Today, almost all people living in developed nations are exposed to the media on a daily basis. Books, newspapers, magazines, movies, recordings, radio, television and the internet – these are the eight types of media. I have past and present experiences with all eight types and I would like to share some of these experiences, along with comments and opinions.
As a kid, I remember having preferred movies and television to the print media. This is not the case anymore. I now enjoy reading above all else and I read as much as I can! One could, indeed, refer to me as a “bibliophile,” since I take joy in reading lots of books. Although I tend to read mainly fantasy novels, I enjoy almost all literary genres. I also like to flip through magazines and I do so whenever I am at the grocery store. This is a habit I picked up as a teenager. I often can’t resist picking up tabloid magazines with shocking headlines, but I also adore fashion magazines like Elle. While I don’t read print versions of the paper regularly, I browse through the news stories explored by the German website www.tagesschau.de every morning.
In great contrast to this, I rarely take the time to sit down and watch a full-length movie. I must admit, I appreciate only a select few films. If a movie does not almost immediately grab my attention in the first couple of minutes, I generally stop watching it. As a little girl, however, I watched many Disney movies, especially those that featured princesses. Currently among the movies I do find enjoyable are: Titanic, Little Miss Sunshine and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The time I spend watching movies definitely decreased as I became older. Similarly, I don’t watch as much television as I used to. Together with my family, I used to watch around two to three hours of television each evening. Now, I turn on the TV only to follow my favorite television series: Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and The Office.
Not only did my preference of media type change as I grew up, the type of media I had most experience with as a little girl is not the type of media I presently use most often. When I was younger, my use of the media consisted mainly of listening to recordings. I grew up in Germany and listened to German “Hoerspiele” on a daily basis. Translated, Hoerspiele refers to radio plays or audio story-books, and they are very popular among German children. The Hoerspiel I listened to most often is called Pumuckl. It is about the adventures of a goblin named Pumuckl who lives in an elderly carpenter’s workshop. Today, all recordings I listen to are in the form of music on my Ipod. Occasionally, when I’m sitting in my car, I turn on the radio to listen to music. Generally, however, I don’t like listening to the radio because there are so many advertisements. On many radio channels, it seems like only a fraction of time is spent actually playing music...
The media type that is most important in my life today is, without a doubt, the internet. On average, I would say I spend approximately four to five hours a day online. I use the internet to do research for homework assignments, to catch up with my friends on facebook, to stay up to date on current events and much more. In a way, I am almost addicted to the internet! Whenever I am unable surf the web for an extended period of time, I can’t wait to just turn on my computer or phone to be able to visit my favorite websites.
In the future, I would like to gain experience with the media not only as a consumer. I intend to major in Communication or a related field once I transfer from De Anza College to a four-year university in the near future. While I am still unsure of a specific career I would like to pursue, I want to prepare myself for a potential career in the print media industry.
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