Media Consumption Log

On January 30^th, I monitored my media consumption for twelve hours, and the above chart carefully outlines the percentage of time that I engaged in activities that were directly media related. Yep! I am very much ashamed to say that I had contact with the media for just over fifty percent of the twelve hours. This exercise seriously got me questioning the media’s influence on my daily activities: what about it that attracted and consumed my attention? What kept me coming back for more?

For the hours I spent interchangeably and sometimes simultaneously listening to the radio, reading magazines, watching the television and surfing the internet, I was bombarded by advertising campaigns from companies like Dove, Hewlet Packard, Trinidad and Tobago’s Army and Water and Sewage Authority fetes.

-----Everybody say WAAAAAASSAA Fete!!!! -----

It was clear in many cases that the main purpose of these broadcasting stations was to entice listeners of all demographics to buy products, attend activities etc. In the case of Boom Champions (http://www.boomchampionstt.com/united/), they told the T&T populace what are the best fetes and soca songs of the 2012 Carnival season. It also dawned on me that while listening to Boom Champions I heard not one Calypso. Is it me or is this radio station telling the nation that soca is better? Out with the old and in with the new?

Although, a lot of negatives throughout time has been attributed to the media, reading articles presented in the Ebony – Dec ‘11/Jan ’12 Edition and the UWI Guild of Students magazines showcased the positives of the media. The ability to use this platform to influence its readers to change certain aspects of their lives, whether behavioural or cognitive is amazing. Kevin Ramsewak, in the article titled the “Guild Gone Green” expressed that students must be conscious of their environment, and encouraged them to make simple lifestyle changes to reduce green house gases in the atmosphere, by using bicycles, or P11 to get from points A to B. Ebony’s main feature article about the American Singer Jennifer Hudson’s weight loss served to inspire overweight black women to start leading healthy life styles.

On the completion of my media consumption log I made a vow to myself that from now onward to choose media that are of substance. By that I mean, shows, articles, programs that will help develop my intellect and and an awareness for society.