Written: Sept. 15, 2017

Posted: Oct. 6, 2017

Throughout my experience in the digital world, I have shaped my own way of newsgathering through multiple media outlets. News today has become accessible through virtually all forms of media devices. Personally, I use my cell phone to gather news for my interest in sports and entertainment, while I use the web to gather other news topics, such as politics and other world news. I would say that I gather news at the national level most frequently, with state level news coming in second. I do research events happening around the world on the web, but it’s usually tailored to politics. I do stay current with what is happening around the Whitewater campus, but news at a local level isn’t a priority for me. I occasionally read the sports section in the Waukesha Freeman during the summer to monitor the high school baseball teams in the area because I coach varsity baseball at Waukesha West.

When I am on the Web, the sites I use the most are usually for sports information. For this, I use CBSSportsline.com and ESPN.com which are the only two news sites that I physically type into the address bar. There isn’t much bias in sports reporting so I am not worried about objectivity. I utilize social media to find other world news, such as Twitter and Facebook. I believe these are valuable tools for gathering news because you can tailor them to what specifically interests you. For example, my ‘timeline’ on Facebook is filled with websites, links, and posts from political sites and leaders that I associate with. I use twitter in the same way, however news breaks faster on twitter than it does on Facebook. As it pertains to Google, I usually only use Google to search specific questions or information. I don’t usually roam throughout Google searching random topics.  I am a frequent user of a couple of podcasts that are on Spotify, ‘Starting 9’ and ‘Pardon My Take’. They are both produced by the same company, Barstool Sports, and are raunchy, satirical podcasts that are specific to sports talk.

I don’t have much desire in being interactive with my news sites. For the most part, I read articles and watch videos pertaining to the topics I am interested in. I will occasionally interact with polls in sports or other hot-button issues, but that is about the extent of my interactivity. I also rarely post any direct comments to news programs, or post any comments for that matter. However, I have called in to sports talk radio in the past.

I realize that when I am searching for news, it is important to ensure credibility in my sources. I try to stay away from sources such as CNN, MSNBC or FOX News that are so heavily favored to one side of the political spectrum due to their bias. With ‘fake news’ being thrown around so commonly today, I feel that staying away from the mainstream sites is the most effective way to receive as unbiased information as possible. While the extent of my newsgathering may be simplistic, I am constantly receiving information that is important to me quickly and efficiently.