MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
PART 1: Mass media exposure – due September 29th
A. Television
1. Do you consider yourself to be a television viewer? Does this vary depending on the time of year or if you are working, studying, etc…?
2. Do you own or otherwise control access to a set? Do you have cable or satellite access, and if who is paying for this?
3. How many hours, on average, do you watch on weekdays?
4. How many hours, on average, do you watch on Saturdays?
5. How many hours, on average, do you watch on Sundays?
6. How many shows do you make a practice of watching regularly? List the shows and identify genre of show.
7. Do you usually watch by yourself or with others? Usually by myself, usually with others, about half and half?
8. When you are watching, do you try to avoid interruptions (e.g., leaving the room, taking phone calls) or are they typical and expected?
9. When you watch, list other things that you might do at the same time (e.g., read, talk to others, eat, day dream, dress or change clothes, anything else)?
10. Approximately what proportion of the material that you watch would you consider informative rather than entertainment?
11. Approximately how much of that material do you actually pay attention to and think that you understand?
12. What subjects does that information cover (e.g., weather, how to do things, reports on my home town, information about foreign events)?
13. How important to you is the information that you get from television?
14. How much would it matter to you if you could no longer get as much television as you might want whenever you might want it?
B. Magazines
1. Do you consider yourself to be a magazine reader?
2. To how many magazines do you have subscriptions? What are their names?
3. Do you read them all regularly?
4. How many magazines do you purchase regularly at stores or stands? What are their names?
5. How many magazines do you read regularly even though you don't buy them e.g., you read them at libraries, get them from friends? What are their names?
6. When do you read magazines?
7. Where do you read magazines?
8. How much of the magazines that you read regularly do you actually read?
9. How many of the ads do you read? Do you generally remember all the ads you read?
10. Do you find the magazines useful/helpful to you in any way? Why/Why not?
11. Is the meaning of the material you read always clear to you, usually clear, sometimes clear, usually confusing or difficult?
12. How much would it matter to you if you could no longer get the magazines you might want whenever you might want
13. What changes over the years, if any, have you noticed in the magazines you have read?
C. Films
1. Do you consider yourself to be a filmgoer? Why/why not.
2. Approximately how frequently do you go to the movies?
3. When you go to a movie do you usually go alone or with friends?
4. When do you tend to go see movies: time of day, day of week?
5. What do you usually consider in choosing a movie to see-- time, theater location, critic's reviews, opinions of others who've seen it, what the people you're with want to see, type of subject matter, actors and actresses, producer or director, cost or whether you have the money, anything else? Which of these factors is most important in most cases?
6. Do you advise people as to what films they ought to go and see, and do you seek out other’s opinions on what movies to see?
7. Do you usually give films your undivided attention while in the theater?
8. When you are watching with others, do you talk about the film while you're watching?
9. When you have watched a movie with others, do you usually prefer to discuss it with them before making up your mind as to how you felt about it?
10. Do you usually enjoy the films you see?
11. Is your enjoyment of a film very much tied to or usually independent of how good or bad a production you feel it is?
12. Do you consider watching a film at home on television or a VCR or DVD the same as watching it in theater? Which do you prefer? Why?
13. What changes over the years, if any, have you noticed in the movies you have seen?
D. Newspapers
1. Do you consider yourself to be a newspaper reader?
2. Which ones do you/have you read? Do you read them regularly?
3. Do you buy it yourself or someone else, is it delivered/subscription?
4. Where do you read them, when do you read them? Are you ever doing something else at the same time?
5. What parts of them do you read e.g. news, sports, entertainment, local news, national, international, weather, business, etc…?
6. For what purpose do you/would you read newspapers?
7. Do you understand the content always, or only sometimes?
8. Do you want to know more?
9. Do you question what you read?
10. Do you talk about the issues you read about it with others?
11. Do you read the whole article(s) or skim through them?
12. What would it mean to you if you could no longer get newspapers?
13. What changes over the years, if any, have you noticed in the newspapers you have read?
E. Radio
1. Do you consider yourself a listener of radio?
2. What radio stations have you and do you listen to? What types of radio stations are they, e.g. talk/news radio, music and identify genre, etc…,
3. When do you listen to the radio? Where do you listen to the radio?
4. When you listen, list other things that you might do at the same time.
5. Are there any radio stations you listen to regularly?
6. For what purpose do you listen to the radio?
7. Approximately what proportion of the material that you listen to would you consider informative rather than entertainment?
8. What subjects does that information cover (e.g., weather, how to do things, reports on my home town, information about foreign events)?
9. How important to you is the information that you get from the radio?
10. Do you want to know more?
11. Do you question what you hear?
12. How important is the entertainment you receive?
13. How much would it matter to you if you could no longer get as much radio as you might want whenever you might want it?
PART 2: Your actual media consumption – due October 20th
For the period of ONE FULL WEEK, October 9th through October 16 (Saturday – Friday inclusive – you may wish to begin on a Sunday or Monday instead, in this case either Oct. 10th or 11th) you are to keep a complete, detailed record of your exposure to media material for each thirty minute period of each day. The media include newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and film/movies (at home or in theatre). I am using the term exposure to these media in order to avoid the problems involved in there being a different vocabulary for each medium (e.g., reading a newspaper, viewing television, listening to the radio, going to a movie) and in the fact that exposure can vary from deep involvement to incidental awareness. As you will see from the following items, exposure can be quite incidental or even trivial (e.g., incidentally seeing a TV program or hearing a radio program while stopping to check something with a friend, reading a newspaper item over someone’s shoulder). Keep each day’s record on a separate sheet(s) and, within each day, make sure that each thirty minute period from the time you awaken to the time to you go to sleep is delineated and accounted for, e.g. 7:00 A.M. to midnight which would be thirty-four time periods. For each period, provide the following information.1. Which, if any, of the media were you exposed to during the period? Give the name of the newspaper, magazine, or film, and/or the station and program if radio or television. For any that you were exposed to, was it for part or all of the period?
2. What was the material? (e.g. items in the newspaper or magazine, subject of the television or radio program)
3. Where were you during this period? (e.g., Eating, in your bedroom, in a car, in a bathroom, exercising, etc…)?
4. During this period of media exposure, were you alone or with others? If with others, did you interact with any of them during this time?
5. How much, if at all, did you enjoy it?
6. Did you talk about the material to which you were exposed at the time?....afterward?
7. What, if anything, did you learn from it? Was this something you wanted and/or needed to know?
Please record your responses for each 30-minute period of each day systematically. This will make it easier to summarize the data.
Part 3: Evaluate your media consumption – Due January 19th
Write a reflective essay in which you evaluate your media consumption referring to parts 1 & 2 and also in terms of what you have been learning. References for readings and class discussion are entirely appropriate. The essay should be of what you deem a suitable length.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
- How difficult or easy was it for you to tune out from media for the one (or two) week(s)? What was challenging, what wasn’t?
- What were the benefits, the drawbacks of tuning out?
- What did you do instead of what you normally would have been doing if your attention had been towards media?
- How much did mass media still come into your life – of what sorts, when, with whom, etc…?
- What did you learn about yourself, and about media by going through this tune out week?
- Reviewing parts 1 & 2, and comparing this information with your above reflections, evaluate your media consumption. What did you learn about yourself and about media?
- How have undertaking this assignment changed you or not changed you? Do you want to change your media consumption patterns – why/why not?
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