Lecture 5

This is a sound lecture of ABC radio hosts Steve Austin interviewed Richard Fidler. Rechard presents a really well-know conversation program on ABC Lacal Radio to hundreds of thousands and podcasters.

He mentioned radio is a very different medium, it is a complete different medium to TV. Radio is much more intimate medium than TV. The only source you can focus on it is sound. When hosts or guests tell a story, if you are attracted, you will follow the sentences and image the pictures. Just like Rechard said, the important thing of radio is to let listeners feel included in every conversation. Beside radio, audiences are able to decide “stay” or “continue” through visual on TV. So comparing with comperes, host of radio should pay more attention on their language.

Resarch is important as well when you interview a guast, therefor extensive interest is superiority of a host. When you interviewed a guest, you need to realize when is the right time to speak, because most of time should leave to the guast.

Rechard said sometimes he will think the picture of his listeners. I really agree this ideal not only on guasts but on every thing. In the future, if I am a compere, I will image my audiences before I broadcast. Through this way, I can catch thrie mind and report suitable content. This is a really good ideal.

The interaction between hosts and listeners is necessary of radio. It always present through the phone, like call-in. Rechard said the easy way to le listeners call in is to ask simple questions, for instance, do you agree? That is a really smart quetion. People always listen radio when they go shopping, walkin, taking buses, so they don’t really need a hard or a trick question to bother them, because they just want to relax and enjoy through redio. In this way, when you post a simple question out, they will have “time” and “energy” to join in. So “complex ideal” won’t always be good choice, simple is more acceptable.

Use of media

Nowadays, there are hundreds of practical medias provide for us. We nearly can’t leave them on account of getting more friends, more information and more social contact. So, let’s focus on my "using of media".

First of all, I will present rough outline for using table to show what I have used and how many minutes I used in 14 days. See table 1 below.

Table 1:                     The journal of using media
	Social network				print			Entertain-ment	Internet browsing(phone and laptop)
	QQ	Email	Web blog	Renren    Inc	Newspaper	novel	magazine	TV
11/3	56	10	20	15	11	20	0	0	110
12/3	67	15	27	20	0	20	0	0	152
13/3	61	5	30	14	0	20	0	0	133
14/3	42	8	23	10	0	20	0	0	141
15/3	80	14	31	20	12	20	0	0	121
16/3	72	20	10	24	10	20	0	0	117
17/3	65	5	26	25	13	20	0	50	105
18/3	78	7	36	21	9	20	20	0	112
19/3	68	10	30	12	0	20	0	0	135
20/3	81	15	25	17	0	20	0	0	142
21/3	58	8	35	21	0	20	0	0	151
22/3	60	10	92	26	8	20	0	0	102
23/3	72	13	89	24	10	20	0	0	121
24/3	57	5	138	28	9	20	0	50	113

As table 1 revealed, I separated my using of media in four main parts. They are social network, print, entertainment and internet browsing. Each part has covered several media accesses and I will specifically analysis them later. In order to clearly demonstrate mine pattern I summarized table 1.

My personal media use and production is a period of fourteen (14) days, so I make one table of each week which summing total minutes of each main part and find percentages of them. Then using those data to respectively make a pie chart. The purpose of separately analyzing is avoiding missing some phenomenon to accurately find my pattern.

Table 2:                       Summary of first week (11/3~17/3)
	Social network	print	entertainment	Internet browsing
Total time	815	176	85	879
Percentage	41.68%	9.00%	4.35%	45.88%

Table 3:                       Summary of first week (18/3~24/3)
	Social network	print	entertainment	Internet browsing
Total time	1015	176	85	879
Percentage	47.17%	8.18%	3.95%	40.70%

The pie chart of table 2:

There are three phenomenon showed on Figure 1 and Figure 2. Firstly, the media I used most are “social network and internet browsing”. Though the percentage of them are different both in table 2 and 3, it is mainly similar. External influence will impact the percentage of them as well. For instance, I need to finish my homework by using blog on second week, so the minutes of “web blog” is increased suddenly from 22/3 in table 1. That is why social network goes to the highest percentage in second week (table 3). In this way, social network and internet browsing are both the most important media of me. Secondly, “print” is the second most media access I used. Thirdly, entertainment is the least media access I used.

The pie chart of table 3:

Social network is WEB2.0 which is name of the new generation of website-adhibition and it focus on interaction of users. So we are not only the websites visitor but also the producer. My social networks include QQ, web blog, Renren Inc and Email. Web blog and Email are familiar to everyone but QQ and Renren Inc. QQ is well-known in China and nearly everyone uses it.  The function of it is same with Skype. I use it to connect with my relatives and friends in China, so I nearly can't leave it. The faction of Renren Inc is nearly similar with facebook. You can discover that comparing with my peers I don’t use facebook at all. That is because not only I have Renren Inc but also facebook has been banned in China. Though the reason of it is complex, if we focused on media’s developing and benefit, it is important to increase the rate of coverage. Come back to social network, those four types of media accesses are everywhere. I used them at anytime and anywhere through my phone and they are so easy to involve. That is why this is my most using of media. Internet browsing is certain to become my top media. Through it I searched academic information, road news, found answers and shopped. If I need to find an answer, internet browsing will definitely be my first choice. It is quick, knowledgeable, and inexpensive. I won't go to libraries to read 10 books for finding one answer.

However, newspaper, books and magazines still can’t be replaced. “A picture is worth a thousand of words”, there are many pictures show on magazines. I love fashion and always buy fashion magazine to read. Those magazines all provide website for audience to reading online. However, after I visited the website, I put it away and still chose to buy magazines. Because many photos become words on website and I can’t easily keep the information through website. When I read magazines, if there are something I prefer I can just cut it off and collect it. Comparing with online news, the analysis of newspaper is more specific. For novels, I prefer to read through books rather than read it online.  It is not only easily take note but also good for my vision.  However, those media accesses all have one same defect which is hard to carry (comparing with phone). This will result many people choose other media accesses. The same situation happens on televisions. Because I can watch most of video, news and movies on my phone or laptop, so I just spend few hours to watch TV. However, I can’t totally keep it away because of TV “specialty” which is aggregation. In table 1, I spent 50 minutes for watching my favorite show on every Saturday.  I watched it with my three roommates and it is a good time to have communication with each other.

In the end, internet is the most important media in my life. For my using of media, I spend most of time on social networks and internet browsing. However, the media likes newspaper, TV and magazine which I spend less time are still necessary. Every media access has their own feature and every media should focus and developed on their feature in journalism and communication.