Personal Media Use and Production Diary

Day & Time	Medium	Location	Activities	Thoughts
Monday (8 August) 8-9pm	Reading news on BBC online, Blogging	Home	Listening to songs in the background	Torture camp in Zimbabwe is discovered! Why are people so cruel??
Tuesday (9 August) 4-7pm	Reading news on ABC online, Facebook	Home	Listening to songs in the background	OMG!! The Riots in UK are so bad!
Tuesday (9 August) 9-11pm	Blogging	Home	Blogging with the TV on in the background	Still can’t get over how bad the riot in the UK is!
Wednesday (10 August) 3-6pm	Twitter, Reading BBC online news, Blogging	Home	Blogging while listening to songs	Wow a 98-year-old woman earned Judo’s highest degree black belt!
Wednesday (10 August) 9-11pm	Facebook, YouTube	Home	Chatting with friends on Facebook while watching videos on YouTube	Russell Peters is too funny!
Thursday (11 August) 5-9pm	Facebook, Tumblr, watching ABC news on TV	Home	Taking a break from assignments, checking out tumblr after a long time while the ABC news runs on the TV.	Watching the parliament session held in UK with regards to the riots. I think David Cameron is an awesome Prime Minister!!
Friday (12 August) 6-9pm	Blog-hopping	Home	Watching TV whilst looking through other  blogs and chatting on skype with friends	Watching ‘big bang theory’ at the background, wondering how could anyone be as geeky as Sheldon Cooper
Saturday (13 August) 3-3.30am	Reading news on ABC online	Home	Having a sleepover, talking to friends while reading the news!!	Reading the article about Daniel Morcombe’s disappearance in 2003 - I’m happy that his murderer has been caught!
Sunday (14 August) 6-8pm	Facebook	Home	Just using Facebook to chat with friends, looking if there’s anything interesting in the newsfeed while getting some assignments done	BORED.
Monday (15 August) 7.30-9.30pm	TV, Home and away, Celebrity  news on E online	Home	Eating pizza while talking to friends	Not bad ‘home and away’ is a pretty interesting drama!
Tuesday (16 August) 2-6pm	Apple website, Researching online for an assignment	Library	Listening to songs from the iPod	Can’t wait to get over and done with my assignment!
Tuesday (16 August) 10-10.30pm	Reading the news on ABC online	Home	Waiting for my food to be ready!	A suspect for the collar bomb hoax has been found! YAY!!
Wednesday (17 August) 6-9pm	Watching TV: Friends and ABC news	Home	Doing some reading for tomorrow’s tutorial!	OMG I love friends and Rachel, just can’t get enough of her and joey and phoebe! OKAY, I just love all of them!
Thursday (18 August) 10-10.30pm	Reading celebrity news on E online	Home	Chatting on skype with my friend while reading the news	Can’t wait for breaking dawn to be out! Edward looks super hot in the stills from the movie!
Friday (19 August) 7-8pm	Facebook, Twitter	Home	Chatting with friends while getting ready to go out	OOPSS I’m getting late!
Saturday (20 August) 4-6pm	Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter	Home	Just reading random stuff!	Just came across a hilarious picture on tumblr!
Monday (22 August) 3-6pm	Reading celebrity news on E online	Home	Drinking hot chocolate while reading all about Kim Kardasian’s wedding!	WOW! I want her gorgeous headpiece!
Tuesday (23 August) 6.30pm- 8pm	Watching TV, Two and a half men and ABC news	Home	Doing my assignments while watching TV	LOVE CHARLIE!

‘Let there be love’ by Oasis is playing in the background while I type this sentence out. I love listening to soothing songs while doing my assignments. Songs are an awesome form of company!

The 'media use diary' assignment is really interesting because it has made me aware of how I have been using the media. I have been spending more time on the internet than on watching TV. I often read the news online, rather than watch it on TV, because I can read the news anytime I want and I feel that I get more information reading it online. A majority of the people surveyed read the news on online newspapers as well. 

The possible reasons we prefer the online ‘newspapers’ compared to printed newspapers, could be as follows. Firstly, online news is free. We do not have to pay for it, as long as we have internet access. Secondly, it is readily available. We can read the news online anytime as long as we have our laptops connected to the internet or internet-enabled phone with us. Thirdly, we help save the environment by helping to cut down the need for papers!

In these two weeks, I spent only 8 hours watching TV. That equates to about 30 minutes per day. The amount of time I spent on the internet was 29 hours! That is about 2 hours per day. I spend approximately 3 times more time using the internet than watching TV. It makes sense because I don’t buy newspapers or magazines so I look online to keep myself up to date on what has been happening in the world. 

From my media use diary, I realize I spend a majority of my time on Facebook and reading online news. I use Facebook to chat with my friends, back in Singapore, hence I use it almost everyday. From the survey conducted, I realized I am not alone. Majority of the people who took the survey, spend most of their time on facebook as well!

I love to blog and have been blogging since I was 15, it’s like an online diary. Well, the blog is dead now, since I have this blog to concentrate on. I don’t really watch videos on YouTube very often and I don’t watch movies online.  I use my Iphone a whole lot, to browse the internet when I’m not at home. I use facebook , tumblr as well as twitter on my Iphone, to check if there is any interesting news being posted as well as to find my way around places. It is really useful being able to browse the internet anytime and anywhere. 

I do not listen much to the radio, the only time I listen is when I am trying to fall asleep and need some company. However, when I was back in Singapore I would listen to the radio almost every night while doing assignments or when I’m in the car and in need of company. I haven’t familiarized myself to the radio programmes here yet, that is the main reason why I have not been listening to much radio here. It’s time to start listening more to the radio programmes!

In a nutshell, I think the internet has been a very important part of our lives for the past few years, and it will continue to be an important part of our lives. 

My reflection of the 4th lecture

The radio has always been a part of my life. I listen to it when I'm in the car, when I'm doing my assignments, when I'm in need of company. I love to listen to the radio and naturally I was excited about the fourth lecture. It was an interview with ABC's local radio presenters, Richard Fidler and Steve Austin.

They highlighted that the radio and TV are really different mediums and that the radio is more intimate than the television. 'The radio is the theatre of the mind'.  In TV, there are visuals that can distract the audience but when it comes to radio, there is no distraction hence the audience will know if you sound fake. Steve Austin also stressed that enunciation is really important when it comes to the radio.

I learnt a whole lot of tips from their interview. Richard Fidler said that the better guests who he interviews in his show are those that people have never heard of and those he researches and finds out about. He also said he must have a genuine interest in the person he interviews so that he would be able to have a successful interview with the guest. 

From their interview, I also learnt that pre-production and good producers are really important for a programme's success. They do a lot of preparation before the interview including making the guests prepared, making them feel safe and to ensure them that the programme is trust-worthy. Richard Fidler also said that he wasn't a fan of the prosecutorial style but he said it was okay to tease guests a little and to make the programme fun by using humour. I have heard so many radio programmes in which the radio presenters are so hilarious and I always try not to miss their programmes. So I agree with him that humour helps keep the audience tuning in to a programme without fail. 


From their interviews I also learnt that it is really important to give guests their space, to let them pause and reflect, to listen more and talk less, since listening equates to respect and people respond a lot to courtesy. For up close and personal interviews, Steve Austin had a really good policy that he keeps to, "Don't do anything in radio that you wouldn't do in life." He said that you can judge if the person is comfortable talking to you by seeing their body language (if they are smiling, leaning forward, or if their voice sounds relaxed). 

They both gave really good advice for journalism students, like me. "Keep reading, be open minded, expose yourself to different kinds of thoughts and ideas, keep asking questions, expand your world view, and DON'T GIVE UP IF YOU ARE NOT NATURALLY TALENTED!" Oh I really loved the last advice! Thanks to them, I now know how to prepare myself if I want to become a radio presenter.

Creating media-savvy journalists with Mac.

MacBook Pro helps students at the Missouri School of Journalism effectively learn and practice the skills of modern journalism, including reporting, writing, and editing in different media.

Read more: http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/missouri/#video-missouri

This is an interesting article that I came across. These are some ways we, journalists, can use our Macbook pros efficiently.

Age is just a number

98-year-old woman becomes first woman ever to 

earn Judo's highest-degree black belt

"Just two years before her 100th birthday, Sensei Keiko Fukuda has  become the first woman to achieve a tenth-degree black belt—the highest rank in the martial art and combat sport Judo. Fukuda is now one of only four living people who've earned the tenth-degree (or dan) black belt."

This is so inspiring! This woman gave up marriage, to practice Judo. At the age of 98, she has earned a tenth-degree black belt and continues teaching Judo. She just proved to us that age is just a number!

Riots in Britain

"Britain's riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London's Tottenham neighborhood turned violent. That clash has morphed into a general lawlessness in London and several other cities that police have struggled to halt."

First, there was the royal wedding, Prince William married Kate Middleton and we kept our eyes glued to the screen for hours. Then came Zara philips, the Queen's granddaughter's wedding and we were really fascinated by how beautiful it was. And now, the riots in Britain? Oh Britain stop trying to steal the limelight from the rest of the world already! Riots are not new to Britain. There have been similar riots in Britain that occurred in the summer of 1981. For me, the only riots I have seen in Singapore are when 16 year olds, full of teen angst decide to do something stupid, just for the fun of it, it definitely does not involve burning of cars or buildings. Maybe because in Singapore, we are too afraid of the law (well at least most of us are)! I seriously see no point in rioting. I believe riots serve no purpose except to relay a message to their target groups in a vicious way. Instead of going over the top, they should go about it in a more rational way. It is clear that emotions are high and the loss of someone's life is very tragic but that does not mean that they should go about rioting and in the process, take more lives. Already, a 26 year old man has died after being shot yesterday, hundreds of police and protestors have been bruised. Dozens of shops have been looted and set on fire. Thank god, the government is dealing with this issue in an efficient way, they have already arrested many of the rioters, 16000 police officers have been ordered onto the city's streets and have been granted permission to use plastic bullets. (The plastic bullets have never been previously fired on the British mainland.) Riots threaten to tear a country, the home in which we live in, apart. I do not think it is worth it.


I would like to leave you guys with this quote. Something to think about.


The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Marange diamond field: Zimbabwe torture camp discovered

The main torture camp uncovered by the programme is known locally as "Diamond Base". Witnesses said it is a remote collection of military tents, with an outdoor razor wire enclosure where the prisoners are kept. It is near an area known as Zengeni near Marange, said to be one of the world's most significant diamond fields. The camp is about one mile from the main Mbada mine that the EU wants to approve exports from. The company that runs the mine is headed by a personal friend of President Mugabe. A second camp is located in nearby Muchena. "It is the place of torture where sometimes miners are unable to walk on account of the beatings," a victim who was released from the main camp in February told the BBC.  "They beat us 40 whips in the morning, 40 in the afternoon and 40 in the evening," said the man, who still could not use one of his arms after the beatings and could barely walk. A torture camp run by Zimbabwe's security forces is operating in the country's rich Marange diamond fields, BBC Panorama has found. The programme heard from recent victims who told of severe beatings and sexual assault. The claims come as the European Union pushes to let some banned diamonds from the country led by President Robert Mugabe back onto world markets. 

In Marange, the police and military recruit civilians to illegally dig for diamonds for them. Those workers are taken to the camps for punishment if they demand too large a share of the profits. Civilians caught mining for themselves are also punished in the camps.

People would do anything for money. The things they do to get these diamonds, is really appalling. It reminds me of the movie, 'blood diamond'. In my opinion, the police or the military do not have any right to recruit civilians to illegally dig for diamonds for them. It is not the civilians fault for demanding a larger share of the profits, I am assuming they must have gone through a really hard time retrieving these diamonds. I also feel that having these torture camps are really unnecessary. The way they torture people is so inhumane. The country is rich in diamonds, they should either make use of it to build the country's economy, in a legal way, OR they should totally ban these diamond digging business so nobody would be hurt. 

Read more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14377215?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Guess who came to give us a lecture?! Rod Chester, a journalist at courier mail!!

NEWSPAPER SALES ARE DECREASING!!! That was one of the first things we learnt in Mr. Rod Chester's lecture. But then he made us all happy again by explaining that social media, such as twitter, is now being used to provide news as well, and newspapers are still being purchased especially in times of crisis, when people want more information. I really feel that social media is a great tool to provide fast information for people around the world, I rely on social media a lot! I found out about the earthquakes in Japan which happened in March, through twitter!

We also learnt about the inverted pyramid in his lecture. I think the inverted pyramid method of writing is very useful, as it ensures that the main message that a journalist is trying to convey is already out in the very beginning and that all the important points are being covered before they actually start on the background of a story. Hence, a reader can stop reading at any point they want and they would still have knowledge about all the important parts of the story.

The inverted pyramid

Mr. Chester also told us that it is never wise to start an article with, 'It's official'. He gave us many different examples of how we could start an article. I found all of his examples very creative. The one that really caught my attention was the 'sneaky bastard' approach. Maybe because it had the word 'bastard' in it!

His lecture was very informative and I definitely learnt a great deal!

My reflection of the first lecture!

This post will be dedicated to my reflection of the very first lecture I had in this course, Introduction to Journalism and Communication.

Before I entered this lecture, I was still wondering why exactly did I choose to study journalism? It is really a competitive industry to get into, and not everyone who studies journalism can become a journalist. And then, there was a quote which really grabbed my attention, it was placed on the very first slide! "I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter." Then it suddenly hit me, all my life I have seen news reporters reporting the news, from all over the world and writing factual stories in the newspapers. Most articles never fail to grab my attention, because of the way they had been written, entertaining yet informative. There was another quote which reflects why I want to become a journalist, "I became a journalist to come as close as possible to the heart of the world." Journalists are mostly one of the first people to have in depth knowledge of what is happening around the world, they usually are the ones who have to investigate and produce the information.