My Media Meal

Everyday I consume a variety of media, ranging from healthy news, well-done articles, loaves of shows and videos, and a bit of sweet music to top it off. This healthy diet of media consumption also comes hand in hand with social media consumption.

My healthy portion of news consumption happens usually only twice a day, once after or between classes, and late at night. I make it a daily habit of screening CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. I do not rule out Foxnews as a source of news, which I check the most often, because many of Foxnews' exclusive stories. Other news agencies often have overlapping headlines and stories, but the stories chosen by Foxnews are often of little interest to non-conservative audiences, and thus often not reported. Foxnews often has the most political headlines of any agency, especially in the recent year, which allows me to get my daily dose of exclusive political, conservative-interest stories. I do not take any reporting at face value, and I am very careful about differentiating hard news from opinion stories and articles with unreliable sources or a biased angle.

My consumption of music is much like the consumption of sweets: always done in moderation, suited to the occasion, pleasing for the mind, and of high taste. However, the music that I have collected over the years, has not always come from the most legal of sources. Growing up in China, purchasing real, imported CDs (with huge import duties) is especially hard to do - they are hard to find, selection is poor, they are incredibly expensive, and many of the real CDs end up being really good fakes. Online options, such as iTunes are mostly blocked by the government. It becomes impossible to wait until you to leave the country in a years time just to download that song you heard on the radio.

Videos make up the fiber and energy of my media consumption. Before this year when I lived in China, my daily routine consisted of one hour of some fascinating Discovery Channel show and one more hour of some miscellaneous TV show; most likely a 'House' or 'Grey's Anatomy'. In winter months, there was of course the biweekly 'American Idol' appointment. All of these shows were, of course, imported to China for Americans only and occasionally interrupted by government censors. For favorite family shows, we would always buy complete TV show series on DVD, usually pirated in China, complete with Chinese subtitles for my aunt, just a week after the season finale for typically less than five dollars a season.

After arriving at boarding school, my video consumption slowed almost to a standstill. Aside from watching news clips online and the once-weekly roommate video night, I don't consume videos at all.

My consumption of well-done articles, as opposed to raw or medium rare, mainly comes from subscriptions to the financial times online, or an intriguing The Economist that a friend may scan for me on the weekends.

Facebook, Twitter, other networking sites, and email helps me absorb social information. I do receive news and articles through this, but through this, I become a producer of media. Aside from posting political cartoons, news links, and interesting pictures on my home page, I write messages to friends, but most importantly, little political quotes or news blips as statuses, just to keep friends up to date with issues I care about.