My Process

Monday’s through Friday’s from 8:30 – 4:30 p.m. I am planted at a desk in Dodge Hall alongside a team of frontline fundraisers. Monday’s and Wednesdays from 5:30 – 8:40 p.m. I join a sea of fellow students in Holmes Hall. These are set-in-stone schedules. A few inches in proximity to me at all times sits my iPhone; a constantly flowing stream of news, via multiple applications.

Gathering the data for this assignment was insightful, in that 1) it led me to play detective – investigating the moments in which I could “break away” from a rigid routine to truly engage with this device and 2) it pinpointed which platforms I gravitated toward. To document my “every move” I took meticulous notes on my phone which I then entered into Google sheets to create my visualization.

Illustrated below is a small sample of my time spent engaging the ‘News’/’news’ measured in minutes.

CNN
Monday 9/25 (7 minutes of News with a capital ‘N’)

Through the CNN application on my iPhone, I’ve selected to receive the day’s “top news” alert notifications, which amount to 3 – 6 alerts per day on average. Recorded below are the notifications deemed “top news” received on Monday. I’ve designated one minute of read-time for every notification.

5:38 a.m. “Japanese PM Shinzo Abe calls for early election as he seeks to take advantage of higher opinion ratings amid North Korea crisis.”
11:02 a.m. “Former Rep. Anthony Weiner sentenced to 21 months in prison for 2016 sexting case involving a 15-year-old girl.”
11:37 a.m. “North Korea’s foreign minister accuses President Trump of declaring war in his country.”
5:12 p.m. “Chief of staff John Kelly isn’t happy about the President’s NFL fight and didn’t know he would target players in his speech, two officials say.”
5:25 p.m. “Dozens of priests and scholars accuse the Pope of spreading heresy on marriage and morality. It’s the first such action since 1333 AD.”
6:21 p.m. “Sen. Susan Collins says she will vote “no” on the latest GOP health care plan, likely killing the last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare.”
9:03 p.m. “The Dallas Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones took a knee before the National Anthem at Monday’s game. During the anthem, they stood with locked arms.”

Tiny Beautiful Things
Tuesday 9/26 (25 minutes of news with a lower case ‘n’)

Tiny Beautiful Things is an advice column and the way I entertain myself Monday – Friday during my morning commute to work. Shown below is the time dedicated to this book on my Tuesday commute. While this information is based upon real letters and life events, I consider it ‘soft’ news in contrast to the ‘hard’ news provided by outlets, such as CNN.

7:38 – 8:03 a.m.

Telling Your Story With Data
Wednesday 9/27 (38 minutes of News with a capital ‘N’)

For Professor Wihbey’s class we were assigned to create a data visualization of our choice and post a reading response in Piazza. I decided to explore the number of translations offered for TED Talk presentations. Throughout this process of navigating the nonprofit organization’s website I learned a great deal about the evolution of TED as well as the importance of making ideas accessible on a global scale. The topics covered by TED talks are quite diverse, and while my exploration of the site did not involve watching any of the talks themselves, I would still consider my findings about the organization to be considered News with a capital ‘N.’ Listed below shows the time spent on my visualization on Wednesday.

3:30 – 4:08 p.m.

Gaga – Five foot two
Thursday 9/28 (10 minutes of news with a lower case ‘n’)

Filmmaker Chris Moukarbel documents behind-the-scenes footage of American singer song-writer Lady Gaga through 1 hour and 40 minutes of footage. The film is predominantly about the mental health journey of Lady Gaga, rather than her role as an activist, Although the angle of this film was informative, I do not feel it could rightly qualify as ‘News.’ Thursday night was spent finishing the last few minutes of the documentary, as outlined below.

10:00 – 10:10 p.m.

Greg Myre
Thursday 9/28 (45 minutes of News with a capital ‘N’)

Thursday’s Pizza Press featured NPR’S digital editor for international news, Greg Myre . After a brief introduction of his journalist background, Greg Myre opened up the floor for question & answer based discussion. Each and every question elicited highly informative responses from Greg. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend his presentation in full, but for the time I was present (captured below,) I considered all information exchanged to be classified as ‘News.’

12:00 – 12:45 p.m.

Battle of the Sexes
Friday 9/29 (2 hours and 1 minute of News with a capital ‘N’)

Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris recreate the most watched televised sports event of all time – the 1973 tennis match between social activist Billie Jean King  and Bobby Riggs in the biography, Battle of the Sexes . Seeing as this film is based upon true, historical events that influenced female equality and empowerment, I would consider it to be ‘News.’ The time spent in the theater is noted below.

7:05 – 9:06 p.m.

Instagram
Saturday 9/30 (17 minutes of news with a lower case ‘n’)

Most accounts that I follow on Instagram are not news related. A few, however, can be classified as ‘News’ as they discuss American activism, seen through Jesse William’s account or discussion of current events through interview form, seen on Ellen Degeneres’s account. I tend to browse Instagram most in depth during the weekends when I’m on my own schedule. Listed below trace the times I used the app throughout the day.

11:15 – 11:17 a.m.
7:00 – 7:05 p.m.
11:20 – 11:30 p.m.