Do you like to keep up with the news? If so, where do you get your news from?

[Evil Captain Odyssey]

This might be an interesting topic for discussion. So let's here each other out. The questions below are additional discussion topics if you'd like to answer in more detail.

Do you read the newspaper, watch the news on television, or find it online?

What specific news organizations do you follow?

What reasons do you have for keeping up with the news? Do you do it for entertainment, for intellectual enrichment, or to learn about issues that might effect you?

Would you like to change your habits with regards to the news?

 

[Jackie Frost]

I pretty much avoid mainstream newspapers in the UK as most or all of them have published transphobic articles, some of which are frankly horrendous, with particularly egregious offenders being The Times, The Telegraph, and The Daily Mail. Even the BBC have been guilty of this, as have the ostensibly left-leaning The Guardian. The Independent has defended Joanne Rowling, too. Some of these newspapers also engage in deeply problematic behaviour besides transphobia, especially The Daily Mail, which has been downright dishonest and espoused racist rhetoric. If I can't trust them not to publish harmful misinformation and prejudiced rhetoric about me and people like me and defend those who oppress us, why trust them with anything at all?

I don't really keep up with news much at all, but when I do, I tend to stick to things such as Heart Radio, Pink News, Trans Safety Network, or just browse YouTube, Reddit, etc. (I used to use Twitter but have left that platform.)

The main reason I don't keep up with news particularly often is because it's depressing, I don't have that much free time, and it's mostly not necessary for my day to day life. The reason trans rights in the UK is an exception is because it's one of the few topics which is very volatile right now, and which does affect my day to day life - I need to know what's happening so that I can be prepared for changes in trans rights for better or worse, so that I can look out for myself and trans friends, so that I can fight back against anti-trans government proposals, etc.

I currently have no plans to change the way I get news.

 

[Nightwicked Bowser]

It's all political drama and wars these days, not worth paying attention to.

 

[HedgehogGaming]

I pretty much always keep up with local (Romanian), European and international news. Mostly going for The Guardian on English-language news, they're more thrustworthy than other media companies owned by billionaires.

 

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

The Associated Press, Reuters, NPR, and PBS.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

It's all political drama and wars these days, not worth paying attention to.

It's the kind of thing that affects pretty much everyone's lives so it's worth catching up every now and then (though I understand that it's often stories of death and destruction). It's not just "drama". It's why people need to attend history class, and IMO at least being aware of news around the world without it consuming you, like the crisis in Sudan, I do think it helps mold a humble moral compass.

Anyway I follow trusted news sites including AP, Reuters, PBS, and NPR (they all sometimes annoy me from time to time, but I will never hear the end of AP news sharing the JD Vance couch sex story), supplemented with *sometimes* more "left-learning" news like The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC (still skeptical of MSNBC), and I also do follow links to ABC/CBS. I also check out Democracy Now! for progressive leaning news (still massively annoyed they called RFK Jr a vaccine "skeptic") and commentary; ProPublica is another. I DO sometimes check out what reddit shares especially when news puts me in a bad mood just to validate my feelings but social media is not a reliable purveyors of news so I'm pretty skeptical when I see things like newsweek, huffpo, newrepublic, etc are shared especially with loaded headlines designed to make me even more angry.

I read the articles past the headlines, follow the links when I can.

I guess some of my habits to change involves paying a little more attention to affairs outside of the western hemisphere. For instance, the Sudan crisis involves several nations and dwarfs Gaza and Ukraine in terms of people affected but we're getting zilch coverage. The affairs of Nigeria is also almost never reported in the news, no one knows who Bola Tinubu is, despite the movie industry output outpacing Hollywood and the population being more than France and Britain combined.

 

[FirePuppy]

I get my news at Google through my mobile phone.

 

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

It's the kind of thing that affects pretty much everyone's lives so it's worth catching up every now and then (though I understand that it's often stories of death and destruction). It's not just "drama". It's why people need to attend history class, and IMO at least being aware of news around the world without it consuming you, like the crisis in Sudan, I do think it helps mold a humble moral compass.

Yeah the way I view it is like...it's fine to not be constantly checking out the news (like aside from what I mentioned, I will also watch the local evening news where I live as well to be informed on what's going on where I live) but ignoring it completely is just not good. You gotta be informed on what's going on.

 

[Nightwicked Bowser]

I don't necessarily ignore it completely, but I don't delve too deep into it. I can't really think of any good news sources I would turn to either.

 

[Wendy O. Koopa]

My parents watch and read the news but I don't. I find it alarming and depressing at times. And it's usually negative anyway. And I'm a sensitive and kind person who wants to help everyone who needs it, so when I hear about poor kids in Nigeria who are starving and suffering it makes me feel depressed. I'm an emotional and sensitive person and I don't want to focus on that stuff. So I prefer to stay away from it. Like, when I hear about people suffering and I can't do anything to directly help them-or even help them at all because the situation is out of my hands-I feel bad, and it gets me down. I don't like focusing on that stuff, so I'd prefer to just not hear about it. Anyone else who feels differently, that's fine, but that's just how I feel. I genuinely feel depressed when I hear about all the bad stuff people are going through because I genuinely want to help them. And when there IS nothing I can do, that makes it hurt even more. I hope everyone understands.

 

[Ray Trace]

The Daily Mail

That news site has an atrocious reputation as a tabloid anyway, Wikipedia refuses to cite it because it's not a reliable source at all.

Most of the news I get is in Reddit specifically r/news or r/worldnews. I don't really pay attention to much of it especially US politics (it's so depressing).

 

[Wendy O. Koopa]

LOL if you want terrible fake news, there's fake news websites now believe it or not. I think both the Right and the Left use them. There's this far-right website that has fake news but I can't remember what it's called, but all the fake news on there is so funny and obviously not real. Like one of the articles was about this floating city appearing in the sky over China or something.