Personal Media Use and Production Diary

Before we plunge into the sea of graphs I have prepared for you, I want to address a statistic I found extremely interesting, and a little ridiculous. 

There is a tremendous amount of females undertaking this course. According to a 2011 survey of men and women working in the media, 74% were men (The Guardian 2011). Does this small survey represent a future change in gender roles in the media industry, or what's more, women balancing out gender inequality in the workplace? Is Journalism becoming less of a boys club? Becoming a journalist has become more accessible to women in that last 50 years what with the rise in feminism. Perhaps women are more articulate than men, or men are beginning to dominate other fields? What is definite is that Journalism is not as narrow-minded as it once was, there are many avenues which one can go down and perhaps this begins to explain not only why 436 people are studying first year Journalism, but our relationship with Journalism and Communication as a society.  Another thing for certain is that to undertake Journalism, which 100% of us are, we must have a certain degree of interest in media- whether it be old or new, and this can be, and has been, deduced from a media use and production analysis.

MEDIA USE AND PRODUCTION LOGS

First I think it is pertinent that we address how much time we actually dedicate to media consumption and production, because it’s shocking. According to the hourly results for the Media Use log, I am almost permanently online.  Phone use dictates the amount of time I am using media, because like most, I am either on Facebook/Twitter and actively using it, or I am logged on and checking at regular intervals –  all while I’m using other media. This is in part because I am attached to how fast paced social media is, it’s constantly changing; updating. This begins to define my relationship with Journalism and Communication what with the fact that I am already so heavily involved/affluent in the tools of  modern Journalism.

Over the 10 day period: 

Averaged 8.246 hours on my smartphone (on which I am accessing  online social networking, YouTube, music etc.)
Compared to the cohort…

I am part of the 3.5% who use more than 6 hours of internet. A little concerning, sure, but I am not convinced that 78.7% of a cohort spends less than 4 hours online. Reason being, 98.1% are 17-25 year olds – the ones that grew up on media. In this case, it might be useful to consider what my peers and I are actually doing on the internet.

NEW AND OLD MEDIA
It is clear that the majority of  use and production is new media. Funny that. In a new media world this figure isn’t as shocking as it may have been a few years ago, even in a world dominated by Web 2.0. Web 3.0 has clearly had a huge impact on this figure, the accessibility it provides is outstanding in comparison to old media forms of newspapers , television and radio. What is concerning is that out of my media use, only 1% was old media (textbooks), which could easily have been sourced online if it weren't for my need to write notes/highlight. An interesting  point I’d like to make here is the media outlets that were once old media, have transformed into new, they did not vanish (I.e. Newspapers/Online News, Radio/Itunes, Online TV/Broadcast).  Lets take Newspaper’s for example. 

2% (3.26 hours) of my media use was online newspapers, and there was no indication that I even touched a regular newspaper, because I didn’t. Simply put, I don’t particularly like the news, or rather, what counts as news worthy, so I refrain. My interest of late has only been sparked because I am beginning to realise that to participate in class discussion, and complete assignments, I need to be in the loop.  This raises the issue of my relationship to Journalism and Communication, and whether it is productive relationship or not. It is clear I don’t want to be a news reader when I graduate, nor political reporter but the underlying factor here is when I wanted to dip my toes into news, I headed straight online. Perhaps because it was easier to read or because I could choose what I wanted to know - unsurprisingly I went straight to the entertainment section. While this may not be then case for my peers, it is quite clear that old media is transitioning into new, the latter being most popular at 67.8%

In the wider pattern of media use, online news is far easier to access and is updated regularly. Sites like Ninemsn, The Brisbane Times and The Guardian being my go-to websites for local and international news.

This figure indicates  that 43.1% of the cohort spends their time online reading news. The age group is 17-25 in majority. This may indicate that new media is inspiring generation Y to become more concerned with  current affairs. Maybe the fact that it is new media, more accessible and is technological increases its appeal. In the same vein,  my interest in the radio is wavering. I can’t control the content the same way I can on  Itunes, also I don’t have to listen to ads on my iPod. Essentially with new media you can tailor your consuming for your needs/wants.  This is why there has been a significant decline in radio, myself not even listening to it once in a 10 day period. However I did make use of an iPod and YouTube – new media is easier. 

This  corroborated by the group survey in regards to the radio directly below.

And it is probable that this finding is  representative of the figure at above.  If anyone listens to the radio, its because they are in the car, essentially there is not a whole lot of choice.

What is interesting however, is if we compare this to where people listen to music, meaning media of their choice -from new media. This begs the question, is new media lazy, or is it in fact efficient?

It is efficient. In numerous ways, but most significantly in the fact that it allows us, as ordinary people, to produce content. 

NEW MEDIA PRODUCTION

For the purposes of analysis, new media will be confined to Social Networking and Blogs. With the startling amount of media we consume, it is only logical that we play a part in PRODUCING this media. 

Social networking and the like is fast becoming the primary tool for Journalists, these tools are more personal in terms of connecting with others/public. Take for example my Facebook, blog and Twitter ratio at right.

These platforms are popular because they enable us with the ability to connect with our friends, family, public and even the media in a way normal conversation, or old media, cannot. Its all about interactivity. My peers and I use Facebook, more than blogs, and blogs more than twitter.This pattern represents the usefulness/accessibility of each of these social networking systems.  Not only does it represent Facebook’s prevalence in our lives, it represents what is not, namely, Twitter – an up and coming trend that's use is mostly limited to quick access to breaking news.  I have only since undertaking this course jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, and this graph shows my increasing interest in the Journalistic opportunity is provides, now using it on average 4.5 hours a day.  All of this information indicates that I like my information, or my Journalism and Communication, quick and like it to be interactive.


In saying this, it may be the instant gratification these sites give that encourages us to produce was we consume.
For example, I previously stated that  Twitter was a foreign concept to me, it still is, but in the 10 day period there were some obvious motivators. This figure illustrates my tweets in the 10 day log:

As the days go on, my tweets become more regular, in what is a response to a serious hike in followers and a ‘need’ to connect with them on a regular basis.

Its amazing how we have all been able to adapt to twitter, considering  before we started JOUR1111, 70.8% of us didn't have twitter.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                       

This too translates to blogger, the more time I spent blogging, the more page views (Figure at right), the more incentive to produce. It’s interesting that this was a factor even though I have never had a blog before, in some ways it may be labelled as inherit. As for the cohort, 63% didn’t have a blog either.  Maybe we didn’t know the power of the blog or what it enabled us to do. We are now able to voice our opinions without censorship, blog about what we care about and we have the opportunity to capture peoples interest. It’s essentially a medium for connection, not in a ‘Facebook friend’ way, but in a ‘someone has followed me because they have read and enjoy what I’m saying’ way.  Isn’t this what Journalism is about? Using communication to reach out to others? This is certainly the case for me, my relationship with journalism is associated with the fact I NEED, we all NEED, to communicate. The spike in the graph clearly indicates my need and the realisation that people were interested. 

They key to all of this consumption and use is, as shown in the media use chart above , a smartphone, which totaled at 42% of my  media use, and 78% of my production. The ability of the smartphone to access majority of these media outlets contributes to their popularity, their high usage and user-generated production. When 78.2% of the class has an internet enabled smartphone, the correlation between media production/consumption and smart phones becomes evident; especially when we compare them with the applications downloaded onto the phones -Facebook applications coming in at 95.4% and Twitter at 19.2%. New media is essential for Journalism and Communication in today's society, our relationship with these things is simple, without them we would be restricted in perhaps our knowledge, or in our career path. Journalism and Communication is an evolving process, a process that makes us all interconnected in an instant through simple feats.