Facebook, Television and University work. These areas were also extremely common in the survey of the JOUR1111 cohort. My usage of Facebook as a percentage across the ten days was 34% as shown in Figure 2, however it was not the activity I spent the most time doing. Compared with the students who spend 91.9% of their time online on Facebook, my percentage is different. My average time spent watching television per day is 91 minutes. When comparing this statistic with the common figure of the cohort’s usage of 1-2 hours per day, my usage is almost exactly aligned with it. However, the biggest consumer of my time is University work with an average of 105 minutes per day. This statistic differs from the cohort’s score as only 49.5% of students spend most of their time online studying or researching.

After seeing the results from my personal log, I think I use Facebook to excess. I study full time and according to my personal log, I am on Facebook for approximately 8.5 hours over a period of ten days. I have an iPhone and this enables me to be on the Facebook app when I am travelling without a computer. I was really surprised when I saw exactly how much time I was spending on the networking site daily. Primarily because it is a natural instinct to visit Facebook when I open my computer or turn on my phone. 
In light of the past couple lectures, I think my total of 513 minutes on Facebook in ten days reflects the significance of the Semantic Web. It shows that teenagers are constantly online. However, in comparison to my peers, the time I spend on Facebook is average.

Following this media log, I have discovered that my consumption of Television is fairly high. I watched TV a total of 910 minutes in ten days, which is equal to approximately 15 hours. According to Figure 2, television takes up 29% of my time. In my daily routine, I watch television whilst I am eating my breakfast before university. As can be seen from the log, on the weekends I watch a lot because I find it relaxes me. In relation to journalism, this evidence confirms that I have maximum exposure to TV journalism, text and advertising on daily basis. In comparison to the survey taken by my peers, my statistic of around 1.5 hours of television every day falls in the most common category of 1-2 hours for most students.

With reference to the media usage log and the corresponding graphs, university and anything related is the main consumer of my time. The category included lecture and tutorial time and extra study. I study full time so this statistic is not surprising. At the end of every day I study in the afternoons and evenings and also to do some on the weekend to keep up to date with the workload. With university I am exposed to several types of media such as PowerPoint’s and news outlets. My relationship with journalism is strengthened through this routine, as not only am I immersed in media studies, but also my daily life is filled with real-life examples of the industry. In comparison to my fellow peers, 49.5% spend most of their time studying or researching online. Thus, my statistic is a little lower at 34% but is similar in the way that the majority of time is spent on university work.

Overall, I was very surprised at the extent I rely on New Media, in particular social networking. I think this exercise enabled me to see the amount of time I spend on media without thinking and I thoroughly recommend trying it yourselves.




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