With all of the noise I’ve allowed into our home to help us safely navigate COVID19 and along with the last few election cycles, my head is spinning, and my ears are ringing, and my heart is shattering. I want to be informed, but I refuse to do so at expense of losing compassion and my sanity. It is hard to know what to believe anymore. What used to be credible news outlets are now creating confusion, division, and chaos. Here are a few things I do to “keep in the know”:
1. I search for news, I do not let the news find me.
I avoid articles on my Facebook and Twitter feeds. News stories from any outlet on these platforms are often posted in a rush to substantiate sensationalism, and often missing facts or worse, completely making things up. Social media advertising is based on click-throughs so how accurate can I except “breaking news” to be? If there is breaking news that I feel will impact my daily life, I will quickly log into the news outlet of my choosing to verify. Cigarettes come with a warning label and I feel like we aren’t too far away from warning labels on our social media platforms—for good reason.
2. I limit my time seeking news.
News is not entertainment, it is information. How often do you visit a loved one (who is maybe a little too conspiracy theoretical) and cable news is on their TV 24/7? What is their life like–angry, accusatory? While I don’t stick my head in the sand, so to speak, if it is something that will impact my life, family, community, or business, I listen—actively, otherwise, I don’t engage. I understand my own biases and where the media is coming from—many of the cable news outlets depend on advertising, thus will appeal to its demographics of choice, not to the integrity of information. MSNBC tends to lean left, Fox News to the right, so if I allow myself 10 minutes on each website (because I don’t have cable TV) then I feel like I am making a conscious effort to “balance” my news and media intake.
3. Avoiding the aforementioned if at all possible.
I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to in-depth research and cannot always spend the time necessary going back and forth between conservative and liberal news outlets. Several years ago some very business savvy women introduced me to The Skimm. It is a quick morning email I receive with “snippets” of relevant news from around the world along with fantastic tips and tricks for life. I also appreciate NPR’s Up First podcast and CNN and the BBC websites for world wide news. While there is nothing better than a cup of coffee with KMUW for local news, I am loving new the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, recently created to strengthen our local journalism ecosystem.
