Media Usage and Its Impact

This assignment delves into the effects of daily media usage on individuals. It encourages a self-reflective analysis of personal media consumption habits, particularly focusing on smartphone use. The document explores various risks associated with internet usage, such as online fraud, cyberbullying, and the spread of malware. Additionally, it highlights the growing influence of technology in shaping our lives and anticipates future advancements that may further reduce human labor.

Running head: MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
Media monitoring assignment
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
Name: ________________________________________________________ Date: ___________
Measuring Your Media
Directions: Answer each question honestly about your media use. Estimate as accurately as possible.
1. Check whether you had each of the following in 2012 and whether you have it now.
2012: yes or no? now: yes or no?
cell phone Yes No
smart phone (has Internet access, music, videos, etc. No Yes
iPod/MP3 player No No
laptop computer Yes Yes
video game system or software Yes Yes
Facebook or MySpace account No Yes
Twitter account No Yes
other (e.g. e-book reader): _______________________ No No
2. Compare your media use today with your media use in 2005 by estimating the amount of time spent daily on each activity. Label
each of your answers in minutes or hours. Place a check in the third column to indicate whether that activity is typically part of any
multitasking you do (i.e., you tend to do it while doing other activities).
2012 now multitasking?
text messaging 10 Mins 30 mins Yes
sending photos and videos 5 Mins 35mins Yes
looking at Web sites 20 Mins 60 Mins Yes
sharing creativity (posting your own writing, photos,
videos, music, creating podcasts, etc.) 20 Mins 5 Mins No
listening to music or podcasts 45 Mins 30 Mins Yes
watching TV or Web shows or movies 60 Mins 45 Mins Yes
using email 20Mins 50 Mins Yes
playing video games 65 Mins 30 Mins No
social networking 40 Mins 80 Mins Yes
other: __________________________________________ 30 Mins 20Mins Yes
3. Assign a percentage to each reason you have for using the media above. Be sure that each column adds up to 100%. Then create
a pie chart in the circles below to show your results. Label and use a different color pen or pencil for each part.
2012 now
school assignments 6 30
learning about news/current events 5 15
entertainment 20 15
socializing 40 80
communicating with family members 50 35
mindless/purposeless use 10 20
other: ____________________ 20 10

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MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
Figure 1- Media usage in 2012
Source- (As created by the author)
Figure 2- Media Usage in 2017
Source-(As created by the Author)

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MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
Media Monitoring
Media monitoring is the process of carefully reading, listening and observation of the media contents
and the media journals. This includes the keen observation of the newspapers, journals, magazines, internet
contents and many more as such. Technological advancements in the last couple of years due to globalization
has made a great impact on our lives. It has helped us to transform our lifestyle totally (Gentile et al. 2014). It
is theoretically as well as practically proved that gadgets which are the most important inventions of the last
decade have been the main cause behind such a drastic transformation. Television was one of the most
important discovery of the last century which had a great impact on our lives. The knowledge that people
acquired from the books were now visible in television. After this came the telephones which revolutionized
the way people communicate with each other. Finally the cell phones a mobile communication device came
into the market in the mid 90’s. However the biggest impact that changed our life was the emergence of social
media tools like facebook, twitter and many other such internet platforms were different people from around
the world have a free access and can talk with each other freely.
Smartphone are the latest form of cell phones which has taken the mobile market by a storm. Its
popularity is because of its multitasking activities (Bekkers, Edwards & de Kool, 2013). A person operating
the smart phone can perform a vast range of different tasks like social networking, internet browsing, online
shopping, internet chatting, online payments, internet banking, games and many more as such. Smartphone
also have a perfect GPS system that helps to easily track and locate maps of different places. My present
Smartphone is the first phone that I have bought in the year 2016. It is a Motorola device that has a good
reputation in the market. Apart from the above mentioned uses my Smartphone also has voice recognition
features that help me to communicate and perform all my tasks easily and efficiently (Ruggiero & Vos, 2014).
I was initially reluctant about buying a Smartphone but after I bought it I am well aware of the
different uses that it has been providing me. I spend more than half of my time on my Smartphone as it
consumes more than 80% of my media and internet usage. I have provided a figure in this report to show my

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MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
seven day usage of the Smartphone. The figure will highlight the different contents of the media that I access
daily. Such different types of media usage include my social media usage, news content reading and many
other forms of internet sites which I access. I usually spend around 3 hours in accessing the contents of my
Facebook and Twitter Accounts. The social media applications have a positive impact on my growth as
because it helps me to stay in touch with all my family friends, relatives and old friends on a regular basis.
There are many people who are my near and dear ones but they stay at distant places that is not easy to visit.
Facebook helps me to shorten the distance of communication as because I can easily contact them with just
one click.
As I am a graduate I have also created a number of different accounts in different job portals to get an
idea of the different types of jobs and apply for them easily. This process has helped me to get a number of
different interview calls from a vast range of companies that are in search for filling up different vacancies.
Such an opportunity helps me to develop myself as an individual and helps me to achieve my personal goals. I
follow a number of different things in social media. Football has been my hobby from my childhood days thus
my social media searches are based mainly on football around the world. I enjoy reading different articles on
the beautiful sport and as such posts comment on each of them. My secondary searchers include generalized
news and many other such different things.
Apart from the above mentioned tasks my other media related activities includes different online
media channels, sports related news channels, you tube videos including live football matches, live chat
shows, cinemas and other browsing activities. You tube helps me to access the highlights of different sports
matches which are telecasted late at night. Goal.com is one of my favorite websites and I surf it regularly
either at the beginning of my surfing period or at the ending. As mentioned earlier I also access different types
of popular news channels both in the internet as well as on television. Such news helps me to keep an update
about the latest happenings in and around the world. Newspapers have also served as an important media tool
that has helped me to be updated about the different types of news both local as well as international. My

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MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
television shows again includes football matches, different sporting events and some selected regional as well
as international cinemas. I prefer watching sci-fi movies and action movies the most. Dark romantic thrillers
are also one of my favorites. Apart from this shows I make it a point to watch National Geographic and
Animal planet at least once in a week to gain a vast knowledge of different scientific advancements and the
mystery of the animal kingdom.
Minutes Social
Media
Average Use
You Tube Television Internet
Browsing
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Figure 3- Daily Average use of Media Types for a 7 Day Period
Source- (As created by the Author)

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MEDIA MONITORING ASSIGNMENT
Star Sports Neo Sports Ten Action ESPN Animal
Planet National
Geography
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
4
3
2
1 1
2
Figure 4- Number of channels and Number of Days Watched
Source- (As created by the Author)
Apart from the positive impacts that media have helped me to attain there are a number of negative
impacts of using media contents. The threats of using internet as a media source are much higher than the
positive impacts. Exposure of the private and confidential information is one of the main risks of using the
internet. Banking transactions are considered to be one of the most unsafe transactions that happen through the
internet. There are often cases where online frauds have been reported. There are many more such difficulties
associated with the use of internet. This includes sharing personal photos that can be morphed by other
persons, spreading malware and viruses through the spam mails and other sources (Bazarova, 2016). Recently
there was a huge outburst of internet virus where the hackers hacked all the important government sites,
organizational sites and demanded ransom amount from the authorities to remove the virus from the system.
Cyber bullying forms another main risk of the internet as people may find it uneasy to handle such problems.
Different forms of violent and unethical advertisements in television have created a problem for the viewers
(Loukis, Charalabidis & Androutsopoulou, 2017).
After measuring my daily average media usage I found out that I dedicate most of my time to
Smartphone. All my different uses are met by using Smartphone. The technological advancements has made
Smartphone an integral part of my life. In the coming days scientific changes will make different gadgets

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more user friendly and will gradually reduce human labor. Thus I have been successful in getting an idea
about media usage and its impact on me.