As a journalism student, being up to date on current events is of the utmost importance to me. Being informed about the world around me helps me to ensure that I am a responsible citizen, student, and ally. 

Of the many ways information can be shared, I believe that written and video recollections of news are the two types I consume most. Reading text allows me to see citations of sources easier, and I find news videos to be an engaging way to keep yourself updated. I will also note that photojournalism is another important medium to me, as it is what I would like to pursue when I am older. Audio r
ASWA; podcasts most of the time. 

When it comes to news cycles, the ones I seem to follow the closest are stories surrounding social justice and advocacy. Climate change, Black Lives Matter, and LGBTQ+-related matters are all topics I try to follow closely. To be the best citizen I can be, being informed on matters surrounding advocacy is important to me. 

Recently, I have been educating myself on police brutality and systemic racism people of color experience in the United States. These topics continue to be at the forefront of conversation, and I believe that is crucial. Most recently I have been trying to keep myself informed about the tragic loss of Tyre Nichols. I have especially been looking into how his story is being covered, i.e. how widely the videos of his death have been shared. Nichols’s family has expressed they would much prefer videos of his life be spread. To me, this situation sheds a light on the dramatization of real-world violence, chiefly at the expense of people of color, in the media

On on smaller level, staying up to date on news in my community is a skill of mine I am trying to improve. This applies to both my college town, Whitewater, and my hometown, Belvidere. For both of these locations, I tend to lean on larger news outlets as opposed to smaller ones. A great example of this is my preference for the Rockford Register Star as opposed to the Boone County Journal. 

With social media becoming more and more prevalent, I find myself often finding topics and news I am interested in from them. Twitter is the number one source of this information for me. I follow organizations such as Black Lives Matter and the Auschwitz Memorial, both of which allow me to hear what media outlets these organizations believe best cover their experiences. Moreover, I find it important to follow my local and state politicians. That way I can directly hear their opinion on happenings in our community. 

There are times when another social media may share a statistic or article on my timeline; primarily TikTok and Facebook. Both of these sites are less trustworthy in my opinion. Facebook especially is known for being a sinkhole of fake articles. TikTok is not much better as creators are not able to tag studies and articles in their videos, so exaggerating claims is much easier on this platform.  

When I am led to a news story by a separate site, it often occurs when a new source is directly linked to a story or social media thread I am reading. Other times, I find information being shared on a platform and will look into it myself, such as in the case of TikTok. If I am curious about any discourse I see, I will take matters into my own hands by researching the topic myself usually by conducting a search on Google. 

The most important thing to me when looking into news cycles is making sure the information I find/see is accurate. Sometimes a simple Google search will yield false or exaggerated results. To combat this, I try to ensure that the media I am receiving information on is reliable. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are my top two new sites to find true information. In my opinion, both uphold the ethics of a good news source. 

If neither of those sites is covering a story, I look into the information being shared in other outlets. Who are they quoting, and does that person have a reason to lie/cover the tracks of someone else? Are statistics being shared in the article linked to reputable journals and studies? If the information being shared in a story seems sketchy, I will likely ignore the article as a whole. 

As a continue to get older, hopefully, I will also receive the opportunity to uplift the voices I would like to see in the media. I have been able to share my voice by writing my own stories and giving my opinion to others. I aim to continue being informed about the world around me.