Madison’s Media Diary 2/11-2/17

Over the course of this week, I kept note of the different news sources I used. I usually try and keep up to date with the news but this week I noticed was a little more difficult because of school, work, and other extracurriculars. It was interesting to note the ways I interacted with news over the course of the week.

• Sunday I spent a lot of time on my AP news app.
• Monday I skimmed over my Skim’d email (pun intended) and followed headlines notifications I was receiving from AP
• Tuesday I read nothing news related but decided to delete twitter and Instagram to see how that affects the time I spend on my phone.
• Wednesday I got some news time when I was at the gym. They were playing Fox on the TV near the treadmill so I watched that while I ran
• Thursday I read my Skim’d email in the morning and scrolled through the AP news app again
• Friday I followed AP news headline notifications and skimmed through articles on Facebook
• Saturday I went to the gym again and got my news from the TV near the treadmill. It was on a different station, not sure which one. I also played an NPR podcast on my way home from work talking about current events
• Sunday I scrolled through AP news when I had the chance during the day

 

I learned that a lot of my news tends to come when it is convenient and easily accessible. I don’t usually go out of my way to read the news unless I have nothing else going on. I did notice that after I deleted twitter and Instagram I spent less time on my phone overall and more time scrolling through my AP news app and reading my Skim’d emails. I relied on these news sources because they were convenient and easily accessible. That is also why for the days the news was playing in the gym I paid attention to it. My choices were to either stare at the wall, other people working out, or watch the news. The later seemed to be the best choice.

I do realize that even though I consider AP and Skim’d to be two fairly reliable and non-biased sources, I did notice some articles (especially on AP news) that seemed to be in a conflict frame or biased in some way. I think they might also reflect my personal views and biases because some of the articles written on both Skim’d and AP news can be more left-leaning and that is where I consider myself to be. However, I do rely on these sources to try and get a conflict-free (as free as it can be) understanding of the things going on around me and in politics.