Prior to starting this journal of my media usage, I already knew I was in for a wake-up call as to how much media I rely on through day to day life. Generally there is only a handful of online and offline media that I use, however I use it pretty heavily most days to fill the time. Hoping that I'm not alone with the amount I rely on Facebook and my mobile phone, the recording had to begin.
OBJECTIVE
Over a period of ten days (starting on the 9th of March and ending on the 18th of March) the type of media sources accessed and the amount of time spent (in minutes) utilizing the particular media types was recorded analysed and compared with the results collected from the JOUR1111 cohort survey conducted on Survey Monkey. This experiment will assist in recognising the level that I am involved with journalism and communication.
Over a period of ten days (starting on the 9th of March and ending on the 18th of March) the type of media sources accessed and the amount of time spent (in minutes) utilizing the particular media types was recorded analysed and compared with the results collected from the JOUR1111 cohort survey conducted on Survey Monkey. This experiment will assist in recognising the level that I am involved with journalism and communication.
RESULTS
ANALYSIS
The results from the ten day media usage ended up coming to a total of 7690 minutes, which is roughly 129 awake hours, spent relying on some media form.
It can be deduced from the data in 'Bar Graph One' that the time spent on Facebook in comparison to Twitter is a vast jump. This is due to personal reasons that I have only been on Twitter to keep updated on JOUR1111 related matters and still haven't really "got into it". Facebook is the basis of what really keeps me up to date with online happenings of the world relating to both social affairs and news affairs therefore I spend quite a large amount of time on there both via laptop and smartphone app. Facebook has been very helpful keeping me updated and connected to journalism and communication through spending, on average, 24 hours over the ten day period constantly checking Facebook. This provides me with constant exposure to the regular international, national and local happenings. The survey filled out by the cohort prior to this exercise shows that 91.9% (397 students) also spend majority of their online time on Facebook compared to 10% (43 students) who use Twitter. I feel I may not be alone here.
Bar Graph Two |
There is minimal information that can be extrapolated from 'Bar Graph Two' mainly relating to my preferred source of news. Generally I purchase The Australian every day and sit down and go through it at some point of the day. So when comparing the reading of online news to offline news I generally spend more time reading the paper due to majority of articles having more depth and I also end up reading articles I normally wouldn't come across online. This again would assist in strengthening my connection to journalism and communication. When relating this graph back to the cohort survey the main source of news is television with 71.1% (307 students) being updated via this media type. Personally, I never watch television for news which could prove to potentially lessen my connection to journalism and communication. However it was reassuring to know that 67.8% (293 students) use online newspapers and 51.6% (223 students) use general newspapers so there is not to large of a gap between the three sources of news.
The segment cut out from the results table above presents the amount of minutes spent each day using my smartphone. It can be seen that I am very reliant on it (not only for Facebook) but through both calls and text messaging. Some days I feel as though it never leaves my hand, which is demonstrated through the table fragment that most days are all relatively similar with usage times. The survey does not present data as to the amount of time used on mobile devices but it can assumed from the survey data which claims that 77.3% of the cohort own a smartphone of some form and that this media is very commonly utilized. Therefore showing that the majority of the cohort have a strong connection to journalism and communication via these devices.
The information provided by the survey showed that before commencing the Introduction to Journalism course that 63% (272 students) of the cohort had never had a blog. As being part of that 63% this can be reflected through my usage of blogging over the ten day period by only having spent roughly and hour and a half blogging. This can be interpreted as a downfall in my connection to journalism and communication as blogging is a very modern form and major part of journalism and communication in today's society.
According to the survey, on average, majority of the cohort (29.9%) spends 1-2 hours per day watching television both broadcast and online. Basically, I only watch broadcast television when a particular program is on that interests me. This is reflected in my recorded data as there are days where I do not watch television at all. I much prefer watching Youtube videos than television as there is no ads or interruption. This could result in missing the exposure to what could be seen as important journalism and communication material via advertisements and thus weakening my connection in that sense.
Personally I classified general web surfing, "study" and email checking under miscellaneous. Emails falls under this category due to the fact I only ever glance at them briefly every few days, most likely not as often as I should. 61.3% (265 students) use their internet time to surf the web, 49.5% (214 students) use it as a medium of study and 53% (229 students) for emailing. When reflecting this back to my usage of these media types it is safe to say my connection is much weaker in this area in comparison to the majority of the JOUR1111 cohort.
I'm fairly inclined to game both online and offline and read books in my spare time. Generally spending between 2 - 3 hours most days (on average) immersed in either a Playstation 3 game or a good book. This information does not really assist with my connection to journalism and communication. It does however show I lean toward wasting my time reading or gaming rather than studying or working.
Music is a very big part of everyday life for me with on average spending 3 to 4 hours listening to it at some point. I'm more inclined to listen to music via my ipod when walking to and from the bus, around campus and when sitting in my room. 89.1% (385 students) of the cohort also prefer this music platform. In relation to this mode of media, I spend no time listening to radio or podcasts. This could be seen as a weakness in my relationship to journalism and communication as major information and affairs are broadcast via this media type which I would definitely miss.
In summary the media journal assessment piece has enabled me to reflect upon which media types I utilized the most and which I should most likely spend more (and less) time using in order to strengthen connections to the journalism and communication realm.
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