Cultural Consumption Essay
Basic Concepts of New Media
Dr. Philip N. Howard
Department Communication
Write a 500-word essay about your consumption of mediated culture using data from your personal log of media consumption for one full 24-hour period. You consume cultural content over many different media, though some forms of sharing content are less obvious than others:
Newspapers
Magazines
Books
Radio
Television
Film
Internet
Cell phones
Billboards
Other people’s t-shirts
Propaganda posters on telephone poles
Your Consumption Diary. The consumption diary will be the raw data source for your essay. Spend one full 24-hour period observing the ways you consume culture. Keep a notepad with you for one full 24-hour period, and make notes on all the ways you consume culture. Note the duration of your exposure to the media. Once you have a diary log for a 24-hour period, do some basic research into private companies or government organizations that generated the content that you consumed. Here are instructions on how to keep a Time Diary.
The Essay. WRITE YOUR TOPIC SENTENCE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, LIKE THIS. Your topic sentence can only be one sentence long. In the beginning of your essay, make some generalization about your media consumption habits. What can we learn about you from the content you consume and your consumption habits? What role does consuming media -- watching TV, going to movies, listening to music -- play in your world? In the middle of your essay, report some specific calculations and percentages about the amount of time you spend exposed to different media. How much in total of your 24-hour period, how much for particular media, or how much over new media? Are there other interesting trends revealed when you analyze the data about your habits? In your conclusion, assess the organizations that were generating the content you consumed. How do you think the media industry sees you and what would they learn about you from your consumption habits?
Assignment Goals. First, the goal of this assignment is to make you critically assess your media use patterns. Second, this assignment will encourage you to develop and practice your writing style. Third, this assignment will encourage you to think philosophically and reflectively about how media industries produce content for you.
Assignment Grading. This assignment is worth 40 points, and due at 5pm on Friday November 17th. This assignment will be graded according to the standard grading method in the course, with expectations for good ideas, perfect spelling, and careful grammar. Label the assignment with your last name, first initial, underscore, and "culture". For example, if Laura Busch submits her assignment on E-submit, it would be labeled “buschl_culture.doc”.