I am a firm believer in the idea that media consumption is not only more accessible now than it was even a decade ago, but will become more accessible and prominent in the next decade. My journey started with television as my main source for media consumption. I grew up as a huge fan of sports. When other kids were waking up and watching cartoons in the morning before school. I was getting up at 6am and watching ESPN as they presented the top news from the wide world of sports. Watching SportsCenter every morning fueled my passion for being on TV, which is now the career I am pursuing today.
I would often watch the news with my parents as well when they came home from work. I paid very little attention to what was being discussed on political news networks because I had no real idea of what could be considered factual or not. Additionally, I am not a fan of conflict, and politics is a lot of clashes and feuds between people who are supposed to bring our nation together. It also seemed like whenever they turned on a large-scale news network the headlines would follow the lines of “Poverty Rate Continues to Rise” or “Mother Arrested for Attempting to Murder Her Children”. It just felt disgusting all the time, which is another reason why local news was more appealing to me. There were times that I could be directly impacted by the topics discussed, and they didn’t highlight all the bad things going on in the community.
As soon as I was old enough to have my own computer, I was often reading sports articles online from ESPN or Bleacher Report. I enjoy a lot of podcasts, but they are not often news-related podcasts. The only time I was really looking at news for other topics is when it was required of me for a project or an essay. Middle school Drew didn’t have very many personality traits other than being obsessed with sports. At the same time, reading those internet articles is the most common place that I will use my reading skills as I do not read books or anything hard copy in my free time.
In this past week I have paid very close attention to local news from my home town of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My senior year of high school I had to flee my school in a panic in an active shooter situation where my classmate attacked our school resource officer. His trial started last week, more than three years after the incident. I have followed this trial very close as it is a situation that hits very close to home. When something that affects me becomes a story, that is when I am most likely to find articles and consume that information.
If I want to find national news, I will most likely look up articles on Google or Safari from The Washington Post or Forbes. I prefer to find my news on relatively neutral reporting websites. Oftentimes I will also be redirected to a news video posted on YouTube. Whatever interests me, I am the type of person who will do a deep dive into a story or topic to gather a complete picture and understanding of the media being presented to me.
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