3/29/26 – My Media Diary

Here is my very first blog assignment that focuses on keeping track of the media I consume within a day. Just a fair warning, not every media activity I consume will be solely technology-based as I have been trying to cut back on technology-based media consumption within the last few years. However, I will list down the media-based activities that I did within the span of a day whether they focus on technology-based media, non-technology media, or a balance of both.

9:30 AM: I wake up and the first thing I do instead of eating breakfast is check my personal email to see lots of emails pertaining to Cronkite News. Rather than checking my emails later than usual and going to eat breakfast, I made the decision to look over each of the Cronkite News headline teasers first so I can check out what’s going on in today’s world. As a Cronkite student myself, I always get a lot of news headlines sent to my email as part of my own subscription. Out of all the Cronkite News headlines I spotted in the email message, a headline involving missile stockpiles reducing in Iran captured my attention the most, so I spend about 20 minutes looking over the article before breakfast.

10:00 AM: I have breakfast and as I eat, I scroll on different news websites on my phone to not only consume more news, but to also find ideas for two news articles to talk about for my JMC 320 Newscast Producing class. For context, my class always has editorial meetings where we talk about any news that happened over the last few days and figure hypothetical situations where we discuss how to convert any news story we find to an Arizona based audience. I think I found two articles in mind: the first article is from The Associated Press discussing how KitKats disappeared while en route from Italy to Poland, while the second article is from The New York Times about how gas prices in the U.S. have reached $4 a gallon.

10:25 AM: After breakfast and taking a quick shower, I decided to read my textbook, The Norton Shakespeare, for my ENG 321 Shakespeare class. Currently, I’m reading Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It“, as part of my class since I have an assignment coming soon about having a group discussion about the play. Reading Shakespeare is not easy, but perhaps I’ll reread different sections of the play in case I get confused about something.

11:35 PM: An hour and ten minutes have passed and now I shifted gears into reading a different book: The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction – 50 North American Short Stories Since 1970. Mainly this book is for my ENG 352 Short Story class I’m taking online. I must read a collection of about four short stories every week because I have quizzes and discussion assignments due every Tuesday. As a matter of fact, I have three assignments coming this Tuesday. Having to remember multiple short stories at once is bit of a challenge since there’s so many small details to remember. I might get exhausted after this.

12:45 PM: Yet another hour and ten minutes have passed once again and I was right, I am exhausted. So, what do I end up doing to combat my own exhaustion? Simple. Lunch. My stomach is growling and I need something to satisfy my hunger, so I’m going to eat some leftover Japanese food in the refrigerator from last night.

1:00 PM: After finishing up my lunch, I decided to give myself a huge break from all that news article reading and textbook reading I did in the morning. I still feel exhausted despite eating lunch 25 minutes ago. So, I decided to give myself the break I need by watching one of my favorite anime shows on Tubi using my laptop: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Thankfully, Tubi has the first four seasons of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure online, but I’m more interested in watching the first season. I personally like to take things nice and slow when it comes to watching any show on a streaming platform.

4:45 PM: All done with watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Now it’s time to watch a movie on Tubi to pass the time before eating dinner. This time, I watched The Dark Crystal on Tubi using my laptop. It’s such a classic.

7:00 PM: Finished watching The Dark Crystal earlier and now it’s time to go eat dinner. Once I’m done with dinner, I think it would be best to wind down for the evening by taking a long warm bath and perhaps reading a book as opposed to just scrolling on my phone before sleeping. I really want to get my sleep schedule back on track since it’s been kind of messy lately.

7:45 PM: Done with my bath. Going to spend the rest of the evening reading Andy Weir’s The Martian, one of my favorite books. I’m probably going to read a good chunk of the book and stop at either 8:45 p.m., 9:30 p.m., or 10:00 p.m., depending on how tired I am. I just got to make sure I don’t stay up too late. School is this week and I don’t want to be late for class.

After looking over the media I consumed within a day, I consume both physical and digital media alike. One thing I discovered is that I’m not really inclined to social media consumption compared to other people. In all honesty, it’s kind of a relief that I don’t mindlessly scroll too much on different social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, or X/Twitter, especially when it comes to reading the news. Given how social media is the biggest space where misinformation is shown in different social media posts, I’m better off staying clear from using social media for news consumption in favor of reading news from more reliable news companies such as Cronkite News, The New York Times, or the Associated Press. While it’s not easy to scale back on digital media consumption, I’m trying my best to lower my screen time as best as I can.