Facebook:
Disregarding online news, majority of my time on the
Internet is spent using social media sites. Relative to my relationship with
journalism and communication I feel that my use of social media concerns the
communication side more than the journalism side. Social networking sites for
me are ways to stay in touch with people. I’m from Gympie and a lot of people
that I went to high school with either stayed in Gympie or moved to the
Sunshine Coast and constant face-to-face communication is hard. Social network
sites like Facebook help me to stay in touch with friends and acquaintances
without the need for face-to-face communication and I feel that this reasoning
justifies my usage of it everyday. My pattern of using social media sites daily
has replaced the pattern of communication I would experience everyday whilst at
high school. Looking at the survey the 91.1% of my peers who stated
that Facebook mainly dominates the time they spend online would have similar
reasoning of wanting to communicate with friends, relatives and acquaintances.
Twitter:
In comparison to my peers I am part of only 10% who use
Twitter regularly. My use of Twitter as a media source is based around the fact
that I follow several online newspapers that post links to stories. Twitter
makes it easier for me to sift through the various news stories and select the
ones that catch my eye or the ones that I find most interesting. In relative
terms, Twitter is the “middle man” between the news sites and the stories themselves.
My pattern of using Twitter daily is based upon news being updated daily. Nowadays,
people require quick and easy access to news to stay up-to-date. By using
Twitter I’m ensured to know that the news is the most recent, as the tweets are
uploaded daily. I use Twitter as more of a source for news rather than a site
of production of news, with only the sporadic tweet complaining about the lack
of buses appearing on my own Twitter page.
Television:
I only used television once, on day four, compared to the
rest of my peers who on average watch television one to two hours a day. I
currently live in a share house and our TV does not work, so I do not have
access to this source of media on a regular basis. However, on that Saturday I
travelled home, where a fully functioning television resides. Not having access
to a functioning TV certainly limits the amount of news I am subject to, in
that the visual aspect of journalism is lost and I have to rely largely on the
text of a news article to engage me. Also, 71.1% of my peers acquire their news
from television, whilst I have to use other sources. By not having access to TV
I use other sources more often, such as Twitter, increasing the patterns I have
in regards to that source of news.
Online News and Radio:
Without the medium of television, the ways in which I can get news are limited to a number of sources. Although I could buy newspapers everyday, the accessibility that online news gives me means that I can have up-to-date and recent news easily. That online news is easily accessible may account for the 67.8% of my peers who use online news as their main source. A trend that can be noticed is that the amount of online news I view on Fridays is much greater than any other days. Fridays are also the only days that I regularly use radio. These trends occur because I am part of a university radio program called NewsSpace and every Friday I have to research the stories that I will say in the 10-minute time slot on-air. The increased amount of online news used on day nine came as a result of the state election being the next day and my need to research for it. My limited use of radio reflects a wider trend of the decrease of traditional media. 53.9% stated in the survey that they listened to less than an hour of radio daily. This number is significantly lower than what it would have been several years ago, when socially, radio was the main source of information.
Smartphone:
Along with 44.2% of my peers, owning an iPhone enables me
quick access to sources of media when I need it, mainly on commutes to fill in
time. My behaviour of using my smartphone on commutes to visit news and social
media sites represents a wider pattern of my wanting to be connected to others,
as generally speaking, the commutes that I take I am by myself. In the survey
when the question was posed, “Which apps do you use on your smartphone?” all of
the answers were related to social media and all of the apps listed had at
least 5 or more people using them. This then demonstrates that my and others
media use is once again concerned with communication.
Social Communication Media:
A large trend that I noticed was on day seven my use of
media was much greater than any other day. As can be seen, my media usage increased
as I was frequenting social media sites, texting and answering emails more than
I normally would. Again, the communication component of media increased my
personal media use. This was due to my birthday occurring on that day. I feel
that the data compiled proves that media is very much focused on socialness.
Whilst in part, media is moving towards focus on the individual and how the
individual has access to media, humans are very social creatures. We live
together rather than by ourselves. We feel the need to associate ourselves with
people of similar interests and keep them close. In other words, humanity is
based on social communication. Whilst the focus may on the individual to have
easy access to news, it can almost be certain that the individual will then
share that information with a thousand of their friends.
