My Media Diet (Meghan)

Level Five-Books, Magazines

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Level Four-Altoona Mirror, Movies

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Level Three-Juicy Campus, Evening News, Wired 96.5, youtube.com

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Level Two-Perez Hilton, Nytimes.com, CW Cable Channel, AIM, textbooks

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Level One-CNN.com, Facebook.com, weather.com, Albright Email, texting

The first level of my media pyramid represents media that I use throughout each day and read and comprehend in detail. Every single one of these different pieces of media I use consistently each day. I feel as though these types of media are always being updated with news, gossip, and information that I like to incorporate in my daily agenda. Both weather.com and CNN.com can also both be viewed via television, but it is easier just to use the website to find specific interests that appeal to me.

The second level consists of media that I take a lot of significance in, but do not look at every day. I watch and read these types of mediums whenever I have spare time. Perez Hilton is one of my favorite blogs that gets me in tune to the celebrity gossip, but I only view the blog whenever I find myself bored on the internet. The third level of my media pyramid is media that I listen to, read, and/or watch a couple of times a week. The evening news and the radio can be on and I may not be actually tuning in. I do not follow this information as much as I do my first two levels.

My fourth level of my pyramid is media that I only occasionally read or watch. The Altoona Mirror is a local newspaper in my hometown. Anytime I am home and am able to read the newspaper, I do, but I rarely go home and do not read the local newspaper online. Movies are also a piece of medium that I rarely watch, but whenever I have the time I watch movies. My final level is books and magazines and I would say that on a rare occasion will I actually read books or magazines. I would say that I use these mediums maybe once or twice every two months.

Maria Media Pyramid

Radio/Movies
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Magazines/ Ipod/Telemundo
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Wallstreetjournal.com/Washingtonpost.com
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Cable stations/juicycampus.com./evening and morning news
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Colbert Report/ Daily Show/ Perezhilton.com/CNN.com/ youtube
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Newyorktimes.com/facebook.com/weather.com/email/texting

My media pyramid was based on how much media I consume on a daily basis at any given time. I make an attempt to consume media from varying outlets. As my media pyramid shows I consume varying types of media, I try to not stick to one media for a prolonged amount of time, and I also look at similar stories from the perspectives of different media just to get different points of view on the same story. The bottom layer is an example of the media that I consume the most. As the layers go up my media consumption of what is listed is lessened. Therefore I consume facebook and newyorktimes.com more than I consume the magazines. I picked the placement of the media that I consume based on how many times I think I actually read or look at during a day. I did not consider media that I exposed to unless I actually pay attention to that media and let it affect my daily life or thoughts.

Radio
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Newspaper, Magazine
Morning and Evening News, CNN.com
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Books, textbooks
In-theater movies, special cable channels
Art galleries, museums, exhibits, film shows
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Television and film
DVD movies and made for TV movies
iPod, iTunes, podcasts, music videos, texting, AIM
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Computer and Internet:
Facebook, Albright e-mail, personal e-mail, wikipedia, Google
Youtube, humor sites (collegehumor etc.), IMDB, Flickr, blogs

I will be the first to admit, that my media diet is not exactly balanced or healthy, I suppose you could say. I know for a fact that I spend far too much time on Facebook and yet I still manage to obtain information about the world. If I am not watching the news, someone else out there will be, and it will undoubtedly end up in his or her status. My dad also frequently updates me through texting because he knows I will check my phone before the news any day. I know my media diet is like this because I choose it to be and I have the power to change it, but I may need a push in the right direction. I purposely avoid things like the radio; I don’t even listen to traffic reports, which is probably a bad idea. I pride myself on my movie and music knowledge as well as my visits to art exhibits. However, I need to watch the news on occasions other than major events, like an airplane landing in the Hudson.

Media Pyramid

Books
Myspace
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Cosmogirl Magazine

Vibe Magazine
Philadelphia Daily News

Philadelphia Inquirer
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ABC
BET/MTV
HBO
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Theater movies
Cell phone
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ipod
Gossip blogs
Facebook
Online newspapers
Youtube

For my media pyramid, I organized it in such a way where it describes the type of media that I use the most, and trickles down to the type that I use most often. At the top, in my first layer, there are books, and Myspace. I don’t read nearly as much as I used to, and really only do for school. The title, books, can range from novels and biographies, to textbooks that I have to study and read for classes. I use Myspace, mainly, because of its popularity, not because I like it (anymore). But it does provide new music updates and other information about celebrities that I like. Next, on the second level, there are magazines and newspapers. I subscribe to two magazines, Cosmogirl and Vibe Magazine, and will occasionally buy a couple others like: Seventeen, Us Weekly, Glamour and People. I read two physical newspapers, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Philadelphia Daily News, but its mainly when I am home in Philadelphia, because that is what my parents read and keep around the house. On the next level, there is ABC (the news channel), BET/MTV, HBO and the radio. ABC represents a channel that I watch quite frequently for television shows (like, Grey’s Anatomy and Jeopardy), and the news. It also, on a broader scale, represents all of the non-cable channels that I watch, like Fox, and KYW. BET/MTV are the two most popular music television channels, which is how I usually keep up with current music and celebrity news. I sometimes watch television shows on those channels too. They, like ABC, also represent a broader aspect of all of the cable channels that I watch, and HBO represents movie channels that I watch. On the next level are movies, and my cell phone. I watch a lot of movies, and learn some information from them, but I learn even more with the use of my cell phone. I can text people, send/receive pictures and videos, and of course talk with people, voice-to-voice. Lastly, there is my ipod, gossip blogs, Facebook, online newspapers, and Youtube. I listen to my ipod all day everyday, and am constantly updating it with music and movies. While I watch the news on television and read actual newspapers, I get the majority of my news off the internet, usually via Google News, which I use to give me many different newspaper articles on one specific topic at a time. I read gossip blogs everyday, sometimes the same ones more than once a day, like PerezHilton.com. I visit Yotube whenever I want to see anything from music videos, to political debates, to ‘how-to- demonstrations. Lastly, I use Facebook to keep in contact with friends and family, watch videos, upload pictures and to maintain and record my life (and look at the lives of others).

My Media Pyramid

Radio: Since I spend most of the time on campus, I hardly listen to the radio. I also don’t listen to the radio much because of the music that is played and annoying commercial breaks.

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USA Today: Even though I would like to read it everyday, I don’t read USA Today as much as I would like. I read about world news as well as entertainment news when I do pick it up.

Magazines: Because I don’t have access to many magazines I enjoy, I don’t read magazines as much as I’d like. Vibe and Essence are some of my favorites.

Books: I spend little time reading, leisurely and it usually isn’t more than one or two times a week, if I do.

Yahoo! Messenger: Another communication tool that I use to stay in touch with my friends.

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Myspace: Another way in which I communicate with family and friends.

Television: I do not watch nearly as much TV as I used to; but I consume about one-two hours of TV each day.

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Yahoo! / Albright Email: Another essential communication tool—I am able to keep in touch with teachers and my boss as well as anything relating to school in an easy and organized manner.

Google and Yahoo! News: In addition to updating myself on celebrity news, I update myself on the latest in world news through these two websites everyday.

iPod: Music is the center of my life and I listen to my iPod throughout the day—when I am getting dressed, walking to and from class, when I’m just relaxing in my room—several times a day.

Facebook: My main source of online communication with my friends. I converse with friends on IM and through messages, upload and view photos of friends. It is also a personal outlet for self-expression—for example, notes and statuses messages are ways that my friends and I write about things pertaining to our lives. Facebook is also the way that I learn about campus events and happenings.

Celebrity News and Gossip Blogs: By visiting my favorite gossip blogs (a collection of almost ten), I keep myself updated on the latest celebrity news.

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Media Pyramid

>My media pyramid is based off of music and indirect conversation with other people and then leads to more influence as you go up. However, the more influential media is also less used which does not really allow for information of the world around me. The fact that I do not really engage in very informational programming and media does influence how informed I am about the world around me, and because of this I often miss out on key or important factors that are happening. Although I do not always know the political surroundings that are happening around me the fact that I have most of my media coming from music helps me in my job at Hot Topic and allows me to have a greater knowledge about the bands that we are selling shirts for. Having a job that involves knowledge of music allows for it to not only be a bigger source of media but also a more helpful one, then T.V. and newspapers.

Media Pyramid

>My media pyramid is based off of music and indirect conversation with other people and then leads to more influence as you go up. However, the more influential media is also less used which does not really allow for information of the world around me. The fact that I do not really engage in very informational programming and media does influence how informed I am about the world around me, and because of this I often miss out on key or important factors that are happening. Although I do not always know the political surroundings that are happening around me the fact that I have most of my media coming from music helps me in my job at Hot Topic and allows me to have a greater knowledge about the bands that we are selling shirts for. Having a job that involves knowledge of music allows for it to not only be a bigger source of media but also a more helpful one, then T.V. and newspapers.