Over a two-week period I undertook a study to investigate my personal media use from varying levels, as well as a wider study of media use from people in my age group. From this I will evaluate the impact that some media outlets may have on today’s journalism and communications in our society. The information gathered highlights my use of new media sources and the lack of traditional media sources such as newspapers and the radio. This is not only seen in my personal media use but is also part of a wider pattern of media use and production.
From the pie graph above it indicates that my main media use was television, followed by the Internet. However the nature of my television viewing is purely for entertainment value and therefore is not a major source of news or current affairs. On the other hand I use the Internet for a various purposes, which are more closely relevant to journalism and current affairs. This indicates a changing medium to that of ‘old media’ outlets, such as the radio or newspaper to a new and easily accessible technology based format.
This bar graph above shows the specific types of Internet media I used and the extent I used it, with Facebook being the most prominent visited site. Facebook is a social networking site, which I visit daily as it allows me to easily and instantly connect with friends and updates me regularly with both social, and news events. This directly correlates to a survey taken of UQ Journalism students indicating Facebook as the most visited Internet site. Facebook is used all over the world and has over 400 million users. With Facebook able to reach such a large group of people it makes it a popular choice of communication and information source. As a result journalism and communication has had to adapt and use Facebook as media source for communication. Currently 1.5million pieces of content, such as web links, news stories or photos are uploaded daily onto Facebook further highlighting the transition from traditional media forms to ones such as Facebook that center around the social networking scene.
One of the most significant changes in media use and production is the way in which we view the news. The pie graph above represents my news sources which predominately are online newspapers. Throughout the two weeks of logging my media use I did not once use a newspaper as a source for current affairs. This is not only reflected through my media diary but also new trends of media use and production in society. Out of the 25 major newspapers in the world 24 have shown a record decline in circulation. Moreover the survey of university students shows that 90.6% of students also received their news from online newspapers. With the abundant resources online that supply the latest news, easy access and more visual media the fundamental communication aspect of journalism has developed into an online-based media outlet. Although I did use the radio occasionally to listen to news updates and newspapers are still widely use the data collected illustrates a fast moving change from these types of media outlets to ones mostly found online.
The information collected through logging my personal media use is a clear indication that my relationship to Journalism and Communication is essentially based on online media outlets. This relationship is further represented in new trends in media production and use, signifying a change from traditional media outlets to online-based media. Additionally with Internet enabled phones we can now check, update and post content on the web anytime, anywhere we want thus making the Internet one of the most important media outlets for journalism.
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