My Media Use

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

Over the course of a six week period, I studied my media use by recording popular news articles I'd heard about, and what I did with the information. I also downloaded the 'BBC News' app, and used the 'My News' feature to select which news I wanted to see, as part of a homework task set upon the class.

Unlike how I believe most people my age tend to source their news, I tend to stay away from social media sites such as 'Facebook' and 'Twitter'- although I do frequently use Facebook's 'Messenger' service- and if I do happen to rarely log onto Facebook and see a news article, I wouldn't exactly be inclined to believe what I read. Instead, I source the majority of my news from television. Every evening, at 5:15pm, my favourite show is on BBC One (which is 'Pointless'), and after watching this, I will watch the 6pm news on BBC too. In fact, a lot of my news habits come from my mother, who for as long as I can remember has always insisted on watching the news on BBC, which now I understand is because they are the only popular news service who can claim to offer unbiased news. Whilst watching this, my mother and I will often discuss news articles as they're broadcasted. Furthermore, I also often get my news through listening to news programmes on the radio, on the way to school or work. The two radio stations I listen to the most happen to be BBC Radio One, and our local station, Peak FM. I generally trust Peak FM's news to be accurate, due to the fact that any news I hear through the broadcast I will generally hear again later on a BBC News program, and by the fact that I'm fairly certain there would be a scandal in North East Derbyshire if any news broadcasted by them was deemed to be inaccurate. 

The four news articles I wrote about over the summer were: Kate Middleton's third pregnancy, Hurricane Harvey and Irma, North Korea's missile tests, and the Barcelona terrorist attack. Over the summer, admittedly I tend to get a little lazy with my news watching and studying, therefore I often didn't watch news programmes, and sometimes it took me weeks to hear news other people already knew. Therefore, these four were probably the most prominent news stories I remembered actually hearing about. I trust all four of the news articles to be accurate because I heard them in BBC News broadcasts, and discussed them with a member of my family later that evening. Furthermore, I studied all of these articles in depth, by listening to the entire article, with the exception of Kate Middleton's third pregnancy, in which the headline is rather self-explanatory. 

Kate Middleton's third pregnancy, I feel, is an article barely worthy of news. However, as a nation we are particularly invested in the royal family, and so this quickly became one of the most prominent news stories for that week. In fact, I remember hearing the story frequently throughout the day, to the point where I was becoming increasingly bored of hearing about it. She already has two children, and I although I personally believe that two children is already an excessive number to have, I supposed my immediate response to the news article is that I felt happy for the royal family. As such, I belief the news article was supposed to invoke feelings of happiness in those who heard it.

Secondly, one of the most prominent news stories was of Hurricane Harvey and Irma, and their effects on all the countries affected. My mother and I kept close watch on the destruction and the support for the victims, and I believe the dominant meaning the producer intended was to encourage sympathy for those affected, in the hope that support would be given to the victims by the public. 

Thirdly, one of the scariest news articles of the summer was about North Korea's missile tests. My mother and I watched, horrified, at the news articles that detailed arguments between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and the constant testing of missiles that seemed to be occurring from the North Korea. We also watched the Channel 4 talk show- 'The Last Leg'- which discussed how terrifying this really was, despite the fact that 'The Last Leg' is definitely not an impartial news service. However, the BBC's report on this news article certainly discouraged the fear mongering that 'The Last Leg' seemed to almost promote.

The last news article I studied was the Barcelona Terrorist Attack. My mother and I saw the article on the 6pm news on BBC One, which we then proceeded to discuss, since we have both been in the exact location the attack took place at, and the sympathy we felt for the victims. Like with the Hurricane Harvey and Irma article, I think that the dominant meaning that the producer of this article intended was to encourage sympathy for those affect, and to publicise the need for help and support from the public.

Furthermore, as class homework we had to download the 'BBC News' app and frequently check the 'My News' function; a system designed to filter news to your interests. Immediately in using it, I ran into a problem: I could only pick a limited number of news categories. For some people, I can understand why they would only want to see a very limited number of categories; news can often be depressing or things may not appeal to their interests. However, I wanted to see news all over the world, specific stories relevant to each country, as well as news which concerned my interests. I immediately found that I was unable to, and had to filter my interests in those which I deemed absolutely necessary to see. From this arose questions; do other people not receive the 'too many categories selected' warning? Why is there even an option to remove important news relevant to the world around us from the news we consume? Are my interests too broad, and instead encourage me to read more news than encouraged?
In short, my experience with the 'BBC News' app was enjoyable. I liked the news alerts, which delivered important news I otherwise might have missed due to my general ignorance of the society around us, but I'm still mildly concerned about the 'My News' function and how the public tend to use it. However, it was nice to see a severe lack of sports news.