JLM 319 news consumption analysis
Over the Labor Day weekend, I was asked to record and analyze my news consumption. Although I was not able to obtain completely typical results, the assignment was still informative. I was somewhat surprised by how much news I actually consumed and how I accessed it.
My first observation was that the vast majority of news I consumed was through my smartphone. This was partly because as a supervisor at an amusement park, I was at work the vast majority of my weekend. I also believe this impacted how much news I consumed in general.
I also did not dedicate any set time to reading the news. I mainly would get notifications from my smartphone about headlines, and read them while on break, in-between rides or any other downtime I had for the day. Once I got home, I read very little news. This is typically how I consume my news at other jobs I’ve had or school as well.
I found news through a variety of different apps. I have AP News and ProPublica downloaded on my phone, as well as the Apple News app. I have notifications enabled for all of these apps, although I did actually open the app and look through stories at some points. I would also find news stories on Facebook and Twitter, although I have been trying to get away from using Facebook for news as of late.
I do feel that this assignment being on a holiday weekend affected how much news I consumed, but not how I consumed it. I’ve been using my phone to consume news since I got my first high-quality smartphone in 2016. Usually, I will spend at least 20 minutes a day deliberately reading the news, as well as notifications from my phone, or maybe even watching cable TV news with my family. However, I spend less time on the news when I am busy with work or finals.
I feel that this is in line with my generation in general. Most people have smartphones, especially young adults. I asked some friends and co-workers about their news habits and most of them get all or the vast majority of their news off their phone if they read the news at all. Facebook was a very common source of news, as well as Twitter.
Overall, I felt I learned a decent amount about my news consumption. I am curious about how my habits align with other young adults and how news consumption differs among different economic, gender and racial groups. This assignment not only taught me about my current news consumption, but how I can be a better and more critical consumer of news. In today's and political climate, that’s not a bad thing at all.