Betsabe Ramos | Friday, February 6, 2026 | 11:53pm
While it’s important to stay in the know and not be ignorant of the world around us, the way news is consumed, shared, and saved has changed for me once being introduced to true journalism in college. I like to give tips to my family and friends on where to find reliable information, trustworthy sources, and even practice how to deliver news, whether positive or negative. In terms of how I consume news, learning multiple ways of confirming my sources and keeping track of my habits is intriguing to dig into.
While all news is worth paying attention to, it’s not always possible or simply not in my interest. I like to follow entertainment news, and hard news usually finds its way to me when scrolling through social media. It’s primarily American-based news that I read. I monitor some stories; it just depends on whether it’s a developing story or the topic is important to me. For example, I followed up with the investigation of the shooting during finals week that occurred on the campus of Brown University this past December. I have a childhood friend who is a student there, and I was actively texting him as the entire campus was under lockdown. I checked AP’s news coverage of the shooting for the next couple of weeks to ensure justice was served and to see how the story concluded. When it comes to entertainment news, lately I’ve been following live updates of award shows I’m unable to watch. For example, the Grammys happened this past week, and Variety Magazine’s Instagram page was giving live updates on who won under each category. I was able to just view that throughout the night without actually watching the ceremony.
Local news is something I also follow along with. In my hometown, there’s a newspaper called the Oregon Observer. I follow their Facebook page and click links to their articles from there. I like to stay in the know for what’s going on in local politics, the economy, and community news. As for the regular sites I visit, my top three include MSNBC, AP, and The New York Times. My favorite site for hard news is AP because they are always non-biased and straight to the point in their newsstories. Meanwhile, I find my movies and TV news from Variety Magazine’s social media (primarily Instagram and TikTok). While I never consider this to be an obstacle, the search engine I primarily use is Google, but since I’m on the go most of the time with my smartphone, Safari is where I search the most. Lastly, I don’t consider myself an AI user, but when I do, it’s for brainstorming purposes or fun trends I see online. Rarely do I lean on AI to read or summarize news stories for me.
Consuming news has multiple avenues. One of which is reading news stories. I typically skim a lot of articles unless I need to know the details of a story. For instance, if I’m getting information for a UWW-TV production, I will read the article in its entirety. However, if it’s just for my interest, I’ll skim and lightly read through. I prefer watching news stories to reading them. I tend to rely on David Muir for world news, my local anchors for state or local news, and celebrity interviews for entertainment-based stories or research. Videos are my area of expertise, so I usually take the opportunity to break down the production details when watching the news. I rarely consume other media like photojournalism or audio reports.
Lastly, the internet is a very loud space for opinions, thoughts, and voices to be shared. While I see the purpose in leaving comments or contributing to a news story as a citizen, I have never done it because I do not see it as worth my time or effort. Many already existing opinionators tend to lead by emotion or have obvious biases. This is shown especially on social media; Facebook is where I see it most often. And while social media is a useful tool for being led to news, I choose to dig deeper. I don’t trust headlines that only carry a shock-value; when I see those, I choose to use the trusted sources I mentioned earlier to seek the truth of the matter. When it comes to using social media, I really only look at Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. I do not use sites like X or Snapchat to get the latest news stories. Blogs and podcasts have been around for a while, but I also don’t use them as often as I do social media. If I am listening to podcasts, it’s usually at the suggestion of a friend or family member. The topic is not news-related, but rather self-growth and health discussions.
Before I became a journalist at UW-Whitewater, I was the person who believed stories purely by reading the headlines. I learned very quickly that the rule “don’t believe everything you see online” applies to all areas in life, especially the journalism world. I’m still learning the details that make good journalism, and I’m excited to apply these skills to my future career as well as teach others along the way.
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