For ‘Unix X’, I am required to write 3 reflective posts. ‘You and the media’, ‘Groupwork’ and ‘The experience of Unit X’.
1. A Reflection of Keeping a Media Diary!
My 7- day Media Diary can be found here : My Media Diary
For the first task for Unit X, I was required to keep a record of the media I use for 7 days, showing the times and context of which media platform I use. This then has to be presented in a table so that the information can be seen clearly. After this, my task was to produce a reflection of my experience of keeping a media diary.
A media diary was something I found pretty easy to complete although I have never kept one before. The hard thing was coming to terms with the amount of time I spend on social networking applications. It has shown me just how much my life revolves around the media, whether it be using ‘google’ or chatting with my friends.
I started by taking notes every time I picked up my phone and used an application, most of the time it was just scrolling down the news feeds of social networking sites and applications. Sometimes I would forget to take notes e.g. On a morning when I listen to music, I forget that this is using media because it is something I sort of do without even knowing.
As part of the task, I was told to show the context of where and why I was using the media, but the majority of the time it is simply because I have too much free time and because I am bored. My media diary has shown me where my interests lie in terms of media. I enjoy using the internet to watch films and TV programmes as it is free and so easy to use.
Certain elements of my media diary give away aspects of my personality, gender, regional location and age. From a strangers point of view, I think that stereotypes have to be used in order to guess who the writer is. For example, watching The Only Way Is Essex, a reality television programme who’s primary audience is young women. Also, using Instagram is something that most of my friends use who are all girls which would suggest that the writer is female. In addition to this, by using an iPhone and an iPad, this would suggest that the diary writer is a young adult as these are the most up-to-date with newer technology. The regional location of the writer would be guessed as Manchester because of the fact I used google to find out Manchester’s Arndale shopping centre opening times.
Social networking websites have become part of my everyday life due to the fact that it can be used to keep in touch with family and friends, to communicate with course friends and tutors, and to share information and ideas with others.
In conclusion, I think that keeping a media diary was a real ‘eye-opener’ and has shown me just how much I rely on my phone and laptop. However, I think my generation will only worsen in the amount of media they rely on, because newer technology will be invented.
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My Polysemic World 