Passion for current events unnecessary for healthy news diet
Each time a new semester starts, I resume the stressful process required to help me live and breathe news, as is essential for any aspiring journalist. Many classes from high school onward taught me the value of using numerous sources for news to avoid a one-sided view. I have put a lot of thought into what my news routine looks like and have even refined it over the years, but by reflecting on it, I realized a few things. I learned that I largely consume news through online and mobile sources, and the reason I get so involved with the news is out of necessity, not a deep desire to keep up with the times.
Currently, my daily news consumption consists of multiple steps. First, I look for important headlines and bigger stories through a variety of sources, including WRVO (the local NPR station), The New York Times, Syracuse.com, The Associated Press, BBC and NBC Nightly News. Second, as I am skimming these headlines and accompanying stories, I have my “current events” PowerPoint open, which I use as a set of digital flashcards to study the news. Third, at the end of each day, I briefly skim the headlines for any significant updates before reviewing all the flashcards I created up to that point. By the end of the week, I have studied all 70 or more slides at least twice. The entire process usually takes about 20 minutes to complete every morning.
The first thing I realized when analyzing this routine is I almost exclusively use online sources. I receive briefings through email from The New York Times, check websites like Syracuse.com and use apps for BBC and AP. The only time I use offline sources is to listen to “Morning Edition” on WRVO while I wake up. The second thing I noticed was that my real motivation for checking so many sources and studying them accordingly is to be better prepared for news quizzes and class discussion. I will likely still check the news on a regular basis after college, but that will probably be because it is important for my profession as a reporter or copy editor. Though the numerous sources give me a broader picture of events happening around me, I probably would not have that picture if it were not for my own feelings of obligation to do so.
After reviewing my news diet, I noticed that the variety of sources I use cover a large range of types of stories, from scale variance to topical differences, but I use those sources because news quiz questions often cover a lot of categories of news. Some journalists may argue it is better for me to consume news because I value it as an entity in itself, and I do. However, I am like many students in that I need a little more motivation to do what I know is best for me. With that, I decided it does not matter whether it is passion or obligation motivating my news diet; what matters is that I dedicate the time to consume news every day.