Hi,
A not very scientific (or sophisticated) comparison of what a week of news consumption looked for me last week, a week in 2008 and a week in 2000. MediaDiary
Best,
David
Category Archives: All
How do we create knowledge? What voices do we listen to?
As an editor, I consume a lot of media for work. I tried a few different ways to slice the seemingly mundane data that I collected in my media log and found myself focusing again and again on voices and who they belong to. Who is the author? Where is she from? Where are her sources from? Has she ever met them face-to-face? These questions I found myself asking again and again as I jotted down my daily tangle of tech and international news, NPR podcasts, and even late night “fake” news shows.
Perhaps more interesting than what I found in static (i.e. not evolving during the time of consumption) media was the information that I gathered on email lists. Global Voices is known as a community of bloggers and activists around the world – while we’re best known publicly by our site, if it wasn’t for our email lists, I’m not sure how we would have become a community to begin with.
During the first week of February, a really moving discussion played out on one of our community lists. A contributor from Tunisia wrote to the group and shared a link to a press release from the Kingdom of Bahrain that enumerated 72 people whose citizenship it had elected to revoke. Among these people was another contributor of ours, Ali Abdulemam, who now has political asylum in the UK. I learned a lot in that week from the conversation that played out over the list. Here is a colored pencil rendition of the conversation:
The increase of knowledge over time in a GV list discussion.
Each dot represents a message sent to the group. The color of the dot denotes the country that the sender identifies as his or her home. For each message, I made a rough (highly subjective) calculation of how much new information it contributed to the conversation. The line at the top of the graph indicates the total amount of information accumulated over time. In the end, we all learned about Ali’s story, but also heard stories from contributors in Egypt and Azerbaijan who had taken exile from their countries under similar circumstances. Towards the end of this record of the conversation, we decided to produce a series of stories on Global Voices focusing on citizenship and border crossing in the world of digital activism.
The second graphic hones in on question of voice and sources. While editing stories on all of the countries listed below, I read multiple stories and pieces of research focused on each the relevant issues in each place.
Percentage of stories that quoted a source in the country.
A few noteworthy findings:
Cuba: During this week, Netflix declared their aspirations to begin offering service in Cuba. Most English language media reporting on the story quoted only a press release from Netflix, which of course failed to acknowledge the fact that almost no Cubans have enough Internet connectivity to watch video online, nor do they have the credit cards with which to pay for the service. I edited a story by fellow classmate Elaine Díaz on the topic, which of course illuminated these facts.
Bahrain: I edited two stories that week on Bahrain, both of which focused on the stories of individual activists and bloggers, and both of which drew heavily on sources from those peoples’ friends and relatives.
Russia: Global Voices coverage of Russia consistently draws from social media commentary from users in the country. I read several of our previous articles in order to edit one that offered new information on a series of social-media related arrests. I should note that while all of these pieces quoted local voices, their authors are not Russian, nor do they reside in the country.
Tomer’s Media Diary. or, How to be unproductive.
I’ve been using Rescue Time in the last couple of weeks to log my laptop usage. This is my weekly report for Feb 8 – Feb 14.
It’s election time in Israel and I’m highly addicted to staying informed. A good amount of the time I spent on social networks (total of 9 hours, mostly Facebook but also a bit of twitter) is news (mostly elections) related but that’s hard to measure. Social media is also my main gateway to other news outlets.
9 Hours of social media equals the cooking time of 3 (sequential) batches of roast beef:
= 3 x 
This is a breakdown of my news & opinion consumption.
Out of a total of 6.5 logged hours. Haaretz dominates my news consumption. I follow it on Facebook which leads me to trending articles, which in turn, through a series of internal references, keeps me reading various articles in their website. I mostly visit Israeli news websites. However, due to the weather I started reading the Boston Globe which gets me engaged with other storied related to the USA, Massachusetts and Boston.
6.5 hours of news & opinion equals the cooking time of a fine batch of Israeli hummus!
And Benjamin fuckin’ Netanyahu is still going to be re-elected.
Kitty’s Media Diary
Link
I did this as a Storify. See what you think.
My Media App Diary
Image
I got inspiration for my media diary from an online magazine called Flipboard, (https://flipboard.com/) which is a social-networking aggregation magazine-format mobile app that can be customized to your exact media specifications. I am obsessed with FlipBoard, as it compiles all of my media apps (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram…etc) and displays them in a dynamic and clean way. I can even select news outlets that I love reading and have them constantly refreshed into my feed.
I put my photoshop skills to the test to further customize this design, to make it my own media app “diary.”
This first screen shot of the app (above) has a photo of me and a brief introduction to my media diary.
The second screen shot (right) is comprised of the top three webpages I visited over the past 168 hours, which are: G-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. G-mail is always open on my iPhone and my computer, I’ve noticed how much I rely on this source for anything from communication to information. I really try not to use Facebook that much, but I am in a new course this semester that requires we have an active Facebook account. Lastly, I heavily rely on Twitter for most of my news information. Through Twitter I can stay up-to-date on worldly news while I am in school.
The third screen shot of my app diary (left) represents the technologies (or communication mediums) I used to implement/access my media. It turns out I use my phone way too much. From the first moment my iPhone alarm goes off in the morning, to the time I set my it at night, I am on my phone. But, to my defense, my phone is the way I communicate, with friends, with family, with professors, and with potential employers. My phone gives me access to instantaneous information from around the world, including news and entertainment media.
When I am not on my phone I am on my computer, taking notes for class, accessing school readings, editing my portfolio, connecting with professors/employers, and (when I get the chance) watching movies/listening to music. When I am not slave to my devices, I am verbally engaging with my friends, family, or whomever I may be conversing with.
The fourth screen shot (right) represents the top entertainment media sources I utilized this past week. When I found a chance to unwind, I watched a movie on Amazon Prime or Netflix, read silly articles on BuzzFeed, worked on Photoshop, and perused FlipBoard. However, it is important to note that I also accessed entertainment media on my phone, such as SnapChat, Instagram, Spotify, and FlipBoard.
I thought it was important to note the information that has been shared with me this past week, regarding media technologies. This is why I decided to add a screen shot (Left) of media related outlets that have been shared with me by my classmates, such as: Storify Balsamiq, StatsMokey, ReportIt App, and Timeline JS.
The results are in (Right), and the top news media outlets I used this past week (according to how often I visited them) are as follows:
Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, NBC News, Snapchat, Fox News, YouTube, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and The National Review.
All of which I visited on my iPhone and laptop.
In conclusion (Left), I spent about 58.333% of my day, or 14 hours, involved with media tech communication. The top media I used were Twitter (for news collection), G-mail (for communication and sharing), Microsoft Word (for homework/notes), and Facebook (for news/communication). I accessed this media the most via my iPhone.
Below you can find an overview of my Media App Diary.
My online media habits
I put together a little summary here of the week of February 4-11 and, globally, my last two-ish years of online media consumption. I’ve focused on the digital because that’s almost exclusively how I get my media. I do subscribe to several print magazines–WIRED, Popular Science, and MAGIC Magazine, for instance–but over the course of a given month, most to all of my media consumption is via the Internet.
My record-keeping is also somewhat incomplete: While I track my laptop Internet use extensively, my smartphone use is also considerable. It’s my primary means of checking and responding to email, as well as my main news source (via Flipboard).
media diary shows lots of email, not enough serendipity
Bob Young’s media diet
I depict my media diet as a breakfast because I do most of my daily consuming in the two hours after waking. I get most of my news protein, if you will, from the Boston Globe, Seattle Times and various sources via Twitter. I get what some might consider less enriching calories from video.
As for what and why, my attention is split between drug policy (my main beat), local news, arts and entertainment, and national and international news.
Gideon’s Media Diary
I”was”shoveling”another”foot”of”snow”off”my”driveway”Sunday”morning”when”a” passing”car”slowed”to”a crawl.”Suddenly,”two”objects,”flung”from”the”driver’s”side” window, arced”high”over”the”car’s”roof like”Kareem”Abdul”Jabbar”hook”shots. The”Boston”Globe”and”New”York”Times”had”arrived.”In”print. Despite”the”blizzard. I”was”so”overjoyed,”I”highHfived”Waldemar,”the”delivery”driver.” Sunday”is”the”one”day”of”the”week”that I”am”still”able”to”enjoy”the”ritual”of”reading” newspapers,”unadulterated”by”apps,”social”media,”and”other”digitalHage”johnnysH comeHlately. Keeping”a”media”diary revealed”to”me”how”much”my”media” consumption”habits”have”changed”the”rest”of”the”week.”While”I”still”rely”heavily”on” newspapers”for”my”news”those”other”mornings”– both”in”print”and”online”– I”multiH task”over”breakfast,”clicking”on”links”delivered”via”Twitter”and”daily”eHmail” newsletters,”and”tweeting”and”retweeting”stories”that”interest”me.”I”consume”more” news”during”my”commute”– NPR”and”the”BBC”over”the”car”radio,”Twitter,”Facebook, and”eHmail”while”riding”the”bus”or”T.” Perhaps”the”biggest”change,”though,”is”that”I”already”know”many”of”the”morning” headlines”the”night”before,”thanks”to”newspaper”websites,”breaking”news”alerts”on” my”phone,”and”social”media.”So”in”the”morning,”I”look”for”context”and”explanatory” stories. Times”Media”Critic”David”Carr’s”untimely”death”was”a”case”in”point: I”got”the”news”from”an alert”sent”to”my”phone”Thursday”night”by”the”Times.”I” immediately”opened”the”NYT”Now”app”to”read”the”short”item”posted”there.”During” the”evening,”I”checked”Twitter”periodically”and”followed”the”torrent”of”140H character”tributes.”Before”bed,”I”read”the”full”obit”on”the NYT”website. On”Saturday” morning,”I”read”two”Globe”stories”in”print,”an”interview”with”Carr”just”before”his” death”and”a”story”about”his”first”semester”teaching”at”BU.”Finally,”I”read”The”Media” Equation”column”in”Monday’s”Times”(again”in”print),”Carr’s”old”column,”which”also” focused”on”his”teaching. This”exercise”also”showed”me”that”I”still”get”most”of”my”information”from”words,” written”or”spoken.”The”main”exception”this”week:”maps”showing”expected”snowfall.” I”watched”only”one”video”–”of”my”nephew”and”his”cat”playing”the”piano.”” Here is a breakdown of my media consumption:
