Reflective essay on media experience

6 Pages
Published On: 14-12-2023

Media is playing a crucial role in sharing information and latest data with the public and it is beneficial for the individuals to get latest updates with new information and evidences in the society (Hutchings, 2017). Traditionally, it was newspaper media and print media for sharing information and the individuals prefer to read the newspapers and magazines for accessing the information. In the recent years, there are new media which is utilised by the people recently to get access of the latest information and activities across the globe (Ortiz and Khin Khin, 2018). New media is comprised of websites, online video and audio streams, online social platform, online communities, forums and blogs as well as organisational webpage and web advertisement (Zhang et al., 2018). The individuals in the recent era of globalization prefer to access latest technological device and the internet for utilising social media like blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, which are widely used by the individuals across the globe (Nash, 2019). I also try to access the online media activities or new media for accessing the latest information and data across the globe. It is the latest updates in such an era of digitalisation, where the news and information are spread rapidly through the new media activities. I try to identify the structure of the new articles in order to access the latest information and data, where the headlines and subheadings are important for me to access the right articles as per my preferences and requirements. I always try to search through the keywords and open the online article links for reviewing the headlines and subheadings, which help me to analyse whether the article is suitable for me or not. Then, I used to review the background and statistics or relevant data related to the article.

In this context, ideological issues are there in new media activities, where diverse cultural people read the information and data and it is the responsibility of the media house to represent the information fairly without hurting any specific culture and values (Ridge-Newman, 2020). Hence, ideologies including the cultural values, ethics, beliefs and perceptions are necessary to be maintained by the media houses in order to engage the people from diverse demographic background. Hence, I always try to be concerned about reading the articles where there are no such ideological issues and the information and data can be represented fairly by maintaining its relevancy and accountability. Newsworthiness is another important factor for representing the news activities and promoting the articles, and in this regard the factors like impact, timeliness, proximity, human interest, conflict, the bizarre and celebrity are important. I try to review the articles with latest social activities political discourses and human interest where timeliness is important to get latest updates as well as analyse the impacts of the news on the people across the society. In this regard, the media houses face issues related to gender biasness in covering the problems in the society related to men and women. In this regard, I try to review the articles which are independently covering the social issues, irrespective of gender discrimination. For example, the independent is one of the famous news media house in the UK where they have their Twitter account to provide latest updates. I try to follow the Twitter account @Independent to review the stories and socio political activities. The hash tags in Twitter as well as clear and concise information of The Independent are helpful to get latest news and also access the information successfully (Duffy and Chan, 2019).

I have noticed that, over the period of time, the way of accessing news has been changing from traditional media to new media through reading the information on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Blogs and Twitter. On the other hand, there are personal webpage of the media house in the UK such as The Independent, The Guardian, The Economic Times etc., where it is possible to access the latest information as well as search information and news as per personal requirements (Eid, Abdelmoety and Agag, 2019). Hence, the online news articles are crucial for me to get socio political news as well as a diverse range of stories as per personal choice and preferences (Shah, and Cox, 2018). I follow the webpages of the independent and The Guardian for getting latest updates timely. Apart from that, I also try to review the Facebook posts of The Guardian, where the likes and comments are important to be noticed for understanding the perception of the people. Sometimes, I also tried to review the comments in specific Facebook posts of The Guardian for understanding individual’s perception. Hence, over the period of time, my preferences towards accessing latest updates and news are changing where new media plays a crucial role to get latest updates on time. I find these social media activities of the news media houses like The Onion authentic for entertainment news and I try to share the crucial news with my friends and social communities in order to provide information to others (Refer to appendix 1).

In addition to this, I am interested in tourism and hospitality activities where the tourism blogs are effective for me to get proper news and information related to the travel spots and adventurous activities (Refer to appendix 2). I try to follow the latest travel blogs in the UK such as Emily Luxton Travels to get effective information and share the news with others for choosing the ultimate travel destination. Hence, there is change in media perspective of the individuals, where recently, the people are interested to get clear and concise stories and reports through social media and online webpage of the famous news media houses. I am also focusing on online news, try to communicate through comments and get wide range of information through online activities. The online webpage and blogs as well as the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are the major platform to improve two way communications and get latest updates.

Reference List

Duffy, B.E. and Chan, N.K., 2019. “You never really know who’s looking”: Imagined surveillance across social media platforms. New Media & Society, 21(1), pp.119-138.

Eid, R., Abdelmoety, Z. and Agag, G., 2019. Antecedents and consequences of social media marketing use: an empirical study of the UK exporting B2B SMEs. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

Hutchings, T., 2017. Creating church online: Ritual, community and new media. London: Taylor & Francis.

Nash, J., 2019. Exploring how social media platforms influence fashion consumer decisions in the UK retail sector. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal.

Ortiz, P. and Khin Khin, E., 2018. Traditional and new media's influence on suicidal behavior and contagion. Behavioral sciences & the law, 36(2), pp.245-256.

Ridge-Newman, A., 2020. Digital media as a driver of change in political organisation: 2010 and 2015 UK general elections. Media, Culture & Society, 42(7-8), pp.1343-1359.

Shah, N.A.K. and Cox, A.M., 2018. Analysing the pattern of twitter activities among academics in a UK higher education institution. In International Conference on Information (pp. 57-66). Springer, Cham.

Zhang, Y., Wells, C., Wang, S. and Rohe, K., 2018. Attention and amplification in the hybrid media system: The composition and activity of Donald Trump’s Twitter following during the 2016 presidential election. New Media & Society, 20(9), pp.3161-3182.