My Media Use - 'We Media'

Reflecting on your research from the summer and from the BBC news app: what have you learned about your own media use and how you access news content?

From the perspective of someone who is not an avid news follower, the majority of news I discover is on my Facebook news feed. Although trusted news sources can be found on this particular platform, I do not subscribe, and therefore my 'news' typically comes from organisations such as Buzzfeed, LadBible and Tokyo Otaku Mode. As such, it cannot always be trusted as a reliable source of information due to ulterior motives such as entertainment (which naturally leads to a lot of over-exaggeration) or personal bias (from smaller companies with like-minded workers/no public responsibility). As a result, much of my news is simply happy, non-life-threatening, casual stories which follow very pleasant topics, such as NowFuture’s video on robotic, automated check-out systems which scan and bag your items for you.

After taking the time to download the BBC News app, it became very obvious what type of news I preferred. Other than huge disasters (such as Grenfell or Hurricane Harvey) it pretty much followed headlines like “Lizard rescue turns out to be dirty sock” or “Did Ringo get enough credit for The Beatles?” This links back to the idea that my general nature is to block out all the negative stories and focus on the light-hearted side of news. In my opinion, the very nature of human beings is to ignore the negatives until they go away – we as a species have evolved to use ‘flight’ rather than ‘fight’, for the majority, anyway, but “facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”, said by Aldous Huxley, and yet we still try. This definitely applies to my own media use.

However, it is due to internet systems such as cookies and online footprints that my Facebook newsfeed isolates me in a type of bubble.  I am not an active participant, and as a result will rarely read past the headlines I see, and will also not actively search out news. This means I very often take what is put before me, laugh/frown, and then keep scrolling. For example, I read a headline on Facebook from Buzzfeed on Homelessness in the LGBT+ community, but failed to look past said headline. In a modern world where there is a more worldwide reach, being ignorant of the world's problems is in itself... a problem. Yet, I believe modern systems do not help this fact.

Although proliferation of hardware has impacted the number of sources in which news comes from, I actually pay no attention to any of it unless it hits me straight in face (a pop up on my phone or an Ad on the Television). An example of this was the news that there was much more devastation than just Hurricane Harvey. On a Vlog I watched, the speaker talked of raising money for the victims of Hurricane Irma, and I was completely oblivious, asking those around me for more information.

With all this in mind, I have discovered that I am a very inactive participant when it comes to news, and I believe this is due to my disinterest in that which does not directly concern me - it affects me emotionally, but I know I cannot change it and therefore feel there is no point. In this case, I can be seen to conform to Morozov’s theory that most people use the internet for ‘sex, shopping and entertainment’, focusing mainly Entertainment, though I do shop online, also.

But am I one of many? In a modern society, many people can be seen to participate actively, through their own Vlogs/Blogs and Citizen Journalism, however I still believe there is a large group which ignores most news for similar reasons to myself: escapism, disinterest, helplessness. I may ignore certain large news stories if they don’t directly me or my country, therefore worldwide news typically goes over my head. However, I have been keeping tabs on the Korean situation, as this persistently appears on my news feed, and is one of few news stories that directly grabs my attention.

Yet this type of inactive news participant is risky in a modern day world. Due to terrorism and war threats, it is hazardous to be out of touch with the world as a whole, and I believe many people still do live in their own bubbles, despite this. Although a lot of the blame can be placed on technology (increasing portability and access to entertainment, making us want it more), we as a society have become numb and unsympathetic beings. I know I can look at depressing headlines, shrug and move on. It as if we are developing this unfeeling safety blanket around ourselves, and no longer care about anything happening past our front drives. For me, I’m beginning to see this is increasingly true. “Stories attract us; abstract details repel us. Consequently, entertaining side issues and back stories are prioritised over relevant facts.” – Rolf Dobelli (‘The Art of Thinking Clearly’). Once again, this links back to the idea that Entertainment is prioritized over News in modern day society, as we (me especially) lack the basic compassion to care about that which we cannot see/feel ourselves.

Overall, I have learnt that large, well-covered disasters turn me off news, and mostly lead me to ignore any further posts on the topic. I tend to exist in my own little bubble, away from all the harsh negative news coverage. Yet, I am not immune to all news headlines, and many do creep into my newsfeed and demand my attention, meaning I do follow some news, but very rarely. Mostly, my news habits consist of entertainment TV, new technology and weird factoids I never needed, which I believe shows pretty clearly the type of bubble I wish to live in.