Week 1 Media Autobiography: Blog 1

By Whitney Stein

When it comes to the media, I generally gravitate towards the internet as my main source of information. It’s not a surprise that I am active on the internet for at least 15 hours a week. It’s how I access my assignments, work schedule, e-mail, and of course how I collect news information and social media. I continue to use books as my second go to source of media. I not only use textbooks, but I also enjoy reading hard copies of books better than e-books. This is my personal preference at the moment. I generally crack open a book at least eight times a week. The use of books continues in most, if not all of my classes for this quarter. As for when I was younger, books were not as useful to me, than T.V. was. My mom and dad would always make sure I had plenty of books but my preference was television. It was much easier to understand, to comprehend as a younger child. Now that I’m older, I actually do not watch television. It is not a main source of media that I use, however, this is due to the fact that I have more access to the internet rather than television channels.

As a young girl, my papa would constantly receive newspapers at the crack of dawn. I use to make fun of him because it was such an “old person” thing to do. He told me I should read the newspaper, it covers local news, even about my high school. Eventually my sophomore through senior year of high school my papa and I would enjoy early morning coffee with newspaper present. I found this type of media to be more of a traditional thing to do with my grandfather rather than an actual type of media to use by myself. Same as the radio. My papa would pick me up from my middle school every day and I would almost fall asleep in the car because his news channel was boring and dry. I personally would not use radio as a source of media, however I enjoy podcasts. Depending on the podcast, they can be very motivational, educational, and relaxing. I’m pretty sure podcasts would fall under recordings. They are pre-recorded and not usually live. My relations with podcasts is about once every week. Generally new episodes will release once every week, depending on the podcast of course.

In my teen years, I use to be obsessed with fashion magazines. Not the gossip magazines, but for sure Vogue, TeenVogue, Allure, and Glamour. I use to subscribe to them as well. My relationship to fashion magazines when I was a teen was strong. My family would spot me with a magazine in my hand every night right after homework. I often daydreamed about going to fashion school in New York or San Francisco. Every month I would get a new print in the mail and it was the best days ever. Now that I’m older, I don’t subscribe or even open a fashion magazine. I want to say this is because of the internet and my access to social media and blogs. There are millions of fashion blogs and the magazine companies even have their own websites and blogs.

Lastly, I generally do not have time to watch movies. I know this sounds crazy but I just don’t have time or money for movie watching. Again, I can look up clips or even find movies online- but vaguely ever do. I just lack interest in movies. I’m not educated about hollywood celebrities, actors, actresses, are all unfamiliar to me. My family is the complete opposite but I was always content with fashion magazines and models. They were celebrities to me.

In all, I find that the internet continues to be my preference of media. This isn’t to say that it’s the best media, it’s just my preference for my life. My major is communications and I am transferring in the Fall to San Jose State University to fulfill my communications major. I can vision myself in a large company in public relations, representing that company to the community. Media plays a part in this field. Without communications, media wouldn’t exist. Media and communications work together and is such a beautiful thing to have in our society.