How do you handle the news?

[petra]

How much attention do you give local or larger current events? How do you enforce your news diet?

Comments

[petra]

I've been sticking with local news with a dash of the New York Times daily briefing. I've asked my correspondents not to link me to news, because it's so hard not to click.

[dine]

I'm a lifelong news junkie, and that habit hasn't changed much. I watch local news pretty religiously, and often have MSNBC on for their coverage/analysis of the most current events. it's depressing as hell, and I should probably back off, but not knowing doesn't actually mean things are better - and I can't stand not to know

[petra]

I can understand this point of view, and hey, you have the right icon for it. It counts as a fandom if you do it hard enough. ;)

[scytale]

I try to check local news once a day, and the NYT a couple times a day (some of it is boredom scrolling still). But in general, I find that I don't have the energy to click on articles. I think at this point, I may be getting a bit desensitized to the news.

[petra]

I find it almost impossible to go deeper than the headlines. There's just not that much I want to know about at this juncture.

[scytale]

Ah, yes, I have the same thing, especially with anything that is more speculative

[mific]

I check out our local online "paper", called Stuff, each day, and BBC News intermittently. DW friends sometimes link to articles in the NYT or Washington Post as well, but paywalls can be a problem. I never used to check any news at all, until the pandemic, as I don't watch TV. Streaming media, yes, but not TV.

[petra]

It's nice to have a local "paper" to check. I agree that paywalls can be a pain in the neck when you're just trying to read one article.

I don't watch TV either, and I've broken my Rachel Maddow-the-day-after-via-podcast habit because it just got too depressing.

[jesse_the_k]

I've unsubscribed from all the news-adjacent paper and electronic periodicals. I do pay $50/year for my local newspaper (which is pretty terrible) as a gesture toward supporting journalism, and they email me the obituaries daily.

I'm grateful for the people here who tag and cut their posts!

Someone posted an intriguing headline and I clicked through, and then four hours later I put my head up and realized I'd just gone down a COVID-19 public policy adjacent rabbit hole, and I can't do that again.

The most important tool: MyGuy promises to tell me about something if it's that important. It's worked since November 2016. I recommend getting a newsfiltering buddy.

[petra]

I keep thinking I should support my local paper, and then it gets more terrible and corporate and I want to even less. I am glad you're doing it, as a sort of tithe to the community.

I get lost in endless click-throughs too, so I understand the need to not start down the primrose path of "Just one article."

Having a news-filtering buddy is invaluable, I agree.

[fred_mouse]

I read the Australian ABC news app, but I've not been doing much of that, because I want to read news that *isn't* Covid, and almost none of it isn't. I get that it is the most significant international Thing, but there must still be politics, and some stuff happening.

[petra]

I agree that covid has completely taken over the news to an extent that means things of consequence are being drowned out. I don't know what to do about it, but it seems inescapably true.

[fred_mouse]

I spent some time ignoring the news, and have gone back to it in the last few days, and lo! but there are other topics.

[petra]

It looks like our local news is still mostly-COVID with a side helping of football, which I don't care about.