My Sister the iFreak

Did you know?

• In the U.S.A., more people own iPads, iPhones and iPod touches than the entire population of Australia?
• Australia has the second highest iOS market penetration in the world?
• Between 2010 and 2011, mobile internet usage almost doubled?

If you need any more proof that Steve Jobs' Apple Empire is taking over the world of technology, just look to your family members to see how many iOS products they own.

At dinner a couple of nights ago, my sister, Tess, proudly proclaimed to the table that she was an 'iFreak'. I'd never heard the term before, but I quickly caught on to what it meant. In her lectures, she told me, she sits with her macbook in front of her, her iPad next to it and her iPhone in her hand. The macbook, I can understand. The iPhone, also understandable (though she mainly uses it to take photos and play DrawSomething). But the iPad? iPads are pretty much just bigger versions of iPhones. You want to see something on a bigger screen and in higher resolution? Look it up on your macbook!

Every single member of my immediate family owns an Apple product. In my parents' case (and also mine!), the only one they own is a good, old-fashioned, music-playing iPod. Emily, the eldest, works at a Vodafone store and refuses to purchase any iOS product purely based on the number of people who want them. "People come in and say iNeed an iPhone, like they think they're being original," she said. "but the only reason they NEED it is because it's what's in fashion at the moment". Tess, trying to smart, said that the reason she had these three gadgets just "because it looks pretty". I think it's safe to say she falls into the 'iNeed' category. 

My last sister, Chloe, also seems to have her iPhone permanently attached to her hand. But with the third highest score on Sneezies in the world, it's to be expected, isn't it?

Personal Media Use and Production Diary

Initial Diary (in minutes)

*Number of texts sent and received. NOT represented in minutes.

Graph Demonstrating Media Usage

The Social Networks
Facebook and Twitter

Facebook, for me, is purely for social interaction. Last year, I lived in Germany for a year on exchange and now, if I want to chat to someone I met last year, Facebook is the easiest method. I'm able to stay in contact with my friends and see what that have been doing by browsing photos that they have uploaded, reading statuses and posting and commenting on their activities. It's incredibly useful, easily accessible and, best of all, free. I wouldn't say that I spend a spectacular amount of time on Facebook, especially considering a lot of people I know, but I'm definitely guilty of checking my notifications several times a day.
When I checked the survey our class participated in and saw this:

I admit that I was shocked. Not because 97.2% of our cohort had a Facebook account, but because 2.8% didn't. I managed to get this idea into my head that everybody on the planet has a Facebook. When I thought about it, I did slap myself in the head a bit for being so ignorant. Hopefully the influence of Facebook will die down a bit within years to come, before all our fingers are glued to out keypads.

The main purpose of Facebook is definitely not news. I do occasionally read online articles through Facebook when a link is shown in my News Feed, but the majority of articles usually date back a few years and have only popped up on my home screen because someone has read it and thought it either amusing or interesting and has decided to post it. It's not the greatest place for keeping up with current affairs and I would therefore not count it as one of my news sources.

 I had never used Twitter before JOUR1111. I was unfamiliar with #hashtags and Retweeting. In fact, I was in exactly the same position as over 70% of our cohort:

I set upmy account in my first tutorial, got used to it, played around with it a little bit and slowly started to get attached. You can actually see in my media diary that as those 10 days progressed, I was logged in for a little bit longer each day. I never saw the point of Twitter before this course but, almost immediately after signing up, I started to see the benefits. Thanks to the thousands upon thousands of worldwide news feeds, I have managed to stay connected not only to my friends but to the rest of the world. News feeds all get updated on a regular basis so you always get that constant flow of information. Twitter has definitely become one of my main sources of News. It may not always be detailed or opinionated, but it helps me with staying current in regards to worldwide news.

The Visuals
YouTube, Television and Broadcast News

Visual media outlets take up a big part of my daily media usage. YouTube, like Facebook, is an outlet that I use everyday. Most of the videos I watch tend to lean towards the comedic genre, but I also watch a lot of celebrity interviews, snippets from TV shows and movie trailers. I would have to say that YouTube is one of my main sources of information. After I search something on Google, I search it on YouTube. I find that it offers a very wide range of opinions, as videos can be posted from anybody with access to a computer. When watching a video that describes an issue from one point of view, there will almost always be contradictory comments underneath from other users. Are these opinions biased? Most definitely. But it's one of the easiest ways to discover the general viewpoint of the public and also a way to link to other information.

I rarely turn on the TV. If I want to watch a particular television show, I choose to watch it online because of two simple reasons:

1. No ad-breaks.
2. I can watch whatever I want, whenever I want.

I've been trying, because of JOUR1111, to keep up with the news, and so I try to watch the news a few times a week. As you can see from my table, I only managed to watch it three times.
Obviously, broadcast news is easily available and an easy way to keep track of current affairs, but I find that I can barely sit through one news segment, let alone five or six. I think it's because when I watch the news on television, I don't choose what I see. Whereas with online news and newspapers, I decide what I want to read, how long I want to spend reading it and if it's worth looking into in more detail.

On the other hand, I watch an exceeding amount of online shows. I didn't realize before I had this diary, but now I see that I can watch up to three hours of shows in one day and, for me, I think it's a little too much. I see that I'm not entirely alone in this:

Due to the wide range of shows available through the internet, I'm honestly not surprised at the amount of time our generation can spend watching TV. The shows that I watch, however, are all fiction. Their sole purpose, for me, is entertainment. They neither help me with university nor inform me on any news whatsoever.





The Online Informants
blogger.com and Online News

The only time I ever attempted to start a blog before JOUR1111, was last year, when I went to Germany. I managed to post twice: once in my fifth week and the second time the day after, correcting my original post.  Now that it's part of my assessment, I've been trying to post at least twice a week, but it's hard. I realize the importance of publishing your work, and so I try to get inspiration by looking at other blogs and therefore spending time browsing through different blogs. I don't, however, check news blogs. I know that they are available, I even know the names to a few of them but, for me, blogs are not the best way to keep up with news. The people who write blogs are generally untrained and biased. They are the people who have very strong opinions and need to be heard. Of course, there are bound to be blogs out there that are accurate and well written, but I prefer not to trust any of them. The way I see it, if you have access to a blog, you have access to the internet. If you have access to the internet, you therefore have access to online news, which much more accurate and informative than blogs.

Online News is definitely one of the main places I get my information. Because I follow so many different news channels on Twitter, they always link me to articles that I'm interested in. I find it the easiest manner in which I can get informed, as well as the fastest. If I were looking for a news story on a particular subject, I could just type the subject into Google, add 'news article' on the end, and in a matter of seconds: BAM! there are 23486348 results.


The Readers
Newspapers, magazines and general reading

I don't read the newspaper often, but when I do, I read it all the way through. At the cafe that I work, we get The Courier Mail every day and, when we have a slow day, I have time to sit at a table and read the whole thing through. It may seem to some people that newspapers are outdated, yet a surprising amount of JOUR1111 students still read the paper:

Although it's not the most popular media device, over 50% of our cohort still read the newspaper.I find that it's one of the only places where you can get information on everything from politics to sport and from real estate to holiday deals, so it's very useful for a general knowledge of current events. I find that when I read the newspaper I skip over a lot of the talk of politics and I don't think I could read a sports article all the way through due to a plain lack of interest.

As well as the newspaper, we also have a large amount of magazines at the the Cafe. However, because of the type of people that come into the store, the only magazines we have on offer are of two genres: celebrity gossip and motorcycles. As I'm not really keen on bikes, I always end up reading the celebrity magazines, in particular: OK! Famous, Who, Grazia and Women's Day. They don't particularly help with events other than celebrity scandals, but in regards to entertainment, I can confidently say that I am (almost) fully informed.

I also read a lot of fiction books. Before I started at UQ, I found that I could read up to five books a week. Now, with my work load and the amount of study I try to get in, I only read about one book a week. Although I may read a lot, the books I tend to lean towards have little to nothing to do with anything current in the world. There are few with themes that are very present in today's society, but nothing directly relating to recent events.




The Communicators
Skype, email, texts and calls


Texting, calling and emailing are things I do pretty much everyday. It's the easiest method of communication and I therefore use it to organize things with friends, ask them a question or even just for a chat. I use Skype at least once a fortnight, since most of my friends live thousands of kilometers away from me. I am the proud owner of a smart phone, and I can therefore do all four of these things from my mobile.

Only 22.7% of our cohort didn't have an internet-enabled smart phone. It's getting easier and easier to stay connected with people all over the world.
Since news can spread easily though word-of-mouth, phones and emailing are a great way to hear about news. Assuming, that is, that your friends also pay attention to what's going on in the world. But other than that one little factor, these four methods of communication have little to do with journalism.




All Together Now
Quick summary of main points

• My main news sources are online news, Twitter and the newspaper
• I joined Blogger and Twitter for the first time after starting JOUR1111
• Facebook is mainly used to stay connected with friends, not news
• Blogs are good for publishing my work, but cannot be trusted for news because of biased writers
• I watch more shows online than on television
• I like reading newspapers for a broad view on today's world
• Skype, emails, texts and calls are mostly used for communication, and have little to do with journalism

Which picture can tell 1000 words?

            Lecture 4
Monday's lecture focused primarily on picture stories and moving pictures. Every good article needs a great picture, just as every news segment on TV requires meaningful footage.. These are what makes a good photo:

• framing
• focus
• angle & point of view
• exposure (light)
• timing (shutter speed)
• capturing 'the moment'

The example given was a picture taken at Jonathon Thurston's Uncle's funeral. The picture showed immense emotion and was beautifully framed by a window/wall cutout. Captured with a camera phone, this picture proved that being in 'the moment' is THE key to mastering photojournalism.

It was interesting in our tutorial when we were given a completely different article about ridding Brisbane streets of old gum, to see that the photo can be the decider on whether or not someone reads a certain article. I doubt I would ever read an article on chewing gum, but the final picture chosen had all the key points mentioned above and, if I were at home and not in a tutorial, it would have drawn me into the article. 

Since I've started my Journalism degree, I've realized that I now assess how every journalist pulls off their articles. Whether it's a headline that falls flat, a picture that doesn't make sense or even an article that doesn't explain the 5 Ws and the H, I will constantly check whether they could have made it better in any way. Sounds a bit arrogant, coming from a 1st year university student, doesn't it? But I'm learning. And this course has got me thinking. A little too much.

Facebook: The Good and the Idiots

I was going through old newspapers the other day and came across and edition of The Sunday Mail (11/03/12) that had a few articles about Facebook here and there.
Thanks to JOUR1111, I've been having to record my media usage for a few days now and I'm genuinely surprised at the amount of time I spend on Facebook. Not because I spend a lot of time on it, but because I don't. I would go on and analyze my habits regarding Facebook, but I think I'll save that for my actual assessment. What I wanted to talk about was Facebook itself and, more specifically, this article:

Facebook makes us happy... does that mean that it's okay to log on as often as we do? Some people would argue that smoking weed or excessively drinking alcohol makes them happy and relaxed, does that mean that those shouldn't be a problem either? Now, I'm not classifying Facebook as a "dangerous" addiction (like smoking and alcoholism), but the more Facebook is updated, the more Apps you can play online, the more possibilities that are opened to us from this social networking site, the more people are going to be glued to their computer screens, missing all the action going on around them and focusing on their own imaginary world.
I am not telling everyone to stop going on Facebook. As much as I like to bash it, I would be lost without Facebook, just like nearly every other user out there. I'm just saying that just because something makes us happy,as this article suggests, that does not mean that we should get into the habit of using it excessively.

On another, more amusing, note! I also found this article which I would like to share with you all:

I don't really need to say anything else, do I? Being married to two people may not a smart idea, but making it known over Facebook? Oh lordy.

Let's Talk About Text, Baby.

        Lecture 3
        We had a guest lecturer this week: Skye Doherty. A well traveled reporter, Ms Doherty was working on Fleet Street, in London, when the News of the World scandal erupted. Hearing her take on what had happened and (better yet) how it happened, was really interesting. I don't want to go into it too much because that's not what this post is about, but hearing about it from someone who experienced it first hand and watched everything fall to pieces was really the best way we could have learnt about it (and if anybody wants to know, feel free to ask me).
        The lecture this week was on text, and how we use it and manipulate it as journalists. Obviously, everyone with half a brain knows what text is (and if you don't, it's what you're looking at right now) but what people don't understand is how clever journalists/columnists/authors/anybody who writes professionally are by being able to twists certain words and phrases in order to draw you in and make you hear what they have to say.

         I'm going to show you the example they showed us on headlines and see if you understand straight away how much of a genius the writer of that headline is:

           For those of you who don't understand... think Mary Poppins. 

           Get it yet? Don't worry, it took me a while too.

           Okay, for those of you who still don't get it, it's a play on the word 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious',from the musical Mary Poppins. Even though the definition (fantastic) is irrelevant (unless it was used sarcastically), you've got to admit that this is pretty impressive. You might sit there for a second, mull it over in your head, realize how they've used word play to draw people in and laugh for a while because you can admit that this was written by a very witty journalist (possibly with a passion for either musicals or nannies).

            I think I may just finish here because, in my opinion, this example pretty much summed up everything I wanted to say. We did also discuss other things such as layouts in the newspapers and online, but I definitely think this was the most interesting part of the lecture. Even more interesting than the girl behind me, who seemed to either be having a panic attack or giving birth and had to be taken out of the theater in a wheelchair half-way through.

             And with that, I bid thee farewell. Goodnight y'all!

It's an Art.

Yesturday afternoon, a customer at my dad's cafe jokingly complained that we always had the same 'leaf' pattern drawn on the top of out coffees. He said that next time he ordered a coffee, he expected a heart.

Challange accepted.

That night, my parents and I spent at least one hour going through YouTube videos of Latte Art, seeing which ones we could do without years of experience. The result:

Poor quality photo, excellent quality coffee.
Expect to be seeing a few more of these photos because I am going to be doing a lot of experimenting in the next couple of weeks.

Leila

Welcome to the World of Journalism! Now get to work.

"Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air." - Henry Anatole Grunwald

          When I applied for a Bachelor of Journalism, I did it with the intention of getting my opinion heard. I wanted to write about things that interested me and have them impact the world in a small yet significant way.

           I didn't know what to expect. Were we going to be studying politics and writing about who 'outrageously' said what to whom? Were we going to be buying 100 pairs of shoes, testing them for both comfort and style and then later writing an ingenious article about how shoes are the windows to a woman's soul? Whatever we were going to do, I was up for it.

          What I didn't expect was to be thrown into the world of Journalism head-first with nothing but a computer and the means to start a blog. "Let's see what you can do," we were told. Oh, I'll show you what I can do. Dream career, here I come.

Lectures 1 & 2 - A Promising Start.

         Lecure 1

        On Monday the 27th of February, I rocked up to the Schonell Theatre out of breath and a little red in the face. The bus that was supposed to get me to university 25 minutes early had been 25 minutes late, which meant I was already late the moment I stepped off the bus. After spending a year in Germany, punctuality had become my forte and I was not happy that I was being thwarted by a mere bus. Taking the first seat I find, I introduce myself to the girl next to me and begin to relax when I discover that I haven't missed any of the lecture at all and that the clock on my phone is just 5 minutes fast. 

         The lecture was just a general run-through of what we were going to do during the semester, what was expected of us and (best of all) the opportunities we'd have before and after we'd finished our degrees. As an avid traveler, anything to do with a trip overseas, be it casual work, a holiday, school or downright labour, and I immediately sit up straight like a kid in first grade and pull all my attention  to whoever is doing the talking. 

         Overall, not too much to report on the lecture numero uno front, as it was mainly just a 'Welcome to Journalism!' speech drawn out over 50 minutes. Cool and fun, but not particularly informative on the latest word in Journalism. That, my new friends, was saved for lecture dos. 

         Lecture 2

         The following week, the buses were thankfully running on time. In fact, counting on the buses to be somewhat late, I left the house early and managed to arrive at our newly allocated lecture theatre 15 minutes early. Cue: awkward dawdling.

         After being herded into the auditorium, we were treated with a surprisingly interesting lecture on Web Iterations, News under Web 3.0 and the Challenges of Web News. Here are the main points that I picked up  from this lecture:

1. The internet (or the 'Web', as more technology-savvy people tend to call it) has so far gone through 3 stages in its surprisingly short lifetime. The first, 'Web 1.0', focused on advertising and broadcasting information. The second, 'Web 2.0', is the reason most teenagers are glued to their computer screens the minute they arrive home. Focusing on social groups, this period of the web was when we saw big-shot social sites such as Facebook, Skype and YouTube pop up. And last but not least, we have the latest stage of the internet, which is very originally known as 'Web 3.0'. This one shows how far the internet has come since its invention, as it focuses on us as individuals. It introduced Meta Tags to the world which, for those who don't know, is a special HTML tag which can tell you almost everything about any webpage (most importantly, about the content of the site). Because of computers and every other 'smart' object, your internet browser now knows where you are, what you like to do, and pretty much everything about you. And now, thanks to these Mega Tags, all the ads you see while browsing the internet will be directed at you and only you.
2. How is this relevant to Journalism, you may ask? Why, it's simple! Online newspapers are now also using this method, which means that it knows what you like to know about, what you want to read and what you don't want to read. Pretty cool, right? The only problem with this, and I'd have to say that it's a pretty big one, is the ignorance gained from seeing and reading only what we want to. How would we know about the latest Rudd-Gillard leadership battle if all we read about was the latest Broncos match or what Angelina Jolie wore to the Oscars?
3. Entitlement was the last thing we learnt about at our second lecture. As an example, we were each given a small packet of Jelly Bellies. After allowing us to sample our free snacks, we were told that if we wanted the rest, we had to pay. If not, we had to give it back. Now, if you're like me and you don't particularly enjoy Jelly Beans, this may not seem that big of a deal to you. But even I, who has no interest in sweets, felt a small sense of outrage over these being taken off us. They were given to us, so we are entitled to them. Isn't that right? This self-entitlement has become a big issue for online newspapers, who are all slowly starting to go behind Pay Walls. Many newspapers all around the world have decided that if you want to read their news, you must pay a fee. After the appearance of Ebay, classifieds (which was the main source of income for newspapers worldwide) no longer have any use. And if income was low, how would journalists be paid? Pay Walls seem to be the only option. But with only 14% of the population willing to pay for online news, these walls also come at a great risk: losing a great portion of their readers.

The lecture, overall, was completely fascinating. Coming into this degree, I didn't think I would enjoy these talks about actual Journalism and the business side of it all, but as it turns out, JOUR1111 is quickly becoming my favourite subject. And now, if you don't mind, I'm going to delete my Google history so that my laptop/future robot doesn't know everything about me.

Adios, amigos!

P.S. sorry about the length of my first post, just think of it as my first three posts all rolled into one, okay?