Coxology
My Personal Media Audit
It was quite simple when I was growing up. We had the local newspaper, the radio (just BBC), and later on, the television with just three channels to chose from. Voila.
Today, this is my current media mix:
Morning
Radio Five – in the bathroom, for the simple reason that it’s the only station I can receive there. The most I can take is about ten minutes before I reach for the off switch – this is BBC dumbing itself down for what it remotely believes people want. Taxi drivers and neo-fascists like it, I’m sure.
Drudge Report – still, rather surprisingly, the single best 60-second briefing concerning today’s mass-media zeitgeist. Very selective but essential.
The Independent website. I always click thru from Drudge. Their recent redesign makes the site far less useful, blurring real hard news with, um, crap. Obviously intentional, because they still want to sell newspapers, and giving your contents away online ain’t the best way to do that.
New York Times. I pay about $25 a month to receive this as a pdf – much easier to navigate than their website. Some days I don’t have time to read it, but when I do, I feel smug about seeing it hours before NYorkers do.
Afternoon
A quick trawl through the various publishing trade rags’ websites. Usually a bit depressing.
Evening
By 6:30, I’m ready for Channel Four News, but it isn’t on. So I go back to work and re-emerge at 7:30, when it’s mostly over.
Other television – nothing. Truly. I even feel a bit guilty about not watching, because I need to keep in the swing of things. But after 10 minutes watching most programs, I’m ready to move on. Wonder how many other people are like this?
Sky – reduced the subscription to the bare minimum, £15 per month. Even that’s too much, because C4 news is now available online. I may scrap Sky totally.
Lovefilm – the UK equivalent of Netflix. A far better way of watching movies than Sky. Mostly weekends.
It’s all got a lot more complicated, hasn’t it? And funny to think that TV – yesterday’s unchallenged mass medium – is hardly on the list now.
On this day…
No other post on this day.
Discussion
9 comments for “My Personal Media Audit”
Post a comment
Categories
Listen To This!
However, you may find it more convenient to subscribe to the podcast (it’s free!) so that you automatically download every new edition as soon as it is released. You can also listen to it on your iPod or other player whenever – and wherever – it’s convenient for you. Read on to learn how…
- If you already have iTunes (PC or Mac) installed on your computer, then all you need do is click here and start listening now!
- If you don't have iTunes, but you do use other podcatcher software, then just click here.
- If you want to subscribe manually to our podcast feed, then copy the link in the box below, and paste it into the "Subscription" field of your podcatcher software.
Please take a moment to complete our audience survey. It helps us learn more
about you and what you like most about this podcast! Click
here to start...
Subscribe To My RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
Peter's Pics
- 27/08/2008August 27, 2008
- BongsJanuary 28, 2008
- V&A_02January 4, 2008
- Picture 028November 6, 2007
- Picture 027November 6, 2007
- Picture 022November 6, 2007
- Picture 021November 6, 2007
- Picture 020November 6, 2007
- Picture 019November 6, 2007
- Picture 018November 6, 2007
Sky is pointless without SkyPlus! A million things to watch…and they all started 15 minutes ago. And you’re not in the mood right now. I had almost stopped watching TV until we got SkyPlus. Worth it for one’s choice of high-concept telly drama.
My personal media report…the Spectator and New Scientist, and occasionally whatever paper I can grab at Costa. It’s a weird window on the world…
Yes, but SkyPlus is still pretty expensive, and it’s a closed system, which I’m constitutionally opposed to. Sky is deliberately rigged not to work well with anything else, e.g. Windows Mediacenter – bah! How much SkypPlus would I actually use? C4 News, maybe the odd documentary… the telly drama you mention is almost always available on DVD (i.e. Lovefilm) which is much easier even than SkypPlus…
All true. I think there might be a revolution in our household though. Our youngest child doesn’t even know that most people have to watch TV live…as Julia Louis Dreyfus complained as TiVo-less ‘Christine’…”like ANIMALS!”
For the news, my interests are pretty narrow - military and politics, so I use Real Clear Politics pretty consistently, along with a set of Google News Alerts that forward links to stories of interest to my e-mail in real time.
I can’t watch TV of any kind any longer. The news is too superficial and entertainment programming is, well, not entertaining. I’ve also developed a very low tolerance for advertising.
I agree completely re YS - superficial is the word. And advertising feels as if it’s stealing my time from me. I’m actually surprised to feel like this, but I think growing numbers do…
I got rid of Sky a while ago after grudging the 50 odd quid a month just to end up watching BBC2. I do miss the Sky+ but not enough to do anything about it. The kids hate me, but what’s new on that front
I get my news from NewsNow.co.uk and I keep it on a tab to check at intervals through the day. I would be lost without tabbed browsing.
I rarely watch TV any more preferring to sit and read or scribble or surf the net. It drives my husband demented though, when he turns to discuss something with me and I’ve missed it.
Eve, Pete, it’s a radical and yet compelling idea. If we got rid of Skyplus I would stop watching TV altogether. The kids would hate us, as you say Eve…
This may be no bad thing.
Life without Sonic, Spongebob, without the Simpsons. But what about the Ray Mears marathons? Oh it’s tough.
Btw in this week’s Spectator; Theodore Dalrymple writes: “It has been shown conclusively that people who listen to the news or read a newspaper at breakfast are more miserable than those who wisely maintain themselves in ignorance.”
I’m one of the blissfully ignorance. The only price for this so far is enduring the occasional scorn of my husband when he uncovers the blithe innocence of his wife re some crucial world event.
Meh.
I wondered why I was so p****d off.
I forgot one other: MyWay News. As their motto reads, “No banners. No Pop-ups. No kidding.” Just the facts, ma’am.