Commercial Media - Week 6

Another weekend spent up by, what I like to call, 'lazy and limited study', another monday turns up, another JOUR1111 lecture arrives right on time. My eyes weary with the recollections of the nights dreams, my skin marked with indents created by bed sheets, my parched throat attempts to liquify my tonsils as I slump routinely into the cracked leather of the surprisingly comfortable lecture chairs. Ok, don't fret, I'm not going to talk about the lecture in that wording, it seemed to just be a creative pass by in my brain. In week 6 lecture Dr Redman discussed commercial media, with commercial media being  profit driven media. I knew that ABC was owned by the government but it never occurred to me that therefore it is 'public media' and commercial media, being privately owned and operated contains advertisements and can be particually biased.  

Advertisers are the real customers of a commercial media organisation, not its readers, viewers or listeners.

The popular above quote illustrates the existence of commercial media, advertisements. Commercial media is the eyeballs and ears of advertisement. Advertisers are the real customers, being with, News Limited, Fair Fax, APN media, WIN, Southern Cross, Seven West Media, Ten and nine entertainment co. Within in each of these organisations, each company creates multiple productions, it is a massive industry that I consume daily. 

Dr Redman explained propaganda that exists in commercial media. For example, Fox News. Fox news is is a commercial media organisation that reaches millions of audience across the globe, it is evident that it is biased through their choice of topics and stories and the angle and language they use. I have been a viewer of this propaganda and I know from learning about media propaganda, as a society we need to be aware of these biased opinions and choose our media intake carefully. 

When evaluating all television programs on Australian television is is evident that commercial media have a general dumbing down of content. With programs such as 'Funniest Home Videos', 'Australia's Got Talent', 'Big Brother' etc. these programs are valued 'worthy' to commercial media. Is is possible for commercial media to deliver commercial (profit) and social (public trust) functions.(or is it just about the mighty dollar $ ?). I believe this would be a major challenge and almost impossible to achieve in this generation, the need and greed for money is to high. 

I'm now attempting to view all commercial media carefully and attempting to stick with public media stations (apart from the odd 'Revenge'....its addictive!)

RADIOTASTIC - week 5

                                                    

                                                               My heading is verging on embarrassing

Week 5

I'm still writing in heading style, 

Time to start blogging,

see you down there,

Yep, im embarrassing. 

It is scary not knowing what you want to do with your life, I knew my interests, likes and dislikes however I was challenged to discover what my career will be. My Mum's careers was  as a radio producer, before having children, the majority of her time was working for ABC radio national. I always felt a tug towards the radio industry which is why I am here now studying journalism, with the topic and speakers of this weeks lecture I was excited and intrigued to hear about the industry.  Week 5 welcomed an online sound lecture (new media...boom!) with Carmel as our speaker as well as interviews from professional radio broadcasters Richard Fidler and Steve Austin from ABC Local Radio. Richard passed on some key points to becoming a great radio producer, he said that radio is more intimate than television, therefore it is necessary to let the listeners feel included, keep the conversation open and think about what audience would like to hear. Richard also mentioned not to be afraid of silence on radio as a producer. Silence is a really powerful in radio, its truthful and revealing. Hearing this I immediately agreed with the concept, however as an aspiring radio producer, before hearing this, I would have presumed silence would be awkward and it would have filled the gap with talking or music. Our second interviewee was Steve Austin. Steve also brought on some worthy advise, bring down the barriers between 'you' and the 'listener', earn their trust so you are able to discuss deeper more emotional issues. Steve also said don't give up, if you really want it, a few knock backs will make you become a more interesting person/radio producer. This interview inspired me to take chances, make risks and work hard. These interviews made my career choice become more solid. 

Media Use Diary 

Media is a particularly modern existence and to have such a dramatic influence on society demonstrates its power and significance. In researching my personal relationship with media it has demonstrated the impact media has on my life.

The table below is the data I collected on my media usage from a period of 10 days between 15.03.12 – 24.03.12

	15.03	16.03	17.03	18.03	19.03	20.03	21.03	22.03	23.03	24.03	Total
Facebook (Hrs.)	2.15	1.15	.30	1	2	2	2.5	2	2	.30	15.4
Twitter (Hrs.)	.05	.05	0	0	.12	.05	0	0	.05	0	0.32
Radio (Hrs.)	0	.13	2.20	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	6.33
Blogs (Hrs.)	.30	0	0	0	0	2	.30	1.5	1	0	5.1
Email (Hrs.)	.07	.02	0	.05	.15	.15	0	.05	.10	0	0.59
YouTube (Hrs.)	1	.30	0	1	.30	1	0	0	1.5	0	5.1
Total	3.57	2.1	2.5	2.05	4.57	5.2	2.8	3.55	4.65	2.3

Before investigating my time spent around media, I presumed I was quite distant from media compared to my peers of a young technological generation. I did not own a ‘twitter’ account nor did I ‘blog’, although the above graph (figure 1) illustrates the extensive amount of time I spend around all types of media.

Figure 1 illustrates the use of my most highly used media throughout a period of 10 days. It is evident from the information displayed on the graph that my time spent around media is predominantly around the social network “Facebook”. Facebook can be used for multiple purposes (calendar’s, news, events, advertisement etc.) although I use Facebook for no real reason other than viewing what friends are up to, where people are and general ‘snooping’. I don’t necessarily talk to friends or go on the website with purpose, rather just sit and watch the site, which is why I find surprising the extensive amount of time I spend on the Facebook.  

Television would usually be rated as a top media outlet that I use, however, I have recently moved to Brisbane and my current house has/had no television in the 10-day period of collecting this data. As I have recently had no television, my main source of news has come from radio. Usually I listen to my iPod when driving although because radio is where my news is coming from my radio has increased the last month as a result. However I still have less news coverage as normal as I only listen to radio in the car and I only drive 4 hours per week (between 2 days - to and from my hometown in Noosa for work).

                                           

Figure 2 compares my two highest media usages, Facebook and radio. From this graph it can be recognised that my use of Facebook declines until Saturday and the increases again on the weekdays and my radio usage is complete opposite. I believe this is due to myself driving 2 hours from Brisbane to my hometown for work. Therefore I had less time to be on Facebook as I worked and drove on weekends, thus increasing my radio usage on the weekend as I listened to it whilst driving.

                                           

Figure 3 represents where the 428 students from class JOUR1111 get majority of their news. I previously mentioned that currently I received news from the radio. 71.1 percent of JOUR1111 students receive their news from television, with 39.1 percent of students listening to news on radio, which is where my statistic’s fit. This calculates to out of the 428 students, 169 listen to radio for news, this is still a large majority of the class therefore my figures are expected.

Figure 3 graph also displays the amount of students receiving their news from online newspapers, a substantial 67.8 percent. From this statistic it is evident that ‘new media’ is a vastly growing industry as it’s a relatively new news outlet. Although currently I use traditional media for news, I expect to change to the growing majority getting news from online.   

Times are changing from traditional media to new media.

                                         

VERSES

Figure 4 represents where the class spends most time on the internet. Facebook is considerably high and when compared to my personal Facebook usage, shown in figure 1, it also shows that Facebook is my highest usage. Other relatively popular sites that match my time spent on the internet is blogs.  However a lot of the sites I never use, such as shopping, television, podcasts and news online. I would still shop, watch television and listen to radio traditionally and this is why I still view myself as more traditional media usage individual compared to my peers.

My relationship to communication and journalism is still in the old media approach. This can be seen throughout figure 1 where, although I use Facebook a lot, I receive news from radio and probably television (when I get one). I rely on radio not online news, twitter or streamed radio and television for my interaction with communication and journalism media.