Personal Media use and Production Diary

Where are we today with Media?

Media and technology over the last 20 years has dramatically advanced with the growth of scientific knowledge and understanding. In the late 1900’s, the discovery of “radio waves” triggered the development of the radio and invention of the telephone and mobile phone, which currently provide SMS messaging, radio and Internet access.  In 1995 one of the first social media sites, “theglobe.com” was launched, offering individuals the freedom to publish their personal experiences and interests with others online. Since then, Facebook has become one of the world’s most popular social networks, with over 794 million users for 2012.

	13/3	14/3	15/3	16/3	17/3	18/3	19/3	20/3	21/3	22/3	Total
Online News	-	10	-	-	-	-	10	10	-	-	30
Radio	15	-	-	-	10	10	-	-	-	-	35
Uni Readings	30	20	-	-	-	120	60	30	60	30	350
Novel	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	60	60
Facebook	120	120	60	20	-	30	60	30	20	50	510
Blogs	10	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	20	-	50
Twitter	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	-	-	20
Emails	30	20	20	10	-	25	40	20	30	15	210
SMS	30	20	30	25	30	30	25	30	35	30	285
Phone Calls	150	40	60	40	30	45	70	80	50	30	595
Skype	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	20

The table and pie graph above provide a written and visual illustration of my personal media use and production over a period of ten days. It is clear that my top two most used forms of media are Facebook and Phone Calls. These are some of the simplest forms of communicating with friends and family and are convenient for both parties at any time or place. According to the Journalism survey below, 97% of students own a Facebook account, which demonstrates the high use and popularity of the site. Status updates and posting photos about personal experiences or recent local news on Facebook has become a trendy form of communication, which is why these behaviors have increased. As I am a college resident I always make time to contact family and friends from home, which is why I believe these are my highest media uses.

The media investigation data shows that my two lowest forms of media use are Skype and Twitter. Whilst twitter can be a quick and convenient form of communication, it is difficult to contact people on a personal level, as many people do not own an account. This can be justified in the graph below, as over 67% of Journalism students do not own a Twitter account, in comparison to over 97% having a Facebook account. Furthermore, Skype can be quite inconvenient as it is computer based and both parties are required to be online to communicate.

The pie graph below shows the comparisons between old (red) and new (blue) media usage. It is clear that new media, such as Facebook, SMS and Emailing have been used more frequently then old media, such as Phone calls and Radio. As new media has become more popular among teenagers and young adults, it has expanded to become an everyday essential. New technology such as Smartphones and Tablets enables communication anytime and anywhere cheaply, quickly and conveniently.

The pie graph below displays the comparisons between media (green) and production (blue) usages. It is clear that general media, such as SMS, Skype and Novels have been used more frequently then production media, including Facebook and Emails. This is as, aside from Facebook and emailing, blogs and twitter have had minimal use in comparison as they are less popular and commonly used.

Below is a summary of each media’s average usage:

Online News:             Not often

Radio:                         Not often

Uni Readings:            Frequently

Novel:                         Not often

Facebook:                   Very frequently

Blogs:                          Not often

Twitter:                       Not often

Emails:                        Often

SMS:                            Frequently

Phone Calls:                Very frequently

Skype:                         Not often

Media and technology has dramatically advanced over the last 20 years, where Smartphones enable us to use a majority of the popular communication methods available today. It is evident that I engage with journalism and communication on an everyday basis through the many different methods discussed above. How today’s technology will differ in the years to come remains a mystery!

Lecture 5

26/3

Today’s lecture was a sound lecture! And I am pleased to inform that I did listen to it. ABC Studio guest speak discussed how telling stories for radio is very different to television and online communication methods. Firstly, he commented that radio is more personal then TV. Although listeners usually multi task with radio (driving, eating) you do feel included in conversation. Unlike TV, radio interviews can go on for nearly an hour, where as on television, 7 minutes maximum is all viewers can tolerate. I found this interesting, as I have never thought of this concept. I guess on television we are always looking for something new to happen or some excitement, and after 7 minutes we visually get sick of looking at the same screen. I also found it interesting with how reporters can make a guest speaker feel welcome and comfortable just by their voices. It was recommended that the presenter pictured the speaker and had sympathy to bring down the barriers between you and the listener in order to keep the story sustained for the hour. The speaker also discussed how important it is for presenters to have the ability to create pictures with words, as well as constantly have in mind what the listener would want instead of their individual opinion. Components of a good radio story were discussed and include simply being human, and having human experiences as well as data and statistics. This is as humans respond emotionally and sub-consciously. An interesting concept I hadn’t thought was that as technology abilities increase, radio is able to keep and too increase their audience, unlike the television and hard-copy newspaper. This is as people who generally listen to the radio are time poor, and listen on the go with no need to sit down or waste time. Although this at first seemed like a boring sound lecture, it turned out to be quite interesting and very relevant to Journalism and Communication!

College Life!

So far college life has been amazing! I have made so many new friends and have been involved in so many sporting and cultural events already! Last weekend was a big Cromwell event called "@home ask", where you 'ask' your partner to the @home Cromwell event. This isn't any ordinary ask! Your corridor and all their partners go out on an adventure where the girls mission for the night is to get their partners unbearably intoxicated and do ridiculous dares they will undeniably regret in the morning. The theme for my corridors 'ask' was circus masters and lion! Of course the girls were the controlling masters, dressed in top hats and holding whips, whilst the boys were embarrassingly in orange clothing and face paint. The ultimate aim for these events is to bond with people you haven't had time to meet or simply didn't think you would become friends with. Although how silly it may seem, everyone had a ball and met many new faces! This weekend was Cromwell "@home", a closed Cromwell event where you have the same partners from 'ask' and again dress up in theme! This years theme was "youtube sensations". Many partners dressed the typical and "expected" themes such as the "sneezing panda" and the two young Nicki Minaj singers with pink tutu's! But my partner and I chose to do something a bit different..something many people have a different opinion on! (Just for the record, this wasn't my idea)...Kony child army! I saw this as visual and engaging way to make Kony famous.
After eating dinner, we all headed down to the volleyball courts where free goon was supplied and getting intoxicated was encouraged. A band was playing in the Lion's Den where people went in there to dance and sing! All in all, it was a great night! One to remember, which not many people did..

Lecture 4

19/3 

IN todays lecture we discussed how to tell factual stories with pictures. We learnt what types of ‘picture stories’ there are (although was fairly self-explanatory) such as newspapers, photos, magazines, TV, movies, smartphones, billboards, graffiti (only to name a few...). We then learnt some interesting, yet quite irrelevant things ranging from Australian Indigenous cave stories, through to how in the 1860’s; newspapers were illustrated with line drawings! Although however fascinating this was, I’m glad we moved on. I always wondered why there were even such things as ‘professional photographers’… I mean, how hard could it possibly be to hold down a button until you hear a *click*? But ahh, now I am beginning to understand! What makes a great photo? Oh yeah, framing, focus, angle, light exposure, timing, capturing… doesn’t sound so simple after all! And the rule of thirds – now math’s is even involved as well! This lecture sure enlightened me on photography. However fun photography sounds, I’m happy just to write!