Media Consumption: How Much do we Really Consume?

After meticulously recording my media consumption habits for 24 hours, several things jumped out at me. First, I found that I got most of my news information off of my phone rather than in print or on my computer. As soon as I wake up in the morning my phone is right there next to me so I can easily turn it on and access news information. Similarly, with the IPhones fairly new Apple News app it is that much easier to see current news. Also I love twitter, its my not so guilty pleasure and noticeably the number one place I usually get my news information.

The main news sources I tend to lean towards are pretty much anything but Fox News, but I really enjoy the classic New York Times or CNN. These are and have been trusted news sources for decades and I trust them to give me a fairly unbiased account of the news each day. Honestly, I also love the novelty of reading the New York Times, as a journalism student that’s probably the main reason I read it, it just feels right. I follow both the New York Times and CNN on Twitter and Facebook so it makes getting my news much easier.

I also aspire to be a sports reporter so I religiously follow ESPN. I have notifications on for the app so it is extremely easy to access sports news. I definitely trust sources like the ones I mentioned more than those like Fox News or for local news the Deseret News. I find that Fox News and Deseret News are much more skewed, in my opinion, and biased towards one side. This is unfortunate to me because, as a journalist, I like to see unbiased, honest news reporting not one that favors a certain side or voice.

When it comes to how I get my news, as I stated earlier, I don’t usually go to the home page of the organization, rather I use places like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit to access news articles and information. By going through Twitter I also find that I read news that is much more broad that things I would usually look for when going through the newspaper or on an organizations’ site. The unfortunate thing however about going though sites like Facebook, Reddit and Twitter is you do have to be careful of who is posting the information and what sites you are being sent to. I find myself running into a lot of ‘fake news’ or unreliable rumor mill accounts that are mainly click bait.

When asked the question “what do you think you might be missing?” and “does it matter to you?” I think I usually find the news I’m interested in and whatever else I might be missing out on I’m not too worries about. I think we also get a lot of our news just through communicating with other people so a decent amount of news I may not hear about I find out from friends and family. Similarly, these days I find myself actively looking for the news less and less because it is so depressing and unbelievable a good amount of the time. Twitter is entertaining because of various tweets from our President, but its also pretty sad and disheartening that this is the time we're living in. For that reason, I feel like I avoid the news sometimes because reading sad story after sad story can be exhausting. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment and getting to really see how much I access news each day whether or not I realize it or not.

About a Journalist, By a Journalist: Joe Sharkey

Joe Sharkey is an American author and former journalist for The New York Times. Before becoming a successful writer and columnist, Sharkey served in the United States Navy. Sharkey was in Vietnam in 1968 where he was assigned to a unit in Saigon that traveled the country reporting on Navy and Marine Corps action, often for Pacific Stars & Stripes, the military newspaper. Upon exiting the Navy, Sharkey had useful information and clips and was able to approach the Philadelphia Inquirer, a major publication in his hometown, who hired him in 1970 as a reporter and columnist.

Since his first journalist job at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sharkey’s work appears in major nation and international publications. For 19 years he was a columnist for The New York Times, 16 of those doing the weekly “On the Road” column on business travel and before that the weekly “Jersey” column. Currently, Sharkey is an online columnist for the business-travel site Lola.com, as well as a print and online columnist for Business Jet Traveler magazine. Similarly, he has written five books, four non-fictions focused on criminality and a novel, one of which titled “Above Suspicion” has been adapted into a major motion picture starring Emilia Clarke from the series “Game of Thrones.” Sharkey is also an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Arizona living in Tucson, Arizona.

An interesting piece of information about Joe Sharkey is he was one of the seven people aboard an Embraer Legacy business jet that collided mid-air with a Boeing 737 over Brazil, on September 29. 2006. Luckily they managed to land safely, despite sustaining damage to the wing and tail of the aircraft. In a New York Times front-page article, “Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living,” Sharkey reported:

“It had been a nice ride. Minutes before we were hit, I had wandered up to the cockpit to chat with the pilots, who said the plane was flying beautifully. I saw the readout that showed out altitude: 37,000 feet. I returned to my seat. Minutes later came the strike (it sheared off part of the plane’s tail, too, we later learned)”. (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/business/03road.html)

Joe Sharkey has produced countless columns and pieces of work in his career starting when he was in the Navy and continuing until the present day. Some examples of Sharkey’s work include his “On the Road” columns published in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/column/on-the-road?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=ExtendedByline&region=Header&pgtype=article), his website and blog (https://joesharkey.com/) and his assortment of criminality books. Sharkey’s book, “Above Suspicion” has been recently turned into a film moving it from print to multi-media. His books have also all been transferred into e-books to read off of a Kindle or iPad pushing them into multi-media and the digital world as well.

Finally, Sharkey has most recently been working on the movie adaptation of “Above Suspicion” as well as a new non-fiction book.

Sharkey had had a great amount of impact on the journalism world and now moving into the digital journalism world in the age of digital media. When it comes to digital media tools, Sharkey most notably uses online publications and business travel sites like Lola.com to reach a wider range of the public. While he isn’t a big time user of social media, Sharkey does see the value in today’s digital age and the tools that go with that. “While I value on-the-ground, face to face reporting, the research capabilities on the Internet are astonishing to someone, like me, who began in journalism before the internet was even thought of,” explains Sharkey. While he doesn’t currently draw a distinction on whether he is a ‘digital journalist,’ Sharkey does recognize that “digital journalism is not the future, it is the present.” I would definitely consider Joe Sharkey a digital journalist however, he has produced thousands of columns that are readily accessible online, he writes for an online publication and he has his own self-named blog. While he may not be the influencer or social media star of the 21st century, Sharkey proves to be someone who as lived through the transition from the print age to the digital age.

Through the use of online publications, eBooks and articles all accessible online, Sharkey reaches a greatly wider range of people than he may have before he moved into digital journalism and he recognizes that. Similarly, Sharkey acknowledges that digital journalism and the Internet is still something we are all learning how to use properly in order to give the public access to current, timely news. I find a journalist like Joe Sharkey to be extremely knowledgeable and professional when it comes to the work he produces. Sharkey has great scope, as much of his work is easily accessible through his blog where he frequently posts about business travel and other topics. I find him to be specifically creative because he uses so many different platforms to share his work and he really doesn’t need to use social media to do this. While he is a fairly well known journalist, it is still easy for someone who knows nothing about him to find his work and plenty of information about him through the Internet. For these reasons I believe Joe Sharkey is a great example of a journalist who began in the print world and has flawlessly progressed and flowed into the digital world, making him one of the godfathers of digital journalism in my opinion.

The Juxtapose App

Juxtapose is an application which allows users to compare two similar forms of media, including GIFs, photos and maps. The tool, created by Knight Lab, allows journalists and really anyone to tell stories by comparing to similar images or frames. There are plenty of journalists, including myself, who discuss changes in the then versus now and this app allows us to give our audience a visual of those changes. An app like Juxtapose is amazing for highlighting stories that explain slow or abrupt changes over time including, deforestation, war, growth of a skyline and many more. Juxtapose is extremely relevant as well for displaying the impact of a single event like a protest or a natural disaster. So, for these reasons, as journalists we can use this platform for current news, profiles or really any story that you can use a visual comparison.

Juxtapose is a super easy application to use, all one has to do is find to similar sized photos, copy the URL to the image you want on the left and paste it and do the same for the right image. Then, Juxtapose allows the user to label each image and give credit to the source in which you found that image as to not get in trouble for copyright. The app gives you some options on the layout and look of your images and then you can choose to either preview the Juxtapose or create it. Once Juxtapose has created your image, they give you an option to copy and paste a link to your image or an option to copy and embed your image into a website, blog or any other place you could use it. The best part about Juxtapose is they provide examples on their website of countless news sources that have used Juxtapose and the link to where you can find them and see how they used the app. I love this because it gave me a clear example of what you can do on Juxtapose and the various levels other journalists have used it in their writing.

Not only is Juxtapose super helpful and easy to use, it is also a free and open source that anyone can use. All you must have to use the app is links to two similar pieces of media and then you just copy and paste, and you have a great visual comparison. While it may seem like a comparison between two similar photos can be done by anyone by just attaching the two images, however, Juxtapose uses a slider tool so you can see each full image, or the images compared. Here is an example:

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=ddb47eec-5111-11e9-8106-0edaf8f81e27

As you can see, the image is much more than a side by side comparison but an in-depth view of the changes going on in our society and on our planet. The app itself is a great storytelling tool that is so broad and easy to use. Not only does the site offer the side by side frame comparisons, but they also offer ways to create other interactive features including maps, timelines and inline audio. With so many options it is hard to go wrong with an app like Juxtapose if you are a journalist. It is so important in our day and age to use interactive tools in our stories that can be viewed on various digital platforms including your phone or tablet. Juxtapose gives users the option to do just that and reach a greater variety and span of readers around the world.