Media Use Diary

We all rely on media within our lives. We may not realise how much, or how little we use compared to other people in society. I have logged my media usage over a period of ten days, and was quite surprised at my limited media usage compared to what is available in the world of technology.

Below is a table of my media usage over a period of ten days (in minutes):

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Media	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7	Day 8	Day 9	Day 10
Facebook	45	15	30	45	60	60	120	120	30	60
Twitter	20	20	-	-	-	-	20	-	-	30
Blogging	15	60	-	40	-	-	20	-	-	30
Emailing	-	-	-	-	15	-	-	-	15	15
Online News	-	30	-	20	-	60	30	20	45	-
TV News	30	30	30	30	-	30	-	60	60	-

This table illustrates my media usage can be divided into three main categories.

1.       Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Email

2.       Online news

3.       TV news

Media Usage Groups Over 10 Day Period

(x = days, y = minutes)

It is obvious most of my usage lies within social media. Although I was aware of this before I logged, I did not notice the considerable difference. This is primarily because of ‘new’ media. With new media we are able to access news through almost any media outlet. As I am not from Brisbane, I often use Facebook to keep track of events occurring in my home town. It may not be the most detailed news, but it is available to me when I need it.

In a recent survey of 436 university students, it is clear a large amount of their media usage also lies within social media. The following shows social media split up into separate elements.

JOUR 1111 Survey – Social Media

The graph shows Facebook is the very prominent winner when it comes to media usage. 91.9% of students spend most of their internet time on Facebook. New media has a definite role in this. A huge 78.2% of students own a smart phone and 95.4% use Facebook as an app. This means Facebook can be accessed on the go at any time. I spend more time using the app than on my laptop, as I am usually on it when I am not home. This links with what I earlier mentioned, with Facebook also being a news tool for easy access.

It is interesting to note only 10% of students used Twitter. This was before we were required to join for our assessment. Although I never used Twitter before, I now check it almost daily. I would guarantee many other students would do the same. I often now use Twitter for news updates: news groups like Brisbane Times and Courier Mail have constant, quick news updates keeping me informed.

My media usage is not vast, but that may be because I have not been introduced to many media outlets. If I had not been required to join Twitter I probably never would have; now I realise what a convenience it is to have for updates. Although my main media use is social networking, new media provides a strong use of journalism and communication within all networks.

Faux-tography

"No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted"

This quote stood out to me during our week 4 lecture of Picture Stories. I was really interested in the photoshop section; as a teenage girl I am surrounded by the constant pressure to look 'perfect.' So with the question of whether photoshop is good or evil, I struggled to find any positive points for it.

Celebrities are under so much pressure to look effortlessly perfect. We all know they do put in a lot of effort, though. When a star is snapped without make-up it is front-page news, with us judging their baggy eyelids or the two miniscule pimples on their chin. If they already feel this much pressure to meet with the public's standards, what must it to do their self-esteem with 'faux-tography' cutting, cropping, and re-colouring their photos?

I've never really thought of it from their point of view before. However, in the lecture when we were shown the photoshopped pictures of role-models Taylor Swift (below - what the..?) and Beyonce.

I couldn't understand why these already beautiful girls would need any enhancements in their photos. If they couldn't meet the unreachable beauty standards, what chance do the rest of us have?

We are swallowed up in an unrealistic world. Magazines are not required to state whether a picture has been photoshopped. Unless the subject is brought to our attention, we believe the photographs we see are real.

These fake, edited faces are what society wants to look like - who society want to be.

This has an unhealthy influence on girls worldwide, and after thinking about it, I'd just rather be me.

Until next time.

Let's Get Physical

"How to Exercise Your Face"

I never thought I would set my eyes on such a title, but you know what? It drew me in. That really did set in stone everything Skye Doherty said about attracting people with the right headline. The sad part is, it's not even creative. It's exactly what the article is about.

There's a lot of pinching and pulling involved; I can't imagine it being helpful with ageing. However, ít'll be the easiest work out you'll ever do.

Take a look yourself.

http://youngeryou.ninemsn.com.au/body-zones/face-neck/non-surgical-face-neck/how-to-exercise-your-face

Three Weeks Down

Somehow after 5 years of highschool and 3 weeks of uni, I cannot grasp the skill of reading a timetable.

My timetable reads: 2:00-2:50pm - JOUR1111 - Lecture. There it is, in black, bold print in it's labelled column so even a dummy can't miss it. Well, it seems I can.

It's not that I couldn't understand it, I just didn't see it. Somehow my mind jumped straight to my 3:00pm lecture, completely forgetting about this one. I have 4 subjects to keep track of, and apparently that is just a little too much for me.

So I sat down at my desk this morning, coffee in hand, and watched the lecture online. We had a guest speaker, Skye Doherty, and I could only hear her yet see the slides. Even though I had the text of the powerpoint, I spent quite some time trying to imagine Skye (in the least creepy-sounding way possible) and the way she was delivering her information. Before I let my curiosity get the better of me, I accepted I couldn't have the complete visual and the slides would have to do.

This made me think about how the presentation of something can make it much more appealing. Our lecture this week was on text. I was intrigued when Skye  (well, Skye's voice) mentioned the layout of a newspaper is the largest caption on the top left corner as this is where people begin reading. It makes sense: the bold, catchy caption draws us in and we continue reading the entire page without realising. However, apparently most people don't make it through the entire page.

I was shocked when Skye said if we are lucky enough to entice the reader with our caption, they are only likely to read our first three paragraphs. We must make sure we include the who, what, when where, why and how right at the start and the less important or exciting news later on. If our audience is only going to brief the beginning, we have to give them the info that counts. (See inverted pyramid)

I probably need to practice being concise in having my voice heard in a quick, to the point manner. I've written more than 3 paragraphs and have spun off on a completely different angle to where I was originally headed. I suppose it's better to be full of too many thoughts than not enough. I just hope someone has stuck with me all the way to the end, despite my not-so-catchy caption.

Until next time :)

First Attempt Blogging...

WELCOME TO MY VERY FIRST BLOG EVER!

Seeing everybody else's blogs with their sweet photography and gorgeous layouts makes me very apprehensive to create mine... As you'll probably notice over the next few weeks I'm not the head of an IT team anywhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm a facebook fanatic (so are you, don't deny it), but I prefer to use my FB app on my phone and search only google when I'm in need of info.

I didn't update my iPhone for a year because I thought that would mean I would lose all of my content. I was too worried that if I added songs to my iTunes on my phone it would somehow delete all of my songs off my iPod. Not that it would be a bad thing, I haven't added a song to my ipod for over a year now, and I'm sure there's still traces of Anthony Callea's stardom hidden somewhere in my playlist. Before frowning at the obvious distaste, please remember how "hot" we used to think he was (until we found out he didn't swing our way and we all voted for Casy Donavon instead).

Never fear, after my roommate's persistance I have finally updated my iPhone AND cleared all of my old songs off my iTunes. It was a tough day; I must have asked at least 12 times, "Are you SURE you know what you're doing?" I didn't want all of my texts cleared - what if one day I have 6 hours to spare and can re-read my messages all the way back to the very first one I ever sent? "Hey everyone, it's Melissa. This is my new number." What if I couldn't re-read that??? Hmm, I obviously need a life.

Maybe not a 'life' (I would like to think I engage in enough social activity to not spend a spare 6 hours reading text messages..) but a lifepath. To know where I'm going and making it happen. So you can imagine my.. er.. excitement when in my very first lecture at the beginning of this new lifepath, I was told of our first assessment piece. Blogging? And twitter? YAY.........Welcome to the world of social media, it's probably time I stepped up and realised there's no such thing as pen and paper anymore where good journalism is involved.

That's basically all we went through in the first lecture. I think if any further information was thrown at me I may have frantically started searching for people around me who looked just as confused and demanded we take a stand for the legacy of old media. I know, I sound like an 80 year old who refuses to get her cyclone updates from the news and instead watches the windmill to see how quickly we will be blown away.

I walked into lecture 2 expecting everything to be completely above my technological knowledge. However, thankfully, I understood and enjoyed all of it. We learned of 'Web Iterations' and how they've progressed throughout the years. Before the internet was our one-stop-shop for anything from what's good to eat in Toowong to how can I get to where I need to go, there was Web 2.0.

Talking about Web 2.0 reminded me of when we first got the internet at our house. Making the most of the 3 hour dial-up before it ran out because you couldn't sneak back on, not with the screeching dial up that would have you caught out everytime. Even though you only got about an hour actual internet time - the rest was staring at a blank screen waiting 10 minutes to load each page.

I guess I'm thankful that we now have Web 3.0 as a reliable source for everything and anything. Can you imagine attempting to facebook stalk with dial up??? Don't worry, the thought terrifies me as well. As much as I like to think I haven't conformed to IT this and IT that, social media definitely allows quicker, easier access for 'right here, right now'.

I know this is a mammoth first post but I did start a little late and had quite a bit to put in here!

Until next time (when hopefully I've worked out how to make an appealing looking page)

:)