Personal Media Use and Production Diary

Planted firmly in the midst of arguably the most rapidly advancing technological era the world has encountered, I am forced to question whether or not I, as a Journalism student have exploited the spoils of the Information revolution to my best advantage. The answer is an emphatic no! This realization thanks to the recent media logging exercise has highlighted the need for me to widen my parameters of information gathering and communication. The traditional media world of newspapers, radio and television have in essence, in my case been surpassed by social media; Facebook, twitter, instagram, instant text messaging and online blogging just to name a few. It is clearly evident that I am a prisoner of social media and it appears that when compared to the peer survey – I am not alone!

As a result of relocating to Union College at the University of Queensland, my media habits have substantially changed. Prior to my arrival television played a major role in my media consumption, news channels such as ‘SKY NEWS’, ‘CNN’ and ‘THE PROJECT’ where a way in which I could gain an access into the broader spectrum of the world. As a consequence of television not being easily accessible in college life I have reverted into the inevitable stereotype (For my generation at least) of being an online addict. I now rely on Nine MSN and Yahoo homepages to supply the entertaining and hard-hitting journalism in a way that is almost unavoidable as a result of the continuous ‘pop ups.’

When comparing my activity with the UQ Journalism students as a whole (in the survey), my results become somewhat contradictory as 71.1% of students still receive their news updates from television rather than the 67.8% of students that receive news from online sources.

It has become overwhelmingly apparent that old media (Web 1.0) has become but a faint memory in daily life, as the social web (Web 2.0) has catapulted its way into our daily routines. In fact as can be seen in Image 1: below, old media makes up but a fraction of what it used to-

Figure 1: Average Personal Use of Old and New Media, Over a Two Week Period.

In this particular media study, ‘Old Media’ pertains to television, radio, newspapers, magazines and novels where as ‘New Media’ encompasses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, texting, blogging, general Apps, online news, general web and email. Blogging is new concept to me, being introduced as part of the journalism course content, taking up 5% of my media usage and I project that this area will develop as I progress through my degree.A two-week media use diary was used to compile the data used in this study can be seen in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2:  Media Usage for Various Mediums Over a Two Week Period; 

 also depicting Old vs. New media use.

Week 1		Week 1		Week 2		Week 2
Total Media use For:				Total Media use For:
Facebook	1110	NEW MEDIA USE:		Facebook	920	NEW MEDIA USE:
Twitter	60			Twitter	65
Instagram	75			Instagram	65
Texting	125			Texting	130
Blogging	325	3915		Blogging	120	3555
General Apps	155			General Apps	135
Online News	60			Online News	70
General Web	1890			General Web	1940
E-mail	115			E-mail	110
T.V. Shows	120	OLD MEDIA USE:		T.V. Shows	0	OLD MEDIA USE:
Radio	150			Radio	300
Newspapers	30	560		Newspapers	20	580
Magazines	15			Magazines	40
Novel	245			Novel	220
Total Media Time in mins:	4475			Total Media Time in mins:	4135

Figure 3: Average Percentages of Specific Mediums Over a Two-Week Period

As can be seen from both figure 2 and 3, I use ‘Facebook’ and ‘General web’ the most.  Similar results are reflected in the survey where the question was asked, “What do you spend most of your online time doing?” 91.9% of students answered; social networking- Facebook and a further 61.3% answered; general web (surfing and browsing).

In my case general web use, consists mostly of academic browsing to support learning, using search engines such as Google as well as academic sites such as Blackboard, Sinet and UQrota.

The considerable peak in my usage of Facebook since coming to UQ can be somewhat justified, with my relocation from the Sunshine Coast into the busy and stressful existence that is - university life. Just like a new organism venturing out of its habitat I search for familiar sights and smells reminding me of home…and it just so happens that one may find such attractions in the social networking phenomenon; Facebook.

Unsurprisingly, it is not only Facebook usage that has surged but many other media sources as well. I, much like the rest of the respondents on ‘Monkey Survey’ have become “media sharks”, unable to stop ourselves from swimming somewhat aimlessly in the vast online ocean of social networking in order to keep ourselves afloat. It hardly matters what day of the week it is, my media use is most certainly at an all time high as depicted in- Figure 4 which demonstrates my average media usage for each day of the week:

Figure 4:  Average Weekly Media Us: Monday - Friday

While the obvious trend towards instant news via Internet and social media runs the risk of significantly impacting the more traditional media forms, there is no need for despair and it certainly does not depict in my opinion, the death of journalism. This is our world and the dynamic nature of reporting will keep abreast of the changes in order to meet the needs of an instant generation reliant on the rapid dissemination of information. This is the voice of the people by the people, where everyone has the ability to participate in the accumulating, analyzing and distribution of current events. It does not mean though that we should discard the creative art of intelligent and artful discourse that the traditional media offers, for this is one area where social networks comes up short. By logging my own personal media use, it highlighted the need for me to engage more frequently with the conventional forms of media in order to develop the skills necessary to become a competent and creative journalist.

See Appendix below for media use diary, tabled in minutes per day:

Appendix:

Week 1

Media Usage	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
In Minutes
Facebook	180	240	180	180	120	120	90
Twitter	5	20	10	5	10	5	5
Instagram	10	5	10	5	15	20	10
Texting	20	30	10	15	20	15	15
Blogging	5	120	5	60	120	10	5
General Apps	10	60	15	10	40	15	5
Online News	5	5	5	10	10	5	20
General Web	240	230	240	300	330	310	240
E-mail	30	20	5	10	30	15	5
T.V. Shows	0	0	30	0	90	0	0
Radio	0	20	0	30	10	90	0
Newspapers	0	0	10	0	0	0	20
Magazines	0	0	15	0	0	0	0
Novel	60	15	30	40	40	15	45

Week 2:

Media Usage	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
In Minutes
Facebook	90	180	120	130	200	100	100
Twitter	10	15	10	10	5	10	5
Instagram	10	20	10	5	5	10	5
Texting	15	25	20	15	30	15	10
Blogging	5	10	80	5	5	10	5
General Apps	20	30	15	15	20	5	30
Online News	5	5	15	20	5	10	10
General Web	240	250	240	300	320	290	300
E-mail	5	15	15	30	30	10	5
T.V. Shows	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Radio	0	30	0	90	120	60	0
Newspapers	0	0	0	0	0	0	20
Magazines	0	0	0	40	0	0	0
Novel	50	20	15	35	30	40	30