Annotate this.

Greer, C. (2007). News media, victims and crime. In P. Davies et al (Eds.), Victims, crime and society (pp. 20-49). London: Sage Publications.

The chapter ‘News Media, Victims and Crime’ by Chris Greer from the book ‘Victims, Crime and Society’ outlines how news outlets select victims of crime to cover from certain criteria and news values, selecting which will be ‘newsworthy’. This chapter and the entire text itself are highly credible, referencing such outlets as the Oxford University Press and Journal of Criminal Justice to validate its claims. As Chris Greer has been specifically selected to construct this chapter, the content can be heavily relied on as he specialises in this area. This text describes the ‘ideal victim’ as one who is given the legitimate status of being an innocent victim, as influenced by class, race and ethnicity. This is true as the concept of ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’ is present in the Courier Mail article, and the Westside News article stresses that she was a common mother. Greer notes that crime reporting is “highly selective” and that “violence is constructed [in the media] as ‘random’” or “the intentional acts of evil folk”. This is the case in the Courier Mail article, which puts forward the issue solely as a violent tragedy. While the ABC has also ‘selected’ the issue, the reporting is less constructed and more educational. News values of drama and violence are described by Greer and being newsworthy, which again is true for the Courier Mail article. He also notes that crime stories are “selected and ‘produced’… on the basis of visual and lexical-verbal potential.” The Westside News exploits such potential, including many images of Baden-Clay and using affecting language. ‘News Media, Victims and Crime’ highlights commercial media and effectively describes the behavior of news media, especially that of the Courier Mail and Westside News articles.

Crane, K. (2012, May 18). Hearts brake for Allison. The Courier Mail. Retrieved from http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/hearts-break-for-allison/story-fn6ck45n-1226359318441

This newspaper article outlines how the public has responded to the death of Brookfield mother Allison Baden-Clay. In this way, it is credible, as the author Kris Cane of the Courier Mail has acknowledged that a desired response for this type of journalism has been achieved. The author notes that the issue has “struck a chord with the public”, and includes dialogue from Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson describing that it is a case of “…significant public interest.” This response is attributed to the fact that Baden-Clay is “… a true victim.” Although the article has been sourced to an in-house reporter, the context means that the content is at risk of tabloidisation, due to the existing tragedy news value held by this newspaper. This does occur, as highly expressive language such as “tragic story”, “heartbreaking” and “…a tearful service” is utilized. This sways the audience to feel emotional as well, and in turn increase the public interest. The contradiction between recognizing the society’s response and manipulating it to generate further interest is common to tabloid newspapers such as the Courier Mail. Mediums such as television similarly exploit the public’s reaction. Conversely, it is evident that the ABC’s article ‘Police confirm body is missing Brisbane woman’ presents purely the facts with limited emotion, so as to inform but not position the audience.

Police confirm body is missing Brisbane woman. (2012, May 2). ABC News. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-01/police-confirm-body-is-missing-brisbane-woman/3983398

This story illustrates the events of the Baden-Clay’s disappearance leading up to the discovery of her body. No specific author is recognised, but the ABC is a trusted news organisation for credible content, and the online medium means that any new updates can quickly be applied so that the information is correct. The article approaches the story from a strictly informative angle by using as few emotive terms as possible, with “…sparking a major search” being the most expressive phrase throughout. Initially, Baden-Clay is referred to as a “woman”, and not a “mother” as some tabloid publications have used, to minimise any emotional attachment the audience may form. The professionalism of the ABC paired with the online medium means that the information is presented in short, succinct sentences. Again, this means that only the facts are offered and eliminates unnecessary emotive language. Most of the content is credible, although the article notes that “… it was reported that a sim card had been found” but does not attribute any source. Despite this, the story is covered more professionally than most tabloid newspapers and commercial news television stations. When compared to the article ‘Unrelenting stream of tributes’ from Westside News, it is obvious that the level of reporting from the ABC’s story is much more information-focused, without an agenda to emotionally engage the audience.

Unrelenting stream of tributes. (2012, May 16). Westside News, p. 5.

This local story summarises the outcomes of Allison Baden-Clay’s death, mainly spotlighting the memorials that have been erected in her honour. No author is specified, and the source, Westside News, is not particularly credible due to its very local focus and the existing agenda to appeal to local audiences and maintain a readership. This article, rather than present new and significant developments on the issue, lingers on the memory of Baden-Clay. While mentioning the “tragic events” of the past weeks, it describes the location of her body’s discovery, where a small shrine of flowers now exists, as a “much more sombre location”. The article uses highly emotive terms to position the readership to view the publication as a family-focused, ‘loving’ local newspaper. It says that Baden-Clay’s “memory is destined to live on… long after the flowers have wilted” and, as opposed to the ABC’s strictly informative description of her, refers to her as a “much-loved mother”. While the content of the article is credible, the manner of its presentation is unnecessary to provide the information required and adheres to the medium’s tendency to glorify local events. In contrast, the Courier Mail article ‘Hearts brake for Allison’ uses similar language, but emphasises the tragedy rather than the legacy, and concedes that it is doing this.

My brain's evil plight.

Music blared in the background and the fan whirred faintly. My clothes were scattered quite artistically over the floor, hiding amongst piles of magazines, an unending network of electrical cords.

I lay limp on my bed, face pressed into my pillows, one leg dangling off the edge for the murderers under my bed to freely seize. That last statement isn’t entirely exaggeration. If it were dark, I wouldn’t have dared let any part of me protrude over the safety of the bed.

* * *

Everyone has a bit of a bonding moment over the threat of what goes bump in the night. I generally struggle to find others to empathise with my fears that there’s fire encircling the house, strange men in the roof and the walls, and, somewhere out there, giant skinned rabbits in business suits coming to cut me to pieces.

I’m not a loon, honestly. Every now and then, my brain just likes to chuck me a wildcard, seeing how I react to ominous voices in my head or visions of blood on my pretentiously named Goose Egg purple walls.

The 90s heydays saw me growing up happily, with a standard two-adults-two-kids-and-two-guinea-pigs family. Pretending to be a dog was my forte, and the most exciting time of the year was when we drove down to the beach for a week, to a 3-star unit with the childhood wonders of Nickelodeon, a pool, and an ancient videogame machine that played 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog.

Despite my carefree adolescence, I always felt as if something menacing was looming somewhere, far away, but still there. It’s a challenge to explain, but I almost anticipated that these days of plastic food, Barney and dancing to Atomic Kitten were the peak of a mountain that was soon to experience many landslides.

Life moved on. Divorce can act as a slap in the face to some people, but my parents’ separation didn’t impact me severely. Even at the meek age of 11, I knew that my family was just one of those clans that operated better with some distance between them. It was probably the most composed break up in the history of life on Earth, with my mother and father peacefully informing me and my sister, who was 14 at the time, that Dad would be moving away. They never fought; my Dad was just lazy, a toxic addition to a family run by a female perfectionist.

High school was, in a word, tragic. I awkwardly slotted in with the water polo kids, after knowing one of them from primary school. Every lunch they would natter on about last week’s training and the sassy new school togs, and every lunch I would sit silently, smiling and nodding, pleading to the gods that they would never discover I was a lumbering rhinoceros in the water.

Eventually I splashed out, pun intended, and made the effort to find some other less aquatic friends. I shifted between groups slightly, and by Grade 10 I found a cluster of similar girls. School was slowly starting to reveal its tolerable side.

Meanwhile my brain, dormant until now, decided that things were getting boring. Happy, relaxed, and contented? Unacceptable. So the sneaky bastard searched through its decks and decided to deal me the depression card.

It came on slowly, and initially unknown even to me. People started getting harder to relate to, I was less compelled to show effort, and my mother seemed to become the devil. She couldn’t comprehend why I had developed into a wicked, hateful teen tyrant.

The forces of the world decided this wasn’t quite exciting enough, so on came the bullying. I still have no idea why, but I became the in joke not just to my all-girls grammar school, but to our brother school too. Bitchy boys will be bitchy boys?

People made private groups on Facebook with the sole purpose of posting photos of me and mocking them; at parties, complete strangers would chase me, yelling out how ‘dank’ I was. I didn’t dare tell anyone but a circle of trusted friends that any of this was happening, and even they sometimes refused to believe it, or didn’t understand the scale of what was occurring.

Eventually, this concoction of depression and oppression triggered my first ‘blip’, as Mum calls them. I escaped to my neighbour’s house late at night, and we walked around until a police car picked us up. Soon after I had my first counseling session. I hated it and, lucky me, there were dozens and dozens yet to come.

The bullying continued, I slumped further, and the pressures of Year 12 grew. I managed to struggle on, keeping up fairly high grades, and with a lengthy prescription of antidepressants, I held on to my sanity by a thread.

I wasn’t getting happier though. Depression is a strange and virtually impossible to understand unless you suffer from it. The common impression is that sufferers are ‘emo’, hate life, hate people, and devise ways to kill themselves every day. While I did my fair share of bawling, I wasn’t utterly sad, and I didn’t dye my hair black. My depression manifested itself as emptiness. I didn’t feel joyful, but I didn’t feel sad. I felt nothing; draining, numbing nothing. I wasn’t suicidal, and I didn’t self harm. To me, that would accomplish nothing. To me, nothing would accomplish anything. So I just sat through life, enduring pain after pain, and not wanting or bothering to do anything about it but wait for the end of the storm.

My brain was spinning in its chair, fluffy white cat in lap. What other tricks could it unleash? Again, it searched through its files and found another crafty maneuver: anxiety.

The bullies started to scare me. Before I had just hated them, every single disgusting cell of their bodies, but now I was genuinely afraid of them and would actively avoid their stares and callous words and any mention of them. I became stressed extremely often and easily. My grades slipped, as I acquired irrational fears of my textbooks and studying. Teachers stopped scolding me for sleeping every class, and started getting worried. I wasn’t lazy, I was very ill.

Once in English class, as my teacher was passing around worksheets, she saw me in a deep slumber on my desk. Rather than wake me, she delicately placed the sheet on top of me and moved on. She was probably one of my favourite and smartest teachers, and would later go on to advise me that, “Everyone has a shit year or two. A bloody corker. You’ve just had yours early on.” I didn’t know which was more exciting, hearing that things would get better, or hearing a teacher swear.

The tempest raged on. I developed other, less obvious symptoms. If my room was messy, I would feel jittery the whole day. If I left the house with the ‘wrong’ socks on, I would feel extremely agitated and self conscious, and usually break down with fear and exhaustion once home. I whole-heartedly believed that every stranger was critically judging me and did not like what they saw. Some were even secretly plotting amongst each other to physically harm me.

That evil brain was now cackling and rolling about, loving every minute of it. But the fun was yet to begin! It was time to crack out the big guns – a nice strong dose of thrilling psychosis.

One night when my friend was over. I was talking about a girl that had turned against me after I had declined emotionally, and doctors now think that taking about such a strong stressor was poisonous to my mind. Suddenly, just while we were talking, my friend wasn’t… him. I didn’t know who this stranger on my bed was or why he was weirdly staring at me. When he asked me what was wrong, why I shaking, and to stop, I grew more afraid. He was just a pawn in someone else’s game, here to convince me I was safe, while a greater force was looming (enter: evil bunnies in suits).

In a nutshell, I thought and saw some crazy shit that night and ended up in a hospital overnight, relaying my thoughts to doctor after doctor while fighting a strong sedative they’d given me. What moron thought to sedate me and then bombard me with a press conference, I don’t know.

These episodes were recurring. The one at school was quite exciting for all involved. My twitching, nonsensical babbling and involuntary swearing at the elderly school nurse was obviously drug withdrawal, according to my charming peers. The week after, was I at home recuperating? Rubbish! It’s clear I was in rehab and suspended. Reemerging at school, I felt like I’d risen again, and come back to haunt my cohort.

Having multiple mental illnesses isn’t fun, but I don’t like to whine about it. While I wouldn’t repeat it, not for a million puppies, it’s kind of part of me. It separates me from the common folk who don’t understand and who maybe never will. I have lost many friends who have become terrified of me and what they’ve witnessed, but the few who have stuck around are dependable, and have their P’s, which is handy.

It’s important to have a sense of humour with these things. Even my mother jokes about it occasionally. I see some killer shoes in a magazine and tell Mum that, “I desperately need some retail therapy!” she’ll retort with, “No, you just desperately need therapy.” I’ll pretend to be offended but we all have a bit of a chortle, and usually go shopping anyway.

I’m fairly sure I’m not barmy, and when I am, they’re just those ‘blips’, my mother assures me. Even so, some of the most creative people in history have been those with mental illnesses, and I sure used to come up with some creative ways to avoid violin practice.

People who are prescribed medications for depression, anxiety or psychosis will often have to take them for the rest of their life, but it’s impossible to tell who they are. Anyone you pass on the street could have prophesised their death last night and had to pop some pills to calm down. I know I have!

* * *

I slowly sat up, eyes fixated on my laptop screen and the words of wisdom I’d just churned out. My story might have been a tad gloomy and intimidating, but hot damn it was factual. With a mind like mine, swirling at a million miles an hour and uprooting most logical processes, it was difficult to think of anything to write about but myself. Saving my work, and sprawling back down onto the best mattress in the world, I cracked open a Simpsons comic. Not hugely productive, but still totally necessary. It was important for me not to get stressed, after all.

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.