'We Media And Democracy' - Phoebe

'We Media and Democracy ' 

Over the course of the summer term six weeks, and the starting weeks into the new school term I have learnt a lot about my own media use and how I access media myself, for example the news. The media has a great impact on people and also influences the society. I feel the media is our main source of gathering information for this generation. While examining my research I learnt a lot about myself and how I gather information in my day to day life.  

   What have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content? 

I learned that I access the news through Facebook, Twitter and the Radio. This is because when I check my social media a lot, from when I wake up to when I go to sleep. The social media society, embraces controversy and shares the news of the world. Things are shared on Facebook/Twitter and then you have the opportunity  to click and open the link to the news page or scroll past it. I normally scroll past most headlines as if I am not drawn in then I wont open the link, as I don’t check the news and am not aware of what's going on in the world as I probably should be. I think this is down to me having a busy life style and not having much free time. I don't think social media links are always reliable as some news can be manipulated to sound more interesting and to engage the audience. Alongside social media I gather information from the radio as I listen to the music on the stations while in the car and sometimes when I'm at home doing some work or cleaning etc. Although I don’t opt to listen to the news on the radio, in the intervals of the music, the latest news is broadcasted. Another way I gather news without searching or opting to myself, is when i am watching T.V at night before i go to sleep. Quick programs such as 'The News At Ten' will come on and I will watch these as I am waiting for the channels next program to come on. I don't fully pay attention to the news as i would be on my phone or doing other stuff. My last way of gathering the media is from other people, just by socializing in the common room and talking to people. 

I recently downloaded the BBC news app on my phone and had to record down how I used it. The categories I chose was Uk,Entertainment & Arts,Music and Food. There is a difference between female and males categories and interests. For example I asked 4 males what categories they chose. They ranged from sports, human rights, education, Brexit, US election, football, Syrian war. As you can see the differences between the categories are vast.  

I feel that boys take more interest in the news than girls(according to my research). Girls seem to look at categories more personal to them, as girls are more materialistic. We tend to look at celebrities lives and take less interest in our own and what's affecting the world we live in.Compared to boys that chose stuff more around the world. I'm unsure of why this is. One of my theories for this is, that girls don't like to see all the horrible things that happen around the world as it can be upsetting. However I do take interest in stuff such as 9/11 as on the anniversary I googled to find out more about the tragic incident.

I found the article on 'The falling man'. It was all based around a photo a local photographer took, not realizing how popular the photo would get and how many times it would be used on media. The photo is seen as disturbing for some people. This was one of the first times I went out myself to find the information online. 

It seems as people only check the news when something tragic event has happened or a celebrity has died. 

For example when I was abroad I still found out that, Gene Wilder, ‘Willy Wonka’ had died at the age of 83. Despite me being miles away sat on a balcony in the sun. This shows that the media has a positive impact as everyone around the world can access the same news no matter where they are. This makes information able to spread fast. The reason I know about this is because I had interest in the film and the character of Willy Wonka and many people my age wrote/shared the information on Facebook.  

I think that people are selective with what they choose to hear about and find out. Which has positives and negatives as sometimes its crucial that we are educated with what's happening around the world for our own safety and well being. On the other hand people who don’t want to see all of the terrible terrorism around the world as it upsets some people.