I consume news from various outlets and at multiple levels. I am very interested in local, state, and national news. I monitor stories that interest me the most, such as stories that affect my favorite sports teams, public figures (athletes, celebrities, etc.) and how they could impact me or anyone I care about. This also includes news about my hometown. News about my hometown is a little tougher, but I do find it by following certain groups on Facebook or city representatives on X, which generates more news through recommended accounts as well. Other than social media, I find or confirm rumors about the news on various websites. There aren’t any particular news websites I visit, I tend to google a news topic and search through multiple websites to find as many details as I can about the topic. I’m the kind of person that needs the full story before believing it’s true. This also means that I don’t use AI of any kind as I don’t trust everything that is fed to AI programs.

I consume my news in various ways. I read texts and articles when the title of the article is appealing to me. I’m not much of a reader, but if an article sounds interesting, I’ll read it. I get a lot more of my news from videos. I’m much more of a visual kind of person. Watching a news report is a lot more intriguing to me than reading an article. I enjoy hearing analyses of the situation and even learn something new every once in a while. It feels a lot more trusted coming directly from the source on camera rather than in an article because words can be twisted. Photos can be photoshopped or manipulated with AI to tell a different story, so I don’t trust a photo unless there’s proper context. I feel the same way with audio recordings. AI and technology have gotten so advanced that they can recreate anyone’s voice so unless there is clear context and information about where an audio clip is coming from, I don’t trust it to be factual. 

In terms of if I ever have interacted with a news report, I have commented on posts or made my post regarding certain news reports, but I’ve never actually submitted anything or contacted a reporter. I do have a strong social media presence. I’m on everything, and I get a lot of my news from social media. I follow those at every level (local, state, national) that all either provide news or create news. I have friends who hold positions where they need to know what’s going on and post about it. They’re journalists; it’s their job to inform me and the public about what’s going on. Every once in a while, news sites and organizations post a link to their news site, and I sometimes click on the link to get more details about a story. I don’t view blogs, and the only podcasts I listen to are story podcasts that don’t provide any news, just to entertain me on longer car rides to campus. To determine if I think something is reliable, I believe that if every news outlet is reporting on it, then it has to be true because everyone is looking into the story.