The news stories that often grab my attention are the scandals and tragedies that happen not only locally but nationally. Local and national news grabs my attention the most. I consume the news most often while my parents are watching it air on TV. My parents watch WISN 12, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir. I personally like to hear positive news stories, especially in the morning, because I find the news can become depressing hearing about all of the chaos that’s happening in the world constantly. WISN 12 is the way I’m able to follow local news stories in my hometown; I closely followed the Sade Robinson story when it happened through their website and TV broadcasts. Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, and ABC World News Tonight are the news segments that inform me about what’s happening nationally and internationally. I enjoy the lighthearted tone of Good Morning America and Entertainment Tonight. Good Morning America is a great mood lightener during those mornings when I might hear a heavy news story and Entertainment Tonight serves that same purpose for me but instead in the evening. I don’t typically go directly to a news site, and I don’t have a favorite because of that, but I would choose WISN 12 if I had to make a choice. I don’t use AI for news; I never thought about doing that, and I wouldn’t feel like taking that extra time to fact-check those stories when I can get my information directly from credible sources.
When consuming news, I usually watch television broadcasts or videos online. I haven’t interacted with the news by commenting under posts on their official websites, contacting a reporter, or submitting content, but I have made tweets and Instagram story posts. X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, has been the social media platforms I’ve received news from. I would say X is the most prominent social media news source for me, but TikTok is where I’ll be able to take a deeper dive into whatever the topic is. I have two friends and a cousin who often share Instagram posts with me through our DM’s, which leads me to posts that interest me. Those DM’s also sometimes bring attention to stories that wouldn’t be on my radar but interested my friends and cousins, so they wanted to share them with me. I personally follow music-related news accounts on social media. I follow accounts like XXL and Complex for music news, while traditional news stories will appear on my timeline based on what’s trending or frequently talked about by my mutuals. I don’t read blogs, but I do listen to podcasts. The podcasts, however, aren’t news-based. News stories might come up during the podcast episode, but they aren’t the focus. I think I can improve on how I make sure a news story I read online is reliable and accurate because, admittedly, I don’t always do those extra steps. I think I have great media literacy skills, though, and I can discern what’s true or false. I typically take the approach that a story that’s being told constantly by multiple reputable news outlets is true so I’ll do further research but if it sounds fake and it’s not being picked up by more than one or two sources I’ll take the story with a grain of salt.
Leave a Reply