Media Use Diary- Assessment 1

"To know who we are, we must understand how we are connected."- Nicholas A. Christakis

My Media Use- Table. 1

In a survey conducted on JOUR1111 students in February 2012, statistics on media use were collated with surprising results.

One such result showed that the majority of students spend between 2 and 3 hours on the internet. For these students Facebook is undoubtedly a habitual site in which they visit with a staggering 91% spending the majority of their internet time on this site.  As one of these students, I contributed to these figures as I spend about 61% of my 2-3 hrs of internet usage on this form of social networking. Some would see this as a waste of time and useless in regards studying journalism however it is surprising to note that nearly half of the cohort obtains news through this medium. Although this figure does not apply to me, as I receive my news in other forms, through Facebook my communication with others not only in Australia but overseas has been strengthened and used as a valuable way in sourcing and making connections. 

Graph depicting the time I use on the internet

Although I spend a large quantity of time on the internet, I actually obtain the majority of my news through the “old” mediums. For example, watching the 6pm news bulletin has become routine. As shown in Table. 1 I watch this nightly in order to stay informed in a way that is relatively effortless, something which also proves popular with my class mates as 71% receive news through television.  

I also share similar statistics when it comes to the amount of radio I listen to with 63% of my peers and I both averaging under an hour a day. This exposes me and other listeners to at least one news update in this time however this is dependent on the radio station, some stations are dedicated solely on reporting for example.

When it comes to the oldest of the “old” news mediums, newspapers are on the rapid decline in popularity. With people obtaining news nearly the same amount and even more so through Facebook and online news sites- something formed within the past decade- than actual newspapers- a news source stretching over a century- the rise of the internet is inevitable. This is reflective in my own media use as Table.1 portrays the fact I read the tangible paper once a week, on a Sunday out of tradition, whereas I read the online paper nearly every morning. These statistics just reinforce the claims that the online newspapers are simply a quicker, more diverse and convenient form of news over newspapers. Most of us still watch television and listen to radio because these forms of media have become more convergent in providing news, entertainment and broadcasting niche programs tailored to our preferences and interests. This is something that newspapers simply cannot compete with.

Graph depicting my time used on "old" media

Touching quickly on my media production, or lack thereof, I think it comes down to inexperience. I don’t create YouTube videos because I don’t know how, I never used Twitter because I was unable to understand the concept and the only reason I took photos is because I enjoyed it and have the technical understanding needed to upload the occasional picture. In saying this, even in the time spent after collating my data, my production has increased as I become more familiar with the tweeting and blogging realm.  

My Media Production- Table. 2

Overall, through old and new media, I am relatively connected both on the journalistic and communication front. The internet has been inundated with Facebook, Blogger and Twitter users alike and I believe that we, as the iGeneration, have the ability to coin the new ways in which we report and receive information. Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, author of the book “Connected”, have an interesting view on social networking. They say that our constant connectivity with our friends, our friends’ friends and our friends' friends' friends will result in us being, not only influenced, but an influence to others. Imagine the possibilities for a journalist with the ability to influence those around them through just one of the many forms of mediums. 

Sounds like a blog- Week 5

So this week I thought I’d try being an indie kid by showing some diversity and record my blog. Enjoy the sultry* sound of my voice.

*Awkward, sort of feral

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="https://sites.google.com/site/immogensblog/mp3/IMG_0136.mp3" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf" width="400" height="27" quality="best"></embed>

p.s. I meant to say 3:30 not 6:30, I would reload this video however it did take the majority of a morning to upload. I'm sure we will survive.

^This is obviously not working (if anyone knows why please feel free to tell the me, google can't save me now) If you really can be bothered you can download it via this url
https://sites.google.com/site/immogensblog/mp3

What makes a great picture?- Week 4

“In a democracy, everyone is a journalist. This is because everyone has the right to communicate a fact or a point of view, however trivial, however hideous”.-Ian Hargreaves

William Klein “Gun Play – Broadway  and 103rd
Street” 1955

Pictures really do say a thousand words, that’s why I think I love them so much. When I was in high school I loved art, not just making art but writing about it. I loved analysing what the colours meant, what the positioning meant, the message behind it, all of it. To tell you the truth, I’d probably be an art journalist if there was more of a need for them and they paid you in money that wasn’t from Monopoly.  That’s why I got so excited when I discovered we were talking about pictures this week.

First we delved into the history of pictures and the beginning of photojournalism. How exciting would it have been to be alive in that era? People were just blown away by things we in the 21^st century take for granted, colour pictures and moving pictures were a big deal and 3D wasn’t ruining movies everywhere. Of course, being humans and all, we had to ruin this innocent and beautiful form of medium with Photoshop. These days it’s impossible to know what is real and what is manipulated, except if Taylor Swift looks like this...

Seems legit.

So what makes a great picture? I think it’s definitely if it can tell a story and evoke emotion. Sure you can have a picture of a fence that satisfies the criteria of framing, focus and point of view but it if you don’t feel something it’s a useless picture in my opinion.

Jodi Bieber- "Bibi Aish"


 This is the kind of picture that makes a difference. 

We also went on to discuss the advances in moving pictures and the impact it can have on whole nations. After the London bombings, anyone with a mobile phone became a citizen journalist. I thought this was an interesting concept and one that is both useful and redundant in the journalism realm. On one hand you have your amateur bloggers who write one-sided garbage about uni life (what a drain on society) and then on the other hand you have footage of a plane crash that you would never have witnessed had it not been for Billy Nobody and his camera phone. We need them as much as they need us.

So that was week 4, my favourite so far. I learnt valuable things about pictures and also learnt valuable things about uni. For example, if you use your uni diary vouchers on the days ice coffee is $2, you get it for free! [Insert success kid meme here]

Over and out from I’m-finally-understanding-uni.

The inverted pyramid strikes back-Week 3

What difference does it make if you live in a picturesque little outhouse

surrounded by 300 feeble minded goats and your faithful dog . . .? The question is: Can you write?-  Ernest Hemingway

So after reading some of my classmates’ blogs and feeling clinically depressed due to overexposure to talent, I have decided that I probably need be a little more serious and actually put some of decent content into my blog rather than my disliking of black jelly beans and parking. I will try anyway. So this week we had Skye Doherty come in to talk to us about text.

First thing I saw was the infamous inverted triangle, oh how I have missed thee. Not only did it haunt me at high school, now uni has decided to rehash my nightmare and show it in every.single.course. Small psychotic breakdown aside, Skye started off by saying she how important text was, not only the content but the way it was positioned on the page. I’m not going to lie, it was pretty tedious stuff. However she finished early and we got to discuss other things such as the use of gaming as a journalistic technique, not going to lie, that was surprisingly interesting stuff. The whole concept of educating society about complex issues through the game medium is a relatively foreign yet effective technique. Things like the stock market would lend itself perfectly for this sort of thing. No one understands it unless you’ve had some form tertiary education in economics (or actually give a crap) so making an interactive game that explains the concepts in laments terms is perfect for people like me, who is both the former and the latter of the two. There are some topics that are a little sensitive however and these topics, in my opinion, are sort of taboo in the gaming realm. For example, Doherty showed us a game called “Cutthroat Capitalism”. In my opinion, that diminishes the seriousness of the matter to an extent. Deciding whether we’d kill, beat or threaten hostages became something of an amusement when we trialled it in the lecture. Sure it’s educational but to where do we draw the line?

Is it too far?

In talking about where to draw the line, I study Film and Television in my arts degree and at the moment we’re discussing policy and also what is and isn’t acceptable to say in the media. Racism, of course, is a hot topic and whether or not journalists play a role in “framing” stories in order to get readership and therefore get the sales. In my opinion, of course they do. What’s going to get people to stop and read the story, a bashing in Melbourne’s CBD or violent attack in the vicinity of a mosque?  I always wanted to be an objective journalist, someone who just stated the facts and was all for peace and love man but in reality, that’s impossible. Everything I write will be from a middleclass, white girl’s perspective. Someone could tell me and a forty year old, balding black man to write an objective report on the proceedings of an event we both attended and they could both be completely different. Why? We have different circumstances that warp our perception of life. Wow, that was a little too deep.

Moving on to a quick “note to self”, playing Draw Something throughout allocated study time will result in absolutely no study and leave you with a mild-sever addiction.

From I- need-counselling.

Curious and Curiouser- Week 2

Journalism is the first rough draft of history- 

Phillip Graham 

I made it. 1 week down, only 12 to go. As a first year student I have already learnt valuable life lessons and have decided, after discussing the lecture, I’ll share my little ‘note to self’ moments.

My review of last week mainly consisted of me retelling my inability to find a building let alone sit down. However this week involved jelly beans and therefore JOUR1111 may in fact be my favourite course.

A little fact about myself, I.love.jelly beans. What’s not to love about multi-coloured, bean shaped pods of pure sugar? Nothing, except if you eat the black ones, they are like the kooky second cousin that no one talks about. The best thing about them however, they are oh-so cheap. This is an analogy that Dr. Redman used when comparing jelly beans to newspapers. Like jelly beans, newspapers are cheap, everywhere and serve their purpose. After receiving a sample of jelly beans, he went on to talk about entitlement and how we felt entitled to receive our news for free, just like we had received our sample of jelly beans for free. When he proceeded to take our entitlement back you could see the shear disappointment and anger welling up in the eyes of the students. Message received. Rupert Murdoch taking our free news away will really annoy a LOT of people. I feel, on an academic note, it was an excellent way to remember the information and stimulate the feeling that you’ll get if you are a reader of the ‘Herald Sun’, the first Australian newspaper about to go behind a pay wall. On a poor uni student note, I got free jelly beans.

                                                           You wonder why we hate you.

Ok, so now you’re all up to date in regards to the lectures, now to enlighten you on some interesting findings about uni life.

‘Note to self’:

1.      The parking sucks. I live in Ipswich (shameful I know), so it takes me a solid 2hrs to get here if the traffic breaks the speed record of 4 km/hr #firstworldproblems. When I got on campus, being a naive first year and all, I was under the false pretence that there would be hundreds of car parks lining the streets of knowledge. I was hilariously wrong. After parking 2 km away in what I’m pretty sure was a disabled car park, I arrived to my media studies lecture fashionably late and smelling like a homeless alley cat. Yay for naivety and no deodorant!

2.   The food will kill me. This is by no means a jab at the quality of the food but the price, something that will slowly eat away at my summer job savings. (See what I did there, food... eat away at.... never mind) After attending O-week and spending copious amounts of money on Boost and Subway, I decided I would start eating the refec sandwiches, no complaints there. After a very short while however I realised that even this expense was eating away at my budget. So here I am, the end of the week 2, eating grapes I brought from home because it appears to be the only food that requires no preparation time.Who knows, by then end of week 3 I may be reduced to chewing gum and smelling the coffee outside Merlo to get my coffee fix.Tragic I know.

There were many other lessons I learnt the hard way but I’ll leave those for another time. This week has definitely been an eventful one, not only on campus but off. With the Kony 2012 explosion, political idiocy and my newly found maybe-disabled-car par, I think studying journalism is going to be... hectic.

Auf Weidersehen,

From I-used-to-study-German.

Inspirational Video

I said that I wanted my blog to contain minimal depression but this video isn't of a sneezing panda or my brother biting my finger. It is a video, however, that will blow.your.mind. The qualities this guy shows are what make a good journalist, I want to be someone who can have this sort of impact on the world.

 http://vimeo.com/37119711