Week Five - Sound Lecture

Telling Stories for Radio.

If I am to be truthful, I don't listen to radio if I can avoid it. My car is littered with the CDs I listen to, at last count there are 33 of them. My iPod is filled with my music, and I have never once used my radio function. When I am my laptop, the music I listen to is either on iTunes or Youtube. Radio isn't a big part of my life, music is, but not radio.

My first thoughts of this lecture when I realised it would be like a radio-interview were "is there a transcript of this lecture? Please god let there be!" When I realised there wasn't I did contemplate not listening to the podcast, but dug deep within myself and pressed the play button once again.

I don't agree with what Dr. Redman said, "Radio is more intimate than TV". When I listened to this recording I didn't feel as if the voice was coming from my own head. It felt distant and not totally familiar, like someone was invading personal and private space with their own thoughts and words. With TV, which is something that I try to limit my watching of, I can see who is speaking and although I don't know them and don't feel connected to them, it still seems plausible that the words coming out of their mouth are their own. I guess to me, both TV and Radio are equally un-intimate.

This lecture was in preparation for our next assignment, telling a factual story. The common theme of how to speak to someone about their experiences came through loud and clear, but it also unnerved me a bit. I have stories which I could tell for this assignment, but I don't know if I feel comfortable enough with this media-type to do so. I can write silly little things like "Six things I wish I never did" or "10 things I want to say to 10 different people", because I censor it. If I was doing this was my close friends, the content of these entries would change dramatically. I want to be honest with the factual story and write about this one experience, but I don't know if I can bring myself to do so. I don't know if I can bear so much of myself to, lets be honest, 300 or so strangers. 

Maybe I need to think more about what I am prepared to disclose....Or maybe I should just protect myself and not write about what I think would be a good thing to write about.... Anyway, that was week five and my thoughts on the lecture.   

Day Five: Six Things I Wish I Never Did

1. Not pick up my phone that day.
2. Start doing a psychology degree - WORST mistake I could possibly make.
3. Not speak up when I had the chance.
4. Not pass my brother the football - he then broke my arm....we were 4 and 6.
5. Let you walk all over me.
6. Cut my hair short.

Day Four: Seven things that cross my mind a lot

1. Am I crazy?
2. God, I hate this song!
3. Oh shut up! Your life isn’t that bad?! Go away!
4. Ohhhh prettyyyy :)
5. POLS1201......please no
6. Oh one more drink won't hurt, right?
7. How long ‘til this is over?

Day Three: Eight ways to win my heart

1. DON’T be materialistic, there's more to life than money.
2. Be comfortable with who you are, it's very sexy.
3. Make me laugh! And often!
4. Surprise me.
5. Take an interest, engage with me.
6. Be open minded, because I don't walk a normal road so you need to open to my outlook on life.  
7. Be fun to be around. Simple as that.  
8. Accept that I make mistakes and am at times a mess, but think I am perfect in my brokenness any way.  

Day Two - Nine Things About ME!

1. I have over 100 pairs of shoes....don't judge me :P
2. I am the youngest sibling in my family, and the only girl.
3. Cain Toads scare me. I'm deathly, horribly afraid of them; their little beady eyes are just so freaky!
4. Half my neck has freckles and half doesn't. There's no real explanation, I'm just weird like that.  
5. My favourite movie from when I was little (and still today) is "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I was a strange child.
6. Every minute of every day I wear 2 toe rings, 9 anklets, five bracelets, one claddagh ring and a 7 lucky rings necklace. All of which are silver and have some meaning to me.
7. Halloween is my favourite holiday, even though it isn't traditionally celebrated here in Australia.
8. I love to read the secrets on www.postsecret.com
9. My favourite alcoholic drink is a mystery to me! I asked the bartender for the drink the girl in front of me had (it looked good) and never got it's name! :( So I have been searching for over a year trying to find my favourite drink.

Personal Media Use and Production Diary

PERSONAL MEDIA USE AND PRODUCTION DIARY

For a period of ten days, all students in JOUR1111 were required to log their personal media use and production. Prior to this, all students also completed a survey regarding our media use.

My personal media use and production over a ten day period is recorded in the following table and graph.

Table 1 – My Media Use and Production Over A Period of Ten Days.



Graph 1 – My Total and Average Daily Media Use and Production.

Impact of State Election on My Media Use and Production

Graph 2 – My Television Use Over Ten Days.

The graph above shows that I don’t usually watch much television. Days eight, nine and ten can be considered anomalies for me, as my usage went up to 60 and 70 minutes, and then spiked to 180 minutes.

I noticed that my significant change in TV viewing was part of a wider pattern of altered media habits over days eight, nine and ten. A similar trend of increased media use can be seen in the amount of time I spent receiving and initiating phone calls (25, 45 and 60 minutes respectively) and reading news online, peaking on day ten to 90 minutes.

These trends can be attributed to my intense interest in the Queensland State Election (which occurred on day ten of my ten-day period). My interest peaked on Election Day night, when I was keeping up to date on the progress of seat allocations for the different political parties. This saw me watching the multiple channels of the televised coverage of the State Election in an attempt to follow the LNP’s crushing victory over the ALP. I was continuously checking online news reports in case there was information released online that hadn’t yet made to it broadcast television, and talking on the phone to friends and family to see if they had heard information that I had not on the political arrangements of my state.

My trend of increased use of television, online news and phone calls could be reflected in other journalism students, as many of us like to be informed on current issues. Whilst only 5% of my peers stated in their surveys that they watch 3-4 hours of television per day, I would speculate that many more than this would have watched this amount of television (or more) on Election Day, for similar reasons as I did, and would have increased their use of online news and phone calls also.  

I believe my media use, particularly over the last three days studied, demonstrates my relationship to Journalism and Communication – when there are breaking events that I find interesting, relevant and important to myself and those around me, I like my media to be real-time, as television and online content is. This way, I know that the information I am receiving is as up-to-date as possible.  

Blog Production – A New Form of Media Becoming Easier to Use

Like 63% of my cohort, I did not have a blog before I started JOUR1111. I noticed that my blog production decreased over the ten day period. I believe this trend occurred because I become more confident in my blogging abilities and became able to produce a quality blog post in a more timely fashion. As there is no survey information available for the amount of time my peers spend blogging, I am unable to compare the amount of time I spend blogging to the amount of time my peers spend blogging per day, however would envisage that if such data was recorded, a similar trend of decreasing time spent blogging by new bloggers would be seen. Such results would confirm a general trend in media use and production of media users becoming more adept over time at using new sources of media.

Graph 3 – Blog Production Over a Ten Day Period

Day One: Ten things you want to say to ten different people right now

Before I start I just wanted to say that I feel a little like this (^) so that is why it has taken me so long to post this blog. Okay, so here we go!

• My life would be so hard without you my little four pawed best friend. But please don’t chew my new shoes; I’m rather fond of them.

• Mut and D, I can’t say thank you enough for everything you have every done for me. I am standing in front of you as the young lady that I am because of the lessons and sacrifices you have made for me. Thank you and I love you both to the moon and back.

• My bootylicious friend! We have had some amazing times together, we have cried over broken hearts, we have triumphed over huge obstacles and I am thankful everyday that I have you in my life. Things might seem tough right now and for that I am sorry, but I know that your life is going to be filled with wonderful, amazing adventures and experiences. Please don’t let this time dim the beautiful radiance which is you.

• MEOW ;) The day you sat behind me in grade 9 math, I never knew we would have the friendship we do. At times I think I am corrupting your goodness, but then you say something sarcastic and witty, and realise why we are such good friends! But I do fear that people will take advantage of your lovely personality at times. Also, one day a guy is going to come and sweep you off your lovely feet, so, as hard as it is, be patient. MEOW. 

• Little Gremlin. What do can I say? You constantly surprise me. I am so glad I have gotten to know you so much better over the last few months, I don’t know if I could have survived starting uni again without your encouragement and support. I may tease you about a certain Possum, but know that it’s all in jest and that you two give me hope. And thank you for making up silly little songs to buoy my spirits when things are getting a little too frustrating.

• We’ve travelled down a really hard road, we’ve cried over hospital beds, laughed over silly stories late at night, and said goodbye more times than I care to remember. But you’ve never stopped being a huge part of my life, and I don’t think (or hope) you ever will not play a lead role in the “Story of Laura”. I love you, which is a hard thing for me to say, but sometimes I think that even if you love someone, sometimes you aren’t meant to be in love with them. Be strong Cherub, you’ll get through this, I know you will :)

• Thank you for always being there for me. You’re home has always been open to me, which I can’t thank you enough for. I wish you good health and happiness in the coming year, and hope that everything picks up in the coming months.

• I wouldn’t be where I am without you. Thank you. And please don’t have another heart-attack that was a rather unpleasant experience which I do not wish to repeat.

• You’re my brother. You protect me from evil groping guys at the RE and cover for me when I almost burn the house down attempting to cook. You’re gone from this strange boy into an even stranger man, but I’m still very proud of you. Also, you owe me money for that carton of beer I bought you.

• I wish that it never happened some days, wish that you were still with us. But if I changed that moment, a thousand other moments would change too. I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done, or met the people who have become a huge part of my life. But I also wouldn’t have experienced the pain of losing you far too soon. I guess, I just miss you. I hope that wherever you are, you’re happy and no longer in any pain.