I would not consider myself to be someone who follows hard news closely. I am interested in national and international news that involve foreign affairs. I do not follow much on the state level, but I stay up to date with the local news of my hometown. For my hometown, I follow everything from high school sports to local charities and elections. I find the news from our local newspaper’s website and links that I usually come across on Facebook. Most of the information I get is from a link I see on Facebook or Twitter. My uncles are very into state and nation news, they are also very opinionated about it so I like to read what they post. My favorite news site to use is Fox News because it is a simple layout with very few ad interruptions. I use Google a lot when I am interested in a specific news topic. It makes finding valid information very simple, but usually sends me on a nonlinear path to a completely different topic by the end.
The most effective way for me to consume news is by reading text and watching news videos. My favorite format is watching videos because I can watch them while I workout and they keep me engaged. I will listen to news on the radio as I am driving, but usually get bored and change it to music. I have never interacted with a news site. I do not think it is necessary because people get offended very easily and like to start fights. I follow a lot of famous athletes on Twitter that lead me to more sport news. Facebook has led me to many different types of news stories both real and fake. When I read something that I believe may be fake I will Google the topic and try to find more sources on it. The only time I have fallen for a fake story was a celebrity’s death, but I quickly realized it was false when I saw the celebrity tweet about the topic. As for blogs and podcasts, I only listen to them for entertainment and not for news.
Although hard news is very important, I know that news channels like to show a lot of negative news. I do not do well with the negative aspects of the news, it is something that frustrates me and I have a difficult time writing about. That is not to say I would not be able to cover a devastating hard news story. However, I prefer stories about sports and athletes careers. Site such as ESPN are saved as bookmarks on my laptop, but I also have the apps on my phone. The app will send me any news of a team I have favorited. I check ESPN at least once a day to try and keep up with ay trades, injuries, and wins/losses. When it comes to TV, I will watch ESPN for hours before or after specific sporting events. Sometimes I turn that channel on so I have background noise while I am doing other things.
I have been trying to follow the news more closely simply because of everything happening with the new presidency, foreign affairs, and women’s marches. Overall, I am more interested in sport related news than any other type of news, but I am slowly broadening my horizon.