Media Summary

It's been fun writing in this blog. We've shared memories and had a few laughs, but now it's time to finally wrap this up. In my days of examining my media exposure, I have noticed how much of a significant impact that the Internet has made on my my daily life and on my daily media consumption. 15-20 years ago, I would've only been able to receive news through print media such as newspapers and magazines and television. However, with the internet, it's made me realize exactly how limited newspaper and especially TV news coverage is. With the internet, I can simply type something, anything that comes to mind, and within a matter of seconds I'm able to pull up a list of articles and pages pertaining to that subject. That is something that was completely unimaginable back before the web. I don't mean to discredit newspapers or broadcast news, since they were just as important then as the internet is now at the time and were primarily responsible for keeping us up to date during the 20th century. However, the pervasiveness of the internet in my daily life (and the lives of others) are sure signs of a web-dominated 21st century.

Media Journal- April 1

Well, today marks the last media journal that I will write. It's definitely been an interesting week taking a closer look at the media that we consume daily and chronicling the many encounters with different forms of media I've come across.

Today was a typical Monday, filled with the usual media encounters that one comes across on a school day. I briefly checked updates Facebook and Tumblr this morning while getting ready. Upon arriving at my Geology class, I was engaged in the PowerPoint presentation the professor was presenting, taking notes off of it with my laptop while listening to his lecture. My Philosophy class went basically the same way. In Music Lecture, the professor integrated numerous video and audio clips demonstrating similarities between the modern film scores of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and the music in Richard Wagner's "Der Ring Nibelingen (The Ring Cycle). In the break after Music Lecture, I ate lunch and checked Facebook, reading both updates from friends and linked news stories that appeared in my news feed. Afterwards, I headed to KXUA to do my weekly radio program, where I played music both from CDs in the station and from my laptop. I also read off announcements and information in between sets of music. Upon arriving home, I decompressed by reading through the Somethingawful.com forums on my computer and listening to music. Later on, I caught the bulk of the 5:30 NBC World News broadcast. Afterwards, I worked on various homework assignments, including a Philosophy paper in which I had to reference a selection by Harry Frankfurt from a Philosophy Journal published in 1971. I also completed the radio station choice assignment, writing the rest of the station summary and recording a short mock-broadcast using Sony Vegas, a video/audio editing program on my computer.
And so here I am again, typing this blog entry. Such is life. Look out for an overall media summary tomorrow!

Media Journal- March 31

Despite it being a lazy Sunday, there were still many media interactions and encounters to be had! To start off, I checked my Facebook and Tumblr sites first thing when I woke up this morning. After awhile, I glanced at the first few sections of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette while eating breakfast, mainly just reading the headlines, although I did read the story about the Mayflower oil spill. Later on while on the computer, I listened to music and worked on homework (including the radio choice assignment). Around 4:30, I headed off to a friends house to rehearse with a group I'm part of called Farmer & the Markets, where we cover popular songs, old and new, and play them on the square during the Fayetteville Farmers Market. While there, we listened to the songs we were planning to learn  (Paul Simon's 'You Can Call Me Al', The Beatles' 'Can't Buy Me Love', and Bright Eyes' "To Love and Be Loved") so that we could pick up on all of the specific parts and cues in each song. After returning home, I ate dinner and watched the animated comedy "King of the Hill" on TV. Afterwards, I got online, checked Facebook and Tumblr again, and wrote this entry! That about wraps it up!
Happy Easter!

Media Journal- March 28

Here is my media recount of March 28.
I awoke and opened my laptop to check my Facebook page, as I do usually each morning. After scrolling through posts briefly, I got ready for class. With the spare time I had left, I glanced through the Northwest Arkansas Times/Arkansas Democrat Gazette, paying the most attention to the stories concerning the recent defense of marriage and photo ID bills that the Arkansas legislature passed recently. A story in the Northwest Arkansas section about Fort Smith city directors rejecting an ordinance to ban well-drilling near a neighborhood that has seen its groundwater contaminated by it also caught my eye. In my first class (Media and Society, believe it or not), I took notes off of a powerpoint presentation about the major international news organizations. After class, I took advantage of my regular 1 1/2 hour break to work on various homework assignments on my laptop, including my Philosophy paper and a Mathematical Reasoning assignment, which both required using the web in order to research  the various topics these assignments concern. After the break and my mathematical reasoning class, in which we answered questions out of a textbook, I returned home, listening to student-run KXUA on the way. At home, I checked Facebook again and spent a bit of downtime listening to music and streaming videos on YouTube. At 6pm, I caught part of KNWA's news broadcast, and later watched Wheel of Fortune, which came on at 6:30 on KFSM. I also treated myself to an episode of Wife Swap, in which a Tea Party activist switched places with a woman in a polyamorous relationship. It was definitely interesting to see the culture shock on both sides. After my indulgence in mindless internet/TV, I resumed my homework and logged onto Blogger to write this post. And that's all (he) wrote!

Media Journal- March 25

I'm unfortunately getting to this a day late, but In this entry, I'll be recounting my media encounters from Monday. I didn't get around to reading a paper in the morning, rather I checked Facebook, where I'm currently connected to various news pages such as NPR and The Huffington Post so I can receive updates from them in my news feed. In class, I took notes off of various PowerPoint slides that my professors presented, which contained mainly text and photographs/illustrations. My music lecture class regularly integrates video and music/audio into class to demonstrate different music styles and characteristics. In yesterday's lesson about opera, we watched video clips from performances of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and the earliest surviving opera, Montverdi's L'Orfeo. After my classes finished on Monday afternoon, I headed up to the KXUA studio in the union to do my weekly hour-long show, which involves various types of audio formats, including CDs that are in the station's heavy/medium/light rotation that week, and my laptop, which I hook up to the soundboard in order to play a few selections of my own as well.
After school, I gathered with a group of musicians at a friends house to rehearse for an upcoming performance. During the rehearsal, we listened to several songs using the popular media player Spotify and tried to decide which ones would work best as cover songs. After returning home, I caught the first half of the 9:00 news on the local Fox station, then got on my laptop and worked on various homework assignments while listening to music through iTunes. After completing my work, I spent the remainder of the evening using the internet recreationally, checking social networking sites such as Facebook and Tumblr.

Media Journal- March 22

Today marks my first entry in my media journal in which I will describe the various media contacts that I've made in the past day.

The first form of media I tend to encounter on a regular day would either be the newspaper or the internet. In today's case, it was the newspaper (Arkansas Democrat Gazette/Northwest Arkansas Times, to be exact.) Like on most days, I read the national and local news contained in the first few sections, as well as the opinion section (though I read that at my own risk.) I'm admittedly not much of a sports person, so I usually tend to disregard the sports section, unless there’s a game I’m particularly interested in.

Later, I decided to log on and check my various social networking accounts on popular sites Facebook and Tumblr, in which various  media such as status updates, photos, videos, news stories, and more are shared by people I'm friends with and/or subscribe to. While online, I browsed the internet forum SomethingAwful.com, reading discussion on various topics, and listened to my music library via iTunes. In the evening, I caught a fragment of the NCAA playoff game between Ohio State and IONA on TV while I was eating dinner, but did not continue to watch.
Now here I am again, come full circle from earlier today, on my computer and typing this blog. Although I didn’t even leave the house today, I still had multiple encounters with several different forms of media, which is a sign of increasing media pervasiveness in the lives of common people.