Kolton's ideas, thoughts and opinions

28 Jan

My Online Habits

During the 2016 United States Presidential Election I found myself paying a lot more attention to national political news. What was the primary way I got my news? By scouring the internet on my phone and my laptop. My go to website for political news is actually, believe it or not, is YouTube. Other than political news, I also pay a lot of attention to sports news. I also get my sports news online from ESPN, Bleacher Report and YouTube.

When I am on YouTube I have three go-to YouTube channels for news. Those three channels are Secular Talk, Philip DeFranco and The Young Turks. Secular Talk is a daily hour plus long political talk show that is also available via podcast. In the show Kyle Kulinski, the host, goes over the big political stories every day. The Young Turks is pretty similar to Secular Talk, except they have multiple hosts. The main thing that draws me to these two channels is the independent nature of YouTube. Both of these channels have progressive views that mainly align with the Democratic Party, but because they are not funded by Democratic interests like NBC and CNN they still explore the flaws within “their party”. The final YouTube channel that I watch for news is the Philip DeFranco show. This show is a daily 10 minute news show that airs from Monday through Thursday. This show differs from the other two in the sense that it is not strictly a political program. DeFranco tells stories from Trump’s executive orders, to entertainment news and everything in between. One of my favorite parts about YouTube is a lot of creators will put links in the descriptions of their videos that allow you to verify their facts and sources so I know I’m not listening to fake news. My other use for YouTube in regards to politics is watching Seth Meyer’s Closer Look, Stephen Colbert’s monologues and the occasional CNN video.

As for my consumption of Sports News most of the time I’ll spot an article on Facebook and then I will read the article on ESPN or Bleacher Report. If I am ever hankering to read sports articles I will go to bleacherreport.com. I also use YouTube to consume sporting news. For example, I watch The Starters, a daily NBA talk show, on the NBA YouTube channel.

My main way I consume online news is by watching videos, but I am also open to reading articles and listening to podcasts. I think videos are such a solid way to grow a connection with your audience and especially on a website like YouTube where the creators can comment back and forth with their audience. I do not comment on videos very often. I very rarely use Google for news, but if I ever overhear somebody talking about a tragedy or breaking news I’ll google it and look for the most recent news. I do not have a Twitter, but I do occasionally use Facebook to find news stories.

I grew up in the small town of Belleville, Wisconsin. Not much happens in Belleville so I do not pay attention to my local hometown news. I do, however, occasionally read the Wisconsin State Journal and Madison is only 20 miles away from Belleville.

The internet has completely changed how I and everyone else consumes news and I think this change is mostly a positive. I appreciate this opportunity to look at what I enjoy in online presences because it’ll help me recognize what I need to show in my online journalistic personality.

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