Questions to Keep in Mind

As you analyze your data, here are some questions to help you come up with categories that you’ll discuss in the first half of your analytical essay.

  1. What did you actually watch/read/hear and what did you tend to ignore?
  2. What media did you choose and what media was chosen for you?
  3. Did you want to purchase any of the commercial products you saw advertisements for? Why?
  4. Did you consume any media that you didn’t like? Why?
  5. Were people in the media like you or different from you? In what ways?
  6. Do you think some media you consumed were worthwhile while other media were wasted time? Explain.
  7. Were there media that you intentionally consumed as background noise? Was there music playing while you studied or worked?
  8. Do you think you’re a net consumer or producer of media? In other words, if you had to guess how much you wrote, talked, or otherwise communicated versus how much you consumed, what would the ratio be?

These are only suggestions — you should look at your own diary and see what about it seems potentially interesting.

In the second half of your analytical essay, pick one specific piece of media (a commercial, a TV show, a piece of spam, whatever) and analyze it in more detail. You’ll probably want to use one or more of your categories for this part of the analysis while thinking more deeply about how, exactly, that piece of media did or didn’t connect to your daily life:

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  1. Do you feel like that piece of media influenced you? Why or why not?
  2. What does that say about your own life in relationship to media?
  3. Should you consider changing how (or how much) media you consume? Why or why not?