Faye’s News Consumption

The main news contents I was consuming last week were from Los Angeles Times. Because I am covering local news for Annenberg Media recently, L.A. Times offers the most information to me for research purpose. I spent around 25 minutes per day searching on L.A. Times website. Sometimes when I think about something, I just open the website on my pc and search.

I am also a subscriber of L.A. Times so I receive Times editor’s pick with news headlines everyday. When I have time, I pick my interesting topic and click the links in the emails. It usually takes me half an hour or forty minutes. I learn new vocabularies and phrases through the process, writing down sometimes.

I used to subscribe New York Times and the Washington Post, and then realized that I could not read all of them. I don’t have that much time and the main breaking news are similar in all news platforms during one day. So I just keep one, which is L.A. Times. After all, I live here and L.A. Times has Hollywood stories everyday.

I have tried to simplify the news feeds — information that I accept passively. I used to download several news APPs — CNN, BBC, NYC Times, L.A. Times, CCTV etc. I received twenty or thirty alerts when I woke up and turned on my phone. The only news APP I have on my cellphone now is BBC News. Because BBC doesn’t push tons of feeds except really big news happen in the world. Besides I can watch, listen and read news within one app. BBC is really good at compile all the information, all the facts about a story in one piece, like a story line. I can easily click key words to access to further details if I am not familiar with some stories. It’s user-friendly. When news happens without many numbers or details, BBC just establishes a page with known facts but will update later in that same page. Objectivity is another reason I keep BBC.

Sometimes I read news shared by friends in Facebook or Twitter. It takes less than twenty minutes. Social is the main function of my SNS.

When I drive, I turn on KPCC. If people talk something I am not interested, I change to music.

I read Chinese news in Wechat almost every day. I care about what my friends are concerned about and how they react. I will read articles shared by friends. I also subscribe about fifteen media accounts — some are owned by individuals, others by official media orgs. Personal owned accounts post analysis with opinions and attitudes — different voices. But of course authenticity is a problem. It might be in the similar situation with Facebook.

I didn’t share or comment any news this week. Sharing only happens when I realized my friends need the information. Since I am always lagged behind my U.S. friends’ resources, and Chinese friends’ too, I leave little marks of news I have read in my SNS accounts. I am kind of a passive reader, so rarely comment.

Like the class discussed, news is no longer scarce. When information is overloaded, consumers like me will learn to make choices. I personally still trust big media platforms with reputation built by years. If those big brand news agencies move to converged media, or employ new techs, I believe they are still competitive. BBC has huge audiences in China. Many Chinese students learn English by listening to BBC news from my generation till now. For international audiences, reputation, objectivity and efficient access are their concerns.