Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Media Literacy Project #1 Results and Q & A

The forms of media that I use are normally, Facebook, Performing a show, surfing the web a little bit and a moderate amount of listening to music, (I do not use the radio stations for listening to music. I use my CDs and computer for that. I will also soon be using my iPod, which I got today, to listen to music). (This week's music total is an anomaly since I do not normally drive from Ohio to Georgia every week and listen to music for that amount of time.) I don't watch TV since I absolutely DETEST commercials. Don't get me wrong, they are a great way to make a living as an actor and I would take any commercial job with a decent salary but I just don't like seeing the same thing over and over again. I don't normally watch movies as I hadn't had the time to do so in Ohio because of work and moving back to Georgia but I was able to squeeze in watching one movie and a documentary about the making of the film Apollo 13, for information on my feelings about the movie please read my film review somewhere on this blog. I use my email moderately but have had to use it more often since the Fall semester started and I had to send stuff by email from Ohio to my teachers in Georgia. Working on the blogger is interesting but new and I'm still not quite sure if I'm doing this correctly since I haven't actually been able to attend a class yet. I usually also read a lot of books but since I went to Ohio I didn't have the time to read, especially near the end of the season when I had to pack to come home. Hopefully, I will have more time to read since I'm back in school. I also know that my surfing the web is going to grow immensely as I do research for my Senior Capstone.

My media totals for the week were as follows starting with the lowest total and going up:

Email = 2 . 17 hours
Watching Movies/TV = 2 . 62 hours
Working on Blogger = 3 .75 hours
Surfing the Web = 9 . 25 hours
Performances = 10 . 42 hours
Facebook = 12 . 34 hours
Listening to Music = 14 . 75 hours
Total Time Uses in Media = 55 . 30 hours
Total Time in One Week = 168 hours
Percent of Time per Week using Media = 33%

What does my media use say about me?

Well, it says I spend a proportionate amount on time on Facebook and on performances, however that is going to change since I finished my contract in Ohio and have no more performances to do for them. My Facebook usage will undoubtably go up as will my Blogger and email use. I normally listen to music while on the computer so those amounts should stay close to each other. Also, Movie usage will be more this semester than it has been in a while since I have to write a weekly film review. And by the evidence above, I really need to get back to reading my books.

Which media do I trust and why?

Well, I trust the internet to a point. As in I will do research on it, but I don't really use Facebook for gathering information on other people. I normally just spend time playing Facebook games. The only form of media that I really and truly trust are books because once a book is written, it's done. It's hard to go back and edit something when you have already sold 15,000 copies of it to people. Also, it is harder to get away with plagiarism in hard copy format than it is on the internet.

What media do I enjoy the most and why?

Well, contrary to my media log week's indication, I love books. Lots and lots of books because they can take you places you've never ever dreamed of going to and you can do things by thinking of how you would react to the same stimuli that the character(s) in the book encounter. You can take books anywhere you go and they are not annoying to others around you since most of the time you don't read books aloud to yourself.  You can live in another world and be omniscient,  know everything that each character is not only saying or acting but also what they think and why they think, which is something that most movies don't even try to emulate since the ones that do never come close to the real thing. With a book, you can know everything, be everything, do everything that you ever imagined that you wanted to do. You can travel to the far reaches of the universe or go back in time and live the lives of real historical figures. You can read fiction or nonfiction which can help you learn about the past. There are tons of How-to books out there on everything you can possible imagine. The invention of books is not anywhere near us. People have been using the written word since paper and the written language itself was invented. The internet only really came around in the last decade or so but books have been here forever it seems like to me. I love to read. It is my passion, joy, and hobby. I am an extremely fast reader and short books are sort of sad to me because I only had one day or so reading it. I love thick fa books that have good, let me emphasize GOOD, sequels to them since that gives me more chances and more time to do what I love to do which is read books and live the lives of a thousand different people. I also like to re-read good books because every time you read something over again you can spot details you might have missed the first time you read it since the first time you read it you might have been rushing to find out what happens at the end of the book but now you know and a well-written book is most enjoyable to read many times over. But I'm getting carried away since our class is actually about film and TV and no books but let me end this paragraph with my favorite quote about books.

"I cannot live without books." -Thomas Jefferson

Am I willing to expand my exposure to other forms of media?

Yes, absolutely. The more media I am exposed to the more I can learn and I love to learn new things. In any case, this class will actually make me have time to watch DVDs, VHSs or hopefully commercial-free movie channels since I can justify it as homework and not be lying. I've played video games in the past and found it moderately enjoyable but still, books are better. I'm willing to broaden my genres in books and movies although I really dislike horror movies and/or onscreen sex/nudity in movies since it violates my religious beliefs. Also for that same reason,  I hate non-Christian romance novels since they almost always involve lots of sex and not very original plot lines. I am not a fan of those Shades of Gray books for that reason as well. Now, since this year is election year I shall try to broaden my exposure to the news media, (newspapers (online and hard copy) and *grimace* TV) to help me figure out who I think I should vote for as president of the United States. But I most definitely want to learn more form life and broadening my exposure to different forms of media is just one way I can do that.

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