I am interested in all kinds of different news. I tend to stay up to date on the latest major breaking stories in the United States, such as things like school shootings or natural disasters. I also try to stay informed on what is happening in politics. During election years, I pay particularly close attention to this sort of news. Right now, though, I am most interested in COVID-19 information, as the pandemic is greatly impacting everyone and is constantly changing.
Most of the news I follow is on the national level. I will read state news here and there, such as how Wisconsin’s sports teams are doing, or who is running in the next state election, but that’s about it. I don’t really follow any news from my hometown, though.
When I want to visit a news site for information, I typically go to CNN, The New York Times, or The Washington Post. Of those, my favorite news site is The New York Times. I try my best to get all my news from a credible, unbiased source, and I think The New York Times is one of the few publications that fits those criteria.
However, one of the most common ways I find news is just through Google. If there is a particular event or story that I want to read more about, I simply search the topic and click on the first link that seems to be a reliable source. I think Google has gotten better at putting more credible sites at the top of the search results, so I like simply searching for specific articles instead of going straight to a certain news site and scrolling until I find what I’m looking for.
I most often consume news just by simply reading the text of a story. This is the easiest and quickest method for me, as I can skim the article to find the specific information that I’m looking for. However, if there is a news event that has video footage that would help me substantially understand the story better, I do prefer to watch the event unfold rather than just reading about it. An example of this could be the video of George Floyd being murdered. Although the footage was extremely sad and uncomfortable to watch, it helped the public understand the story much better than any text ever would.
I never post comments on news stories. However, if there is an event or issue that I find particularly important, I do share links to the articles on my social media pages, to help spread the word. In fact, social media is how I tend to find much of my news. I follow news sources such as CNN on Facebook, so whenever there is a breaking news story, I see it on the top of my phone screen whenever I open my social media accounts. With school and work taking up most of my day, I often don’t have time to sit down and watch the news or listen to the radio. But social media makes it extremely easy for me to just quickly check for any breaking news throughout the day.
I am very cautious when reading news online. First, I always make sure I know the source of an article I am reading. Things like The Washington Post or MSNBC are large, well-known publications, so they are more likely to be reliable. However, if I am on a site I have never heard of, I don’t even bother to read any stories on it. Whenever I do find a story that I suspect may be fake news, I always Google it to see if other news sites have also posted about it. If not, it is almost definitely fake. If a story claims there is a big news event occurring, there is pretty much a 100% guarantee that all major news publications will have reported on it, not just some random, little site found on Facebook.