Media Use Diary and Analysis.

Old media VS new media
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks… but you can tweet about it

Old media has a few aliases. Legacy media, traditional media, and heritage media – all of them refer to the mass communication techniques that have existed since the first newspaper, which was published in 59 B.C. in Rome (the first printed newspaper was published in 1605, but B.C. sounds more impressive so let’s go with that). This industry comprises television, radio, film and music (studio), newspapers, magazines and books.

Then we move onto a sort of transitional phase, of Web 1.0 – the Information Web. Basically, Web 1.0 is old media but just on the computer, as media in the form of ‘brochure-ware’ is repurposed for the web. The focus for the Information Web is on companies, as it is very advertising friendly.

New media is most frequently used today. Web 2.0 is the Social Web and is brimming with new media. Facebook, Skype, Twitter are all part of a group of digital technologies that are easily manipulated, networkable, and interactive. Digital interactivity is the key here and the focus is shifted to social groups and ‘prod-users’ (Alex Bruns, 2005). Web 3.0 is, in a sense, the ‘new new’ media, but I will be examining basic old media and new media for the purpose of my analysis.

The link below leads to my personal Media Use Diary over a 10-day period, divided into old and new media, and then various specific outlets within those. Some basic assumptions when reading the entries are as follows:

• The term use defines an instance in where I am actively involved in a media form, as opposed to exposure. During the course of each day it can be assumed I was exposed to various different media forms (e.g. radio, television, text, etc. through background music, advertising etc.) and these have not been accounted for.
• Each 'day' refers to the period between when I wake up and when I go to sleep, and is not based on a 24-hour period. For example, one 'day' may span between 10a.m. in the morning and 1.00 a.m. that night depending on when I am active.
• I have often accessed multiple forms of media simultaneously, for example listening to music or watching television whilst using the internet. In these cases, the time spent has been used for each individual category. That is, if I spent one hour on Facebook while listening to music, one hour would be allocated to both the 'Facebook' and 'iPod' column.
• I have not distinguished between time spent using media for leisure or for academic use except when mentioned in annotations. It can be assumed, however, that use of newspapers, Blogger and specific websites listed are for studying purposes.
• Annotations in TV entries depict the genre of program watched for analytical reasons, as do locations in iPod and radio entries.
•  A greyed-out entry signifies no use for that day.

My media use diary can be found by clicking HERE.

Something has happened!

Taking a peek at what we’ve actually been doing all this time

To effectively decipher what my media use and that of my peers indicates, I will explain what the graphs show, why these results have occurred, and any personal patterns that are evident.

NEW MEDIA

What?

The shiny blue gradient says it all – I spent over three quarters of my time accessing media on new media (online and electronic). This amount is actually less than I predicted it would be, as my use of newspapers, books, radio and television is more of an occasional practice than a strict pattern like my internet use. I use Facebook and Tumblr virtually every day, as can be seen in my media diary. My use of magazines and newspapers especially, however, is scattered in the table, although the ‘Dazed & Confused’ column shows a slight pattern – the length of time between my purchase of the publication, and completion of reading. New media is ongoing and infinite, as I can hop onto Facebook every single night and be guaranteed of hilarious(ish) updates from friends, news from pages I’ve ‘liked’ and even just communication.

Why?

Personally, I don’t possess much interest in news or current affairs, and so my reasons for picking up a newspaper are limited unless I happen to feel like seeing what’s happening. If I desire news, I am more likely to obtain it from Facebook or a quick Google search, or simply asking my family and friends.

Additionally, I’ve have a solid habit of accessing Facebook and Tumblr, and other new media forms on a frequent basis. As well as taking up time that could be used on old media, I favour new media for both informative and entertainment purposes. All these reasons result in a nice chunk of blue wedge that makes me very hip, trendy, and up-to-the-minute, if not slightly uneducated.

Patterns:

In my media use diary, it’s pretty clear how I favour new media. My use of old media is scattered and unpredictable, and usually just depends on what I feel like at the time. Conversely, my use of new media is daily and often constant, and I spend, on average, over six hours per day indulging in it.

What?

Finally, my excessive online use reveals itself. While most of my peers spend 2-4 hours online per day, I am part of less than 5% of us who sit on the blagoblag for five to six hours (as indicated by the red text), at an average of 5.1 hours per day. If only I resisted the urge to check my newsfeed, I could have dropped down to the lovely purple wedge and been a little less ashamed. Considering over 77% of my media use is new media and of that mostly online, it’s a little comforting… maybe everyone else is simply drooling over the ham radio for 5 hours a day.

Why?

The reason everyone is accessing the internet for at least one a day is as simple as the Web 2.0 phenomenon. If we don’t log on for at least a short amount of time, we feel disconnected and cut off from our social groups and in essence the world. While some people don’t even have Facebook and are using the internet solely for studying, it’s still a vital part of our everyday lives and a mere 3.2% of JOUR1111 students go without at least an hour per day. 3.6% require (or desire) over six hours, and the observation that more people are extreme internet users than limited internet uses reinforces my notion that we all love to connect online.

Patterns:

While the only pattern we can assume from the survey results is that most of the students connect for a few hours, my media diary reveals more detailed patterns of my own. It can be noted that nearly every day I access Facebook, Tumblr and some mode of personal finance. In the course of a note, you can deduct that I check my Facebook, do a bit of tumbling and check and work on my money. About every second day I use Blogger for uni, and this simply comes down to the fact that I don’t have something valuable to blog about every day.

What?

Of all those who completed the survey, it’s as obvious as a fish slapping your face that Facebook’s a hit. General surfing and browsing, emailing and study also ranked up, and I’m a bit taken aback that only 10% of JOUR1111 students are avid tweeters.

Why?

While previously I assumed that some people must be studying for hours a day to result in such high levels of internet use survey-wide, I am corrected. Nearly 92% of JOUR1111 students spend most of their time on Facebook, which is handy because we can all have a chat online about how we should be studying. General surfing and browsing is a popular pastime of prod-users, and the significant emailing figure can again be attributed to Web 2.0’s introduction of frequent online communication. As a lot of study is only possible, and sometimes just easier, online, this explains why almost half of those surveyed recurrently use the internet for studying purposes.

Patterns:

Although the sites I access vary slightly from day to day, I roughly use the same sites every day and for around the same lengths of time. This comes down to my habitual relationship with journalism and communication media, which will be fully explained later.

What?

For once, I’m part of the in-crowd, as I too consider Facebook as my second home like the other 91.9% of my peers. I’m not a huge downloader at all, as reflected in the empty columns for streaming and downloading activities. Only 5.6% of those surveyed played LAN games, so again I’m in the majority with those that don’t (I prefer my gaming handheld and 90s’esque, hello Simpsons Road Rage on GBA). I bank a little, shop a little, and study a little, and these activities aren’t hugely frequent among my peers either. Although I’m only online for study purposes 5.5% of the time, I’m only studying part-time too, so don’t you judge me.

Why?

Firstly, my nonexistent downloading and streaming results can be attributed to my personal preference. I simply prefer to watch DVDs that I own or listen to music already on my iPod (I’m lazy and also have an incredibly shoddy internet connection at home).

I don’t really feel inclined to create a Skype, as, not surprisingly, I just turn to Facebook or sometimes phone calls to connect with friends near and far. My peers use email about half as much as they’re on Facebook, while I use it significantly less as clearly evident on the above graph. This is because I can frequently check all of my accounts on my phone or while I’m at home, and I do, because of my craving to be constantly connected to everything and everyone. Similarly, I don’t ever have a general browse of the internet, because I know exactly what I want to do when I log in – obviously Facebook, perusing blogs, and just maybe a bit of study.

Patterns:

The above graph illustrates the typical online use for me on any given day. Although taken from averages, by referring to my media use diary you can see that I always spend a great deal of time on Facebook, quite a bit on Tumblr, a bit on Blogger for study, and Twitter in short bursts.

 What?

The results from the peer media survey showed that the great majority of students didn't have a single Twitter when answering the survey. I lay in the 1.8% minority (as indicated by the red text) that had 2 Twitter accounts, although this isn't to say I spent more time than them using the outlet. By viewing my personal media use diary, it can be seen that I only accessed Twitter twice over the 10-day period, and the most time I spent in one day tweeting was 15 minutes, which is a very insignificant amount of my time spent online.

Why?

I have a personal Twitter as well as my university Twitter. As there is a notable chunk for the 1 account sector, it may be assumed that respondents were referring to a single personal Twitter and excluding their new uni Twitter (for personal reasons or because they hadn’t yet created it). In opposition, they may have only had their uni Twitter and recorded this as owning 1; or (again, if they were yet to create it), they would have selected the 0 option.

Patterns:

To examine Twitter patterns, I will be referring to my own use of Twitter. I only logged on to the site twice in the 10-day period, for 15 minutes and again for 8. I rarely use Twitter, and when I do I don’t find it necessary to spend more than a few minutes on it. This reflects both in the graph of my personal online use and also in that of my peers, suggesting we are all a bit hesitant or easily bored by the platform, or simply don’t need to use it heaps.

What?

Again, I lay in a minority. How individual of me. Most people didn’t have any blogs, 28.9% had one, and I was part of the 9.7% that had two. From my personal media use diary, it can be observed that on average I spend 98.3 minutes online per day on my blogs, and 82.7% of this is my personal Tumblr and only 17.3% on my JOUR1111 blog.

Why?

The same question can be posed as with the Twitter scenario; when answering the survey, did people take into consideration both personal and university blogs, and had they even created the latter? As a substantial 58.6% stated they had no blogs, it can be assumed they were yet to create their JOUR1111 blog. This raises questions about the 1 wedge, though –were the people who said they owned one blog referring to a personal or academic blog? From this chart alone, it is impossible to tell.

Patterns:

I frequently used both of my blogs in a very obvious pattern. I use my Tumblr every single day for 81.3 minutes on average, and my JOUR1111 Blogger for around 17, although I have days off from this blog.

What?

As expected, 89.1% of respondents choose to listen to music through an iPod or similar ‘smart’ device, as do I. A close 74.1% use their computer, and just 42.8% actually use the radio. 27.5% still use CDs which surprises me, and interestingly 6.3% use some other brand of mp3 player.

Why?

Everyone loves Apple. That’s it. The convenience and accessibility of an iPod, iPhone or similar smart phone is quicker, easier and often more fun for users of music media. Both the iPod and Radio wedges may be part of the in-car music access as depicted later on. Online streaming and the ever-popular iTunes can be credited for three quarters of us using our computer to listen to music, and as part of the CD-to-iTunes journey, this sector can be linked with the grey CD sector.

Patterns:

It’s not tricky to tell how and why I like my music by taking a squiz at my media use diary. I listen to my iPod most days and for a decent amount of time, most often whilst commuting. Like the car radio, I use my iPod as a time-filler to entertain myself while travelling, rather than just as a leisure pursuit in my spare time.

OLD MEDIA

What?
Take that excessive media use, I’m finally in a majority that isn’t up the top of the scale. 29.9% of JOUR1111 students are like me, watching around 1-2 hours of TV per day, and generally I favour comedy programming over others, sometimes tuning in to reality shows. 26.9% follow closely behind, watching less than one hour per day.

Why?

It’s interesting to note that most people either watch no TV at all, or at least an hour. It is likely that once they start watching, they watch an entire episode or two that they have specifically planned to watch, rather than just sit down and channel surfing for the night. This is true in my case, as a few patterns are evident in my diary. I watch the same comedy programs for a few nights on GEM, and the same reality program for the next few nights on Channel Ten. Mostly I go to 7 for news, which is my primary news source for when I rarely want it.

Pattern:

There is not a broad pattern to my television viewing, but some patterns occur over time spans of a few days. On Sunday the 18^th, I balanced some documentary viewing with the same length of comedy, while I watched GEM for two consecutive days later in the week and TEN for two days also. Another pattern of my television use is that I generally prefer to watch comedies, and occasionally news; the atypical 40 minute figure for Saturday the 24^th was the QLD election coverage.

What?

Like 82.9% of respondents, I listen to radio primarily in the car and this can be seen in my media use diary. Interestingly, while the majority of students only access this form of broadcast journalism while travelling, the other means of listening are in roughly the same proportions.  8.3% use their phone, 12.5% stream online from home and 12% favour a digital radio, while 10.2% use god knows what (do they sit inside the radio’s studio? Like seriously, how else do you listen to radio besides a car, phone or an actual radio?! Who has non-digital radios anymore anyway… cavemen).

Why?

Radio, although sustainable, is not a hugely popular form of media. This explains why most of us tend to just turn on the ol’ radio waves while we’re sitting bored in the car, as opposed to curling up at home tuning in for the nightly serials.

Pattern:

I admit it; I’m your common car-listener. It takes me about 25 minutes to be driven to work, and twice I opted for Nova 106.9. Another day on a short 5-minute drive up to the shops, I listened to B105. I don’t have radio favourites, it simply depends on which one’s playing good music and isn’t broadcasting Frank Walker from National Tiiiiiles.

Cue: ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ theme song

Our terribly dramatic relationships with JAC

It’s all about me:

My relationship with media is a strong and consistent one. There is not a single day that I’m not dependent on some form of media for at least a few hours, whether it’s bludging at home on Facey until 2 a.m. or quickly updating my JOUR1111 blog before getting the scoop on the election. While I am definitely dependent on journalism and communication outlets, they are just as dependent on me; a symbiotic relationship is shaped due to both my consumption and creation of media.

Watching television, listening to radio and reading the newspaper – all old media forms – are limited to being consumers, in most cases (excluding talkback radio and editorials, etc.). But I only access old media 22.5% of the time; the rest of my media use is spent adding comments on Facebook, updating my Twitter with hilarious anecdotes, reblogging all of my favourite images on Tumblr and writing content for this blog that’s not quite side-splitting.

It is difficult to determine the exact ratio between my media consumption and creation, unless I was to log everything I read versus everything I created which is a tad too obsessive, even for me. On the whole, I believe that although I consume a great deal of new media and some old media, I generate enough journalism and communication matter to replenish what I’ve devoured.

And the other 99%?

Although the rest of my peers possess a similar relation to JACS as I do, all of the graphs above, although initially shameful for me, illustrate that there is a slight trend to consume more than create. Most of the students surveyed didn’t have a blog, or a Twitter, so their only new media production outlet was Facebook which acts both as a media provider and accepter.

The general pattern is growing though – that old media, while informative, is tedious and not as interactive as people want. People are more inclined to use new media, even if just for journalism consumption, as there is the option to network and contribute should they fancy to. To receive the quality and speed of media that they want, my peers and society in general yearn to have their say and let the wide world know.

Maybe I’m just ahead of the times (being incredibly hip and jiggy with it as usual). I almost have a daily conversation with media – I add my input to the online conversation that is journalism, and it responds by providing me with output to work with and enjoy. The more others join in, the more there is to share, and the online empire grows as Web 3.0 sneaks in and the focus slowly transfers to individuals.

I'll be blunt: radio's swish.

It’s got to be Murphy’s Law. My mum’s been relatively quiet all nice, tiptoeing around the house and making about as much impact as a chair. But then imagine this, in slow motion: I slowly put my earphones in and press ‘play’ to listen to the lecture podcast, she slowly turns to me, and initiates what seems to be the most intense and demanding conversation in the history of not just mankind, but life on Earth itself. Switch to fast motion: I pause over and over to wait for more chatter, the flicking of paper, the hiss of a boiling kettle, the sizzling of a salad that just happens to need preparing tonight and in this 30-minute time frame, and more chatter about whatever’s in the paper and how the coffee and salad is ready.

A few stern taps on my earphones and she gets the picture and sulks away, head lowered in a mock fit of despair.

So eventually I began to learn about telling stories for radio. Radio is a completely different medium to television, and much more intimate, much like the conversation of my mother. TV, although high-impact, can be watched from a distance. For example, while making instant soup in the kitchen, I enjoy leaning slightly backward to watch infomercials in the dining room. Conversely, radio can be listened to while multitasking, and the radio voice often comes from “inside your head”. Conveniently creepy.

While a conventional radio interview is 7 minutes tops, conversational radio can easily be an hour long with a single guest. Seems somewhat like a typical conversation with my grandma (mind you, the same topics are repeated a few times because she forgets we’ve already discussed them so it probably wouldn’t be a solid hour of content).

Conversation involves ideas as well as biographical content – like conversations with my grandma – and it’s important you’re that genuinely interested – not like conversations with my grandma.

Teasing your guests a little can be fun and harmless –

  

 No point doing this… you’re on radio, no one can see.

 

-  as it gets them to be like a normal human being, and you might get some unintended information from them.

I found it interesting that a key skill in interviewing people for radio is to respect rare moments of their own personal thoughts by shutting up. Apparently this gives them the prompt to pause and reflect, although personally I’d be wondering why the funny radio man went quiet.

In radio, annunciation DOES matter as you are trying to communicate – well, that rules me out, as a speaker of four thousand words a minute. Radio is the ‘theatre of the mind’, minus red velvet curtains and those happy/sad masks that freak me out.

 GET AWAY FROM ME DEMONS

While posing questions for talkback, you can be blunt, but not James Blunt, as no one would listen.

Radio has continued to keep and increase its audience worldwide due to the rising phenomenon of everyone being time poor, so maybe it’s a more hopeful outlet than print journalism which as I previously wrote about has one foot in the grave. But my jokes are too corny for radio and I speak like a total bogan, so I’ll just have to pray the mighty pen stays mighty.

What a downer.

All the world will be your enemy,

Prince with a Thousand Enemies,

And when they catch you, they will kill you...
But first they must catch you.

Generally when you think hand-drawn animation, you think Bambi, Snow White, or early renditions of Spongebob. Bunnies' eyes rolling back into their heads, bunnies coughing up blood and bunnies being both shot and taken by hawks isn't generally something you'd put in the morning cartoons.

And yet Watership Down (1978, directed by Martin Rosen) manages to feature grotesque sequences like this, but so beautifully drawn, uniquely animated and accompanied by incredibly moving, haunting music, that I consider it a cult classic.

Classics are movies that everyone should or has seen and that will be remembered for generations. Cult classics, however, are those treasured by a very select demographic and savoured for their unusual takes on film genres. For example, author of the 1972 novel 'Watership Down', Richard Adams, constructed a fictional language known as Lapine that was spoken on occasion by the characters, and this also features in the film.

In Watership Down, an idyllic community of rabbits is torn between fear and anger when Fiver, a lowly runt, experiences horrific visions. Blood seeps out of the neighbouring wood, filling their field, and Fiver instinctively knows it is the blood of his warren.

 He is dismissed as insane; a troublemaker. But those affected by his warning escape with him into the countryside to find safety.

The obstacles they face would terrorize humans, let alone a small group of rabbits. They narrowly escape the jaws of a rabid badger, or Lendri as it is known in their rabbit folklore. Terrorized by hawk, rat, cat, dog, human, and rabbit alike, they repeatedly attempt to seek refuge with other warrens. One warren, while accepting of them, has a menacing air. Sure enough, they fail to mention the maze of snares surrounding their territory, one of which chokes and almost kills Bigwig, a former member of the warren's policing force.

Later in the film, a rival and highly militarized warren called Efrafa discovers their trail, but it is Fiver's visions that provide the protagonist with a solution.

This battle between the demons of hallucination and psychosis, and those of territorial enemy is a focal point that I took from the film. Gory scenes, involving dying rabbits being scraped at with bulldozers, poisoned and mutilated, are disturbing on some levels. But they act to reflect not just a message opposing environmental abuse, but a commentary on civilized human empires. The rabbits exiled Fiver as a minority, believing that their current life was sustainable despite warning. This resulted in their culling as their society was literally poisoned from the inside out.

 

  

This can and will happen to today's empires. Warnings are not heeded, and devastation will occur, and much worse than a fright from a badger.

Interestingly, Watership Down plays a cameo in another cult classic, the psychological thriller/sci-fi Donnie Darko, and on a wider context the films are remarkably similar. The main characters both experience mental distortion, in terrorizing and sometimes helpful visions. They are both excused, but their visions are true- and their worlds ultimately come to an end.

It is this element of the films that we can only pray is fiction. If the visions of those who experience psychotic disorders and episodes are warnings, we should be quickly hopping away to safer hills as fast as we can.

Watership Down remains one of my favourite films, although I am yet to read the book… and slightly hesitant to. Animated features involving animals are often not true to the novel, eliminating some of the violence and disturbing themes to suit wider audiences. While The Fox and the Hound is a delightful, adorable movie I grew up with, the novel involves multiple litters of foxes being shot, burned and gassed, and rather than a broken leg, the antagonist’s dog dies instantly when hit by a train.

And yet in Watership Down, the violence is often both created by and inflicted on animals, because sometimes it takes a depiction of ourselves in a fluffy bundle of joy to realise how malicious we really are.

The jocks of the clubbing circle.

"VJing may have become a cliché since its 90s superclub heyday, but... a new generation of visual music artists are breathing life back into the art form".

 ‘Future Visionaries’, Dazed & Confused January 2012

Fairly dissimilar to visual journalists, ‘video jockeys’ are, to my delight, becoming more widely accepted again. It’s been done for Aphex Twin, and by daddy that reinforces its newfound bodacity. Zombi’s got on board too, so it’s definitely cool enough to wake the living dead.

VJing is raw and aesthetic, like a sexy potato. Surreal yet nostalgic experiences are influenced by the theatrical background of music. For example, analogue and animals combine in Spencer Longo’s sample-based art.

It was Dazed & Confused’s article on the rise of VJing that sparked my interest, and kept it even days later as I sat watching the election covering while listening to The Backstreet Boys. Check it out poindexters.

Watch it bro.

$16.99 later and I'd acquired my dream watch. Silicone, aquamarine and digital yet still slightly retro, I can count down the seconds until my lecture starts, with bendy 90s flair.

Skate or die.

Recently my best friend moved to Sydney and is now studying marketing, although she thinks she might swap to publishing. Just perfect, considering I’ll hopefully pop out of uni in a few years time with a Journalism degree and a desire to be published. I’ll write, she'll publish (I’m aware that's not exactly how it works but we'll get there)! Her updates inform me that she's purchased a skateboard to cruise around her new abode with ease, so it seems only fitting that I invest in one too and finally learn how to skate after, roughly, 10 years of intending to. I’ll write my 90s articles on my 90s skateboard, even if it takes until 2090 (I told you some grannies might like grunge).

Pitch ya stories.

This lecture, we learnt about picture stories. How they are everywhere, and have been since yonks ago. Graffiti is a picture story, as are French cave paintings from 15 000 B.C, and even grainy photos of a 3-year-old me looking demonesque in my hideously unflattering togs.

 HOT.

I didn’t really find it surprising that the first photo in a newspaper was an advertisement, or that “faux-tography” – pretty self explanatory – is abundant too. I’m now considering hiring a crack team of makeup artists to fix me before I leave the house, and to run in front of me with electric fans wherever I go. I don’t think it’s too much to ask in such modern times.

Taken from the short film Evolution, a Dove advertisement. Find it HERE.

I was already aware that framing, focus, angle, point of view, exposure and timing are essential in capturing both effective photographs and film, with the added dimension of sound for video (needless to say, my analytical essay on the filming techniques of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was fairly depressing).

We were also presented with footage of Hitler, in which he stated:

            “We want to see no more class divisions.”

Soz Addy, you’re doing it wrong.

By and large, I’m still on the fence about photojournalism. While I appreciate see the appeal, I don’t think even amazing photos can fully translate a story. No matter how stirring your Kodak moment of a bunch of distraught relatives at a funeral is, if you caption it with, “Family devastated at their horribly unattractive genes” it’s going to lose its meaning. Text has that influence. Good images are often dependant on good writing, while effective text can exist alone, I believe.

I'm high on life!

You see a disturbing still from a childhood cartoon. I see a SIGN. When little crazy Tommy popped up on my Tumblr dashboard, some interpretations of his appearance flooded my mind, but ultimately it was the homage to the 90s that prompted me to reblog it. Coincidentally, in my reporting course we were shown a clip of James Brown being interviewed high (I think I'm going to like uni). Although there were no doubts what his indulgences were, this picture leads us to wonder what in god's name Tommy is on. Suddenly, journalism, lectures, and elements of the 90s are linked together. And I didn't even have to try and extrapolate. To you, a disturbing still from a childhood cartoon. To me, confirmation that I'm doing my dream degree.

D'oh, I have no life.

It has reached the point where my media use is, in one word, shameful. What starts as watching a spot of telly and checking my Facebook ends in 195 minutes of checking everyone's Facebook and 290 minutes of lackluster home videos and teen wizard films.

During last week's JOUR1111 lecture, I was hanging onto every word of our guest speaker Skye Doherty, agreeing how groovy text is and losing myself in the frantic world of newspapers. And yet even that very night, I meandered on home to observe overweight people eating and jiggling and I loved every minute of it.

The inverted pyramid model. Also represents the quality of my media use; where the top represents most important, and the bottom least, I generally sit just under the lowermost point.

We were informed how text is fast, flexible and allows complete control, not dissimilar to a snazzy running shoe. Text dominates online, and the addition of hypertext allows multiple online platforms and the opportunity to explore, aggregating aspects of the story into other web features. Text is emails, blogs, Facebook, comments and Twitterfeeds. I guess this means I'm exposed to a hell of a lot of text.

While sitting on Facebook for hours is in poor form, this headline is anything but. Take note though: clever headlines might make your story difficult to locate in a web search.

I expected my media use to be incessant, as there's not a minute I'm not engaging myself somehow, but the quality of it is embarrassing.

"Yes, I'm really enjoying journalism, loving lectures and studying heaps!" I blurt out to friends, failing to mention how I spent the previous night playing Simpsons on my GameBoy and religiously checking my PayPal.

I like to glamorise myself as a prod-user, accessing the features of Web 3.0 by targeting individual demographics on my sub-par Tumblr. My week 3 JOUR1111 lecture left me with the knowledge to include keywords, links and metadata in my online content to specifically zone in on such audiences. I was also advised that excerpts, or tid-bits of your story that summarise it in an incredibly interesting and alluring way, can be helpful for gaining readership to your story. RSS feeds and Twitter only fuel this popularity contest. 

 A prime example of a head-cocking snippet. Can you resist to click?!

Although at this point, the most I can hope for is that we don't get marked down for spending most of our waking hours hovering in front of a glowing screen.

Isn't that just vintage me.

Ah, the wonder that is vintage muscle tops. I found this during one of my frequent online shopping sessions, after checking my bank balance online, and before posting on my friend's Facebook wall about how I was thirsty. It seems strange, then, that for someone who welcomes the web as a means of performing many daily activities that I aim to work at a print magazine. Just like the soft, flattering fabric of this top, the tangible aspect of magazines draws me in. as a 90s kid, that's one thing I won't give up - turning pages (and Nickelodeon).

Shitty coffee, shitty metaphor.

Week 2 – a second dose of UQ, a second attempt at making awkward conversation with strangers, a second chance to mock people buying half-strength skinny cappuccinos (it’s freaking warm skim milk).

In my JOUR1111 lecture this week, we got stuck into web iterations and the effect and challenges of online progression on the news. Mass communication or “old media”, like newspapers, radio and TV, was no match for the bodacious “brochure-ware” of the advertising friendly, company-focused Web 1.0. The Information Web won that round, but when we moved on to the New Media of Web 2.0, my boxing metaphor only continued. Known as the “social web”, platforms like Facebook, Skype and Twitter allow the focus to be shifted to social groups. “Prod-users”, a term coined in 2005 by QUT’s Alex Bruns, were the new content-creaters and reigning champions.

Just when we all thought it couldn’t get any more brutal or complex, out came the notion of Web 3.0 – the “semantic web”. Meta tagging and geotagging packed a punch, resulting in a severe case of hyperlocalisation and specific content delivery for the modern web user.

(Hint: meta tags work heaps  better when zoomed in on at a slight tilt.)

Observing journalists were now concerned about the death of journalism itself, as people felt entitled to news. My lecturer made the call that paywalls are hitting the newspapers, much to the reluctance of new consumers.

I left that lecture feeling a bit battered myself, wondering if there was any point continuing to study a dying trade, and wondering why I can’t just write a normal recount like everyone else.


In my quest for further investigation into paywalls, I found an article by Russell Adams of The Wall Street Journal highlighting the struggle. See 'Newspapers Put Faith in Paywalls' for more.