What you need to do:
- Create a chart (similar to the example below) and record your media use for a 24-hour period:
- Keep track of how many minutes you spend exposed to various media.
- Note whether you are paying full attention, have something on in the background, or you are media multitasking. Make your log as detailed as possible. Be mindful of advertisements; they sneak up on you.
- Add up the total number of minutes you have spent with each medium in 24 hours.
- Add up these totals to arrive at a total number of minutes of media exposure for 24 hours.
- Attach your media log as a separate page (not counted towards the essay page total).
Effect of Media Multitasking on Advertising
Media DIET Assignment 1: Log Example
| Time (total min) | TV | Radio/music | Newspaper/ Magazine | Internet | Book | Film | Other |
| 8:00-8:10am (10 min) | Listen to news on NPR | ||||||
| 10:30-11:30am (60 min) | Listen to Pop radio in the background | Chat online with friends & update Facebook page | |||||
| 5:15pm (1 min) | Text my brother | ||||||
| Totals | 0 min | 70 min | 0 min | 30 min | 0 min | 0 min | 1 min |
- Write a 3-page essay, double-spaced, typed in a 12-point Times New Roman font (print and staple your essay). In your essay, analyze your media consumption in this 24-hour period and consider how it shapes your views of politics and the world.
First, consider your media use in the following ways:
- Compare your media use on this day to an average day for you.
- Compare your media use with information from this Oxford University’s report on Gen Z and news consumption :http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2019/how-younger-generations-consume-news-differently/ (链接到外部网站。)
- (链接到外部网站。) (Links to an external site.)What does your level of exposure to various media say about you? How are you similar and/or different from other Gen Zers?
Next, consider your media diet in terms of social relationships:
- How does your media use connect you to other people of the same political beliefs? Of different political beliefs?
- How does it separate or isolate you?
- After carefully observing your media exposure for one day, is there anything you would like to change if you could about your media diet and why?
- Do you think you are getting the information you need to successfully operate in a democracy?
Grading:
This paper is worth 20% of your final grade. Essays will be graded according to the following criteria:
- Did the author follow the guidelines of the assignment, complete all requirements AND provide evidence of this in the essay? (50%)
- Did the author establish and support a clear position or argument? Does the essay go beyond description to provide critical insight informed by class readings and discussion? (40%)
- Is the writing clear, coherent and concise? Does the author use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation? (10%)