Media Use and Production Diary

AIM: To analyse my personal media use and production over the period of ten days and determine patterns and trends within my personal use, and in comparison to the use of others.

My focus will be on the use of smart phones, and smart phone enabled social networking applications such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Instagram.  

DATA LOG

Here is a log of the media I have been using over the period of ten days, measured in minutes. I rounded them up to the nearest multiple of five so that they were easy to record. 

I highlighted in red my top four main uses of media, and I just wanted to briefly explain the reason for the high use in relation to my media habits and preferences. 

News

ONLINE: 

• I am studying French and Spanish, both at an advanced level. As a result, I need to be able to read fluently in those languages, but I would like to be connected to what is happening in Europe as well. 
• Often I have to spend time translating it, which is why I can be reading news on El Pais for a long time. 
• I look at the following papers online everyday, even if briefly to skim what is going on: El Pais, Le Monde, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Brisbane Times, The Courier Mail, and the South China Morning Post.

PRINT:

• I don't subscribe to any newspapers in Australia, and because I don't live at home, getting copies of newspapers in print is difficult, which is why my online news usage is so high. However, when I can get a copy of a newspaper (from a friends house, the shops or a cafe), I take time to read it. 

Books

• To say I'm a voracious reader might be an understatement, especially considering the data above. I have a keen interest in books and am part of a book club, and make sure I read every day. 
• I noted down that when my media usage is high, it is also research for university. I also included downloaded pdf files that I print off to read on the way to uni. 
• Again, studying two European languages means you have to read literature in them. A lot. 

Television

• I grouped together television and the cinema, which is why my media use is so high, because I saw The Vow and wasted two hours of my life
• Usually, television is on in the background, but I decided to record that too, because I'm still watching it. I also put some TV shows on when I am studying. 

Social Networking

As you can see, I clearly spend an incredible amount social networking. I know exactly why that is, and it is because I use an iPhone. The majority of social networking recorded in my log was done on my iPhone. Therefore while I wait for the bus, I am on Facebook, or Twitter, or when I'm in a cafe, I take photos with Instagram. I am constantly using social networking sites and applications, but also producing media through those applications, and the use of a smart phone makes that so much easier. 

I wanted to break down what applications and websites I use, so I drew up this little chart:

It was a little hard to record, but in that period of ten days, I counted how many posts I made. This included: Facebook statuses, Facebook photo uploads, Instagrams I took, Tweets, Re-tweets, Foursquare check-ins and blog posts. Facebook was the dominant method of production, which I found interesting. I link a lot of my applications to my Facebook. For example, my Instagrams upload directly to my Facebook as well as being uploaded into my Instagram stream, and personal Twitter feed. 

I thought the correlation between my high social networking use and the fact that I have a smart phone was interesting, and something that I wanted to investigate. It really drew me back to Lecture 2, and the discussion of Web 3.0, or the "Semantic Web". Not only do we already have social networks through Web 2.0, Web 3.0 now provides a different platform to produce media from. We don't even need to text people the generic way- we can send messages through applications like Whatsapp or iMessage on the iPhone. This really intrigued me, and I wanted to see if my frequent smart phone use was a common trend within the JOUR1111 group. 

I used the information from the course survey to draw up this chart of how many people have smart phones first: 

78% of our course owns smart phones. That is 338/432 students who own and use internet on their smart phones. Of course, one of the allures of smart phones are the applications you can download. 

The following graph details the applications used by JOUR1111 students on their internet enabled smart phones. 

I wanted to compare the use of the main applications (according to the survey it was Twitter and Facebook) students used on the internet to the use of those same applications on smart phones. The use of Facebook on the internet and on smartphone is really close, and again I think that is because of convenience.

Conclusion: 

After investigating my media trends, I found that:

• Social networking was my main use and production 
• This was made easier due to having a smartphone and therefore allowing me to take instagrams, check-in on Foursquare, send and check emails, and upload things to Facebook and Twitter on the go. 

I do not use my smart phone for things like checking the news, I prefer to read news on my laptop, or in print. Moreover, I frequently read magazines and books, and in a very old-school manner, prefer having them in print.  

Media is an integral part of everyone's lives, not just Journalism students. It is how we form networks, find information, produce media, and connect to the world around us. Social networking sites enable us to deepen those connections, and smart phones with applications also do this. The reason I chose to investigate that particularly was because I feel it is how the media and the way we connect with each other is developing. Facebook is the best example for this, because it is constantly evolving and providing us with new ways to connect with each other. I think that having a smart phone is so important today, because it allows us to efficiently and conveniently connect with the world around us, to understand it, and provides us with a new platform where we can express ourselves online. 

Old Media, New Media, Newer Media (Lecture 2)

This week's lecture was really interesting, Bruce covered Old Media and the transition into New Media, and explained briefly Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. I didn't do the readings until before the tutorial on Wednesday, and those really helped my understanding of them.

The lecture also discussed the development of old media into new media, and broke down new media into: 

Web 1.0: Very information based, and advertising friendly. Primarily used by business and companies to display brochures or information and to reach out to users on an advertising basis. It's scary how little I remember about Web 1.0, and how it has been replaced by Web 2.0 (ie advertising can now be done on websites like Facebook). 

Web 2.0: New media, social networking. More interactive and user generated. Websites like Facebook, Twitter etc. Focus moves away from only businesses onto social groups. Social media oriented, basically the media everyone in our age group utilizes today. Works by making networks online with other people. I've talked about it before, but Web 2.0 still fascinates me, because of how interlinked everything is! It's amazing that you can do just about anything online. 

Here's an awesome image I found on instagram, but found it again on geek.com so I could source it. 

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/social-media-explained-with-donuts-20120210/

Web 3.0: Still in development, but is focused on individuals. Content is very specific, Bruce used the term 'hyperlocalisation', which sounds scary and IT like but actually, it's just simply like those recommendations you get on gmail/youtube/facebook based on what you view. It's insanely advanced, and I find things like that a little scary - not to mention frustrating! I didn't even realize that my google preferences were set in Australia until I went back home to Hong Kong and it took me three pages to find my local news. On the other hand, it's super useful when I need something fast! 

I found this awesome video to help explain/understand Web 3.0. I hope this helps whoever is reading this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=off08As3siM&feature=player_embedded#!

We also learnt about online news, and how more and more newspapers are moving their papers online. When I interned at the International Herald Tribune in 2009, I remember them discussing the damage on revenue that free online news would have, since at the time you could access all their archives without having a membership, whereas the Wall Street Journal required a log-on and subscription to access online articles. I tend to sift through a lot of old articles, and when I worked there I had to go through an insane amount of archives. So imagine my frustration when I got a notification telling me I'd only have access to TEN free articles a month. I guess I know what's on my birthday wishlist - a nice subscription to the New York Times. 

Just a few screenshots I took of the new changes occuring: 

I'm a bit worried about this, particularly because I rely on online news to let me know what's going on (obviously) but also to study! I am studying French and Spanish, so Le Monde and El Pais are among the many papers I check, and it's hard to get my hands on old media copies of them. I guess that's the downfall of it, and Bruce certainly mentioned in the lecture - will people continue or begin to pay for what they are entitled to? 

(07/03/2012)

Arresting the fight with fire

Ali told us to personalise this blog, and so I thought I'd share a song that's been on my mind, by one of my favourite bands. I am absolutely obsessed with music, so any suggestions are welcome as well. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14roUO8rpGg

Belated Lecture One

Lecture One (27/02/2012)

Note: I am perpetuating all sorts of awful stereotypes about women and technology, because I only JUST realized I save drafted a lot of my entries. Nice going.

This lecture proved to be entertaining and intellectually stimulating, and made me understand why I am studying Journalism and why I want to be a Journalist. It sounds cliché, but I’ve always wanted to do it, and I’ve certainly always known this is the path I’d take.

The inspirational quotes Bruce put up, like “you are the Journalist”. It’s funny, because in this day and age, it’s almost as if everyone is. It was interesting to hear terms like ‘old media’ and ‘new media’, because I have always wanted to go into print. Doing an internship at the International Herald Tribune in 2009 really influenced my ideas on old and new media. It was awesome to see how new media shaped the newsroom. A lot of the correspondents used Twitter not only to communicate to each other, but to also spread news. As a political science student, I follow a lot of politicians on my personal twitter (@rivahiranand) and I’ve seen how this has helped their campaign massively – look at how active Kevin Rudd is and was during the time of the Queensland floods!

I’m ashamed to say that I found out about Osama Bin Laden’s death via Facebook, because it is the first thing that I check in the morning. It’s an effective (duh) social media platform that integrates media use and media production. Going back to what I said earlier, it also provides people with the opportunity to share and to create news. It’s interesting to see how Facebook developed and has become not just a social networking site, but also a way of life now. I found it really interesting that Facebook has also become a platform for producing news and stories. Obviously, you cannot trust everything you read on Facebook, because things can get sensationalized or just be shared without people fully understanding what is going on, but its phenomenal that some people can get their news from their facebook feed.

What this lecture got me thinking about was how the world of journalism is changing.  While new media can be really effective in connecting with your audience, I really love the idea of old media and print! It is quite scary that my dream job may well be obsolete at some point in the future, and that there is a massive focus on online news as opposed to print. It’ll be interesting to learn more about it during this course though!

Riva

Hello!

Okay, after fiddling with Blogger for about a week, I'm getting good enough to finally post something! I just thought I'd introduce myself, what I'm interested in, and why I'm studying Journalism at UQ this semester (even if only Bruce ends up reading this).

I'm a 20 year old International student from Hong Kong. My parents are Indian, but Dad grew up in Hong Kong and can speak fluent Cantonese, and Mum grew up in the Philippines, and speaks Tagalog. As a result, I was raised in an intensely multicultural environment, further accentuated by living in a crazily multicultural city; Hong Kong. I moved to Brisbane two years ago to do my BA at UQ.

As I said before, I've been exposed to a variety of cultures my entire life, and this influenced my decision to study languages. I'm currently doing Spanish, Chinese and French at UQ. Even though Hong Kong is, in my very biased opinion, one of the most amazing cities in the world, I love traveling and it's my dream to travel through South America and India.

The reason I'm passionate about Journalism is rather simple: because I love to write. Anyone who knows me knows that when I'm not bombarded with piles of work, you can find me in a cafe with my head buried in a book, scribbling short stories on dilapidated pieces of paper, or ripping out inspirational articles from magazines. It's what I've always wanted to be for as long as I can remember.

I interned at Hong Kong's local paper, the South China Morning Post, when I was 15, and ever since then, have been fascinated with the journalism industry and eventually want to be a foreign correspondent. Reading Monocle magazine has also deepened my love for writing and my desire to finish my degree and travel!

My major is actually Political Science, but I thought since it's my last year and I have an elective to fill, I wanted to do JOURN1111 to get my head around it, and am enjoying it so far!

My next post will be reflecting on the first two weeks of class, and will focus on something I find interesting, that I'm sure everyone has heard about; Joseph Kony, and the viral Facebook video that has pretty much everyone talking.  

Until then,

Riva