(My Own Photo)
After I climb out of bed, I put CNN on the television and get ready for the day. I like to stay on top of current events and CNN is the only news channel that I somewhat trust. It's hard for me to trust most news that I hear, due to the fact that public relations firms cannot be trusted. According to my textbook,"The relationship between journalism and PR is important and complex" (Media and Society 399. Usually anything complex shouldn't be trusted in my opinion. PR is too powerful in my opinion, and the fact they can make a whole society believe anything, scares me a bit.
My Choice in News(Image from CNN.com)
I listen to the news and believe most of the story's to a certain extent, but I never take anything being said too literally, I just like to stay informed about the world around me.
As CNN mutters out the news in the background before I leave my apartment for the day, I can usually be found sitting in front of my laptop surfing the internet. Checking my different social networking profiles, my email, my blogs, Wikipedia and visiting different websites has become part of my everyday ritual. I can live without using the internet, but it has become part of my normal routine. I enjoy writing blogs and learning new information in Wikipedia, but like my textbook says, "The do-it-yourself content of the Internet doesn't end with blogs and wikis" (Media and Society 53). I find myself checking both my school email and my personal email everyday along with my Facebook and Tumblr before I start the day, and periodically throughout whenever I have time or if I'm bored. Social networking is normal everyday life to a kid born in the 1990's.
What I use to browse the Web.
(Image from Inquisitor.com)
After learning the news of the day and checking up on the internet based portion of my social life. I leave the house and head to school. This of course has become a task that will always include the use of my iPod.
iPod Touch
(Image from engadget.com)
My 32g iPod Touch has become part of me whenever I am walking, riding on the bus, sitting alone, snowboarding or pretty much whenever I am not with a group of friends. I bring this thing everywhere, and I know I am not alone because according to my textbook, "Apples Ipod...the leading portable music and video player, began a revolution in digital music" (Media and Society 79). Being able to hold thousands of songs, videos, handy applications and games in the palm of my hand gives me so many options to cure boredom and make life a little more enjoyable. My iPod has brought me an extreme amount of happiness, to say the least, and I wouldn't want to imagine my everyday life without one.
Before class I tend to get coffee and usually a bagel in the cafeteria. This is almost always accompanied with the newspaper. It may be because I am a writing major, or the fact I hold a high respect for the old fashioned way of doing things, but I always read the paper whenever I can get my hand on it. It's a certain nostalgia; holding the paper and learning more about the world around me. I understand that newspapers are losing their place in the world. According to my textbook, "The decline in newspaper readership began during the Depression, with the rise of radio" (Media and Society 270). With that being said, newspapers have been losing their touch for quite sometime, yet I still will eat breakfast with one until they all vanish.
The newspaper at Champlain College
(Image from The New York Times.com)
I have many breaks in-between my classes and I like to spend my time wisely. I usually end up doing homework or some personal writing of some sort, but I find myself reading and flipping through magazines to pass time for a bit. I always try and have a copy of Transworld Snowboarding present in my backpack, but if that isn't there for some reason, I like to go to the campus mail room and see if there are any free magazines to read.
Transworld Snowboarding
(Image from Transworld Snowboarding.com)
I like looking at the advertisements and pictures in Transworld, as well as keep up to date with the snowboard world. Magazines are perfect to pass time, especially when I am reading a magazine focused on a certain subject, like snowboarding. According to my textbook, " The general trend away from mass market publications and toward specialty magazines coincided with radio's move to specialized formats in the 1950's" (Media and Society 296). This change has made me a happy person, because, well, I get to hold a magazine all about snowboarding in between classes, not much is better than that.
When I am not slaving away on my education, a typical day in my life would normally include driving my car and listening to the radio in the process. Many people tend to use an iPod in the car, but I tend to enjoy the radio, I like to keep it old school. Leaving the radio on is a good way to find out about new songs, as well as learning interesting facts and sometimes even a laugh from the DJ's. I like alternative rock stations and there are always a plentiful amount of those to be found. I also like to listen to the radio on the internet, which according to my textbook, "...Emerged in the 1990's with the popularity of the web" (Media and Society 133). Internet radio allows me to use Pandora, which is always a good thing to play when you don't know what you want to listen too.
The radio I would walk around with on my shoulder if it was still acceptable in society.
(Image from crrc.org.my)
After a long day at school or attempting to solve boredom on the weekends, I tend to spend a bit of time watching movies. I enjoy well made movies by directors that are known for more than special effects (cough, Michael Bay) and better known for storyline, that make the viewer question everything they have ever learned. I enjoy films like Reservoir Dogs, Taxi Driver, Donnie Darko, Fight Club and movies with plots like Inception. Movies help me unwind and train my brain to learn new things and different ways to view the world. I would rather go out to the movies than watch a DVD, and I would rather watch a DVD then watch the movie on the Internet. According to Media and Society, "The biggest challenge the movie industry faces today is the Internet" (Media and Society 241). I would rather support directors I like then rip them off. Movies tend to find their place into a typical day for me, whether it be watching them or making a reference to one as the day goes on.
A scene from my favorite movie, Reservoir Dogs
After I do my homework and hang out with my friends for the evening a book can always be found in my hands, usually as i lay in bed. Reading before bed has always been part of my everyday routine since I was little. Being a writing major, reading is important to my well being, it helps expand my word choice and how I go about approaching story telling. Reading before bed has helped me learn that I want to be a writer, as well as help my mind escape reality for a little bit after a long day. When talking about books, my textbook says "Our oldest mass medium is also still our most influential and diverse one" (Media and Society 315). This is also my oldest form of mass medium and I hold reading close to my heart.
Ernest Hemingway, my favorite writer.
(Image from kinkanon.blogspot.com)
As I lay in bed i tend to ponder the events of my day and plan the events for the next day. I don't usually plan the media being part of my life, it just is and that's normal for me. According to my textbook, "A key aspect of our postmodern time is the willingness to accept paradox". (Media and Society 27). I also have the willingness to accept paradox, and while being an artist I must use the media, despite the fact i don't trust of acknowledge most of it. It has become part of my life and there's no escaping it. The media is my everyday life, it's part of growing up with the Internet.
The Media
(Image from telemed.no)
