How Do You Stay Informed?

The news websites that keep me informed are washingtonpost, bbcnews, npr, allafrica & some foreign ones[occasionally cnn and cbsnews for headlines.]

I hardly watch TV news anymore b/c by the time I get home, there's no news on TV (sometimes I can catch German or Russian news). Local news is a joke, so I hardly watch it. If I get home on time, I watch bbc news or network national news (abc, nbc, cbs)

I read the Washington post (online) & NYTimes.

No RSS feeds. I read some of the npr blogs & blackprof, but nothing is a must-read.

Although you didn't ask about radio, that's my primary source of news. It's on all day.

Sent by KALW Country | 1:58 AM | 10-10-2007

News web sites that keep me informed are CNN.com and MSNBC (linked from MSN.com)

TV News programs I watch are ABC World News with Charles Gibson and CNN 360 with Anderson Cooper. If fake news count, then I'm a loyal viewer of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart :-)

Blogs that are my must-reads are NPR's News and Views, Tell Me More, and Visible Man. Also, the Huffington Post (which really was the very first blog I started reading).

Newspapers I read on a regular basis are the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Washington Post. Once in a while I pick up USA today at a coffee shop.

I don't subscribe to RSS feeds.

I'll say I catch up on the news from my favorite websites about five days in a week. I tend to take weekends off from the news (except early morning news like Good Morning America).

Sent by Moji | 8:41 AM | 10-10-2007

In response to the questions on how we stay informed, I must say TV is least used and trusted source, with exceptions like Bill Moyer and Leher Report. I am new to blogging. I get daily updates from IRIN-Africa (UN source) and "News and Notes." NPR News programs are my key daily sources. My wife is a Ugandan and we have an NGO in Kampala, and we are education consultants in Africa. Our news sources on Africa are BBC, and "New African" magazine, and African newspapers online. We also read the "Black Issues" periodical. Excellent! Thank you, NPR and News and Notes!

Sent by Dale Wamujje Dieleman | 11:58 AM | 10-10-2007

I don't read physical newspapers anymore, only online news. Boston.com and Universal Hub for local news. Universal Hub actually has a greater scope of news and has it quicker. NPR and CNN websites are my regulars too, plus I listen to NPR online. I watch my local news on tv sometimes, usually late night.

I visit a ton of websites and blogs everyday, which are links on my blog, so they are easy to get to and my readers can enjoy them as well.

My main RSS feeds are Printable Coupons, A Mighty Appetite, my own blog, and About Weblogs.

Sent by Anali | 12:50 PM | 10-10-2007

-- Which news Web sites keep you informed?

NPR.org is my home page on my work computer. I also have CNN, ABCNews, and CBSnews bookmarked as I regularly visit those sites throughout the day. I also peruse the Houston Chronicle, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, the Baton Rouge Advocate, and Online Athens for news. I get the NY Times via e-mail each day.

-- What TV news programs do you watch?
I watch the local news and CBS National News.

-- What blogs are your must-reads?
The blogs I read are mainly a community of academics.

-- What newspapers do you read?
Oh, I answered that already in the first question.

-- Do you subscribe to any RSS feeds? If so, which?
Oh yes, very many. I have them categorized based on type: Technology (MacMinute, TechBLog @ the Houston Chonicle, TUAW, David Pogue, GMAIL, Google Mac), Sports (ESPN, SI, TSPNsports, GA Bulldawg), News (CNN, Yahoo News), NPR (Morning Edition, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, News & Notes, Tell Me More), Comics (PhD Comics), Blogs (too many to name), Health (Her Active Life, CNN Health) - just to name a few.

-- How often do you visit Web sites to catch up on the news?
Throughout the day.

One question you may have wanted to inquire about is podcasts. I listen to several of those including the one for this show. Though News & Notes does air on my local NPR station, I don't always get to listen. I download the podcast each day and listen at my leisure.

Sent by ernise | 1:27 PM | 10-10-2007

I frequently go to NPR's website as well as listening to a variety of NPR news shows. I do not watch TV news unless there is a special reason--maybe a couple of times a month. Then it depends if it is something local or national which station I watch. I get podcasts for some BBC channel 4 shows, for New and Notes, for This American life. I visit websites every couple of days to catch up on news. It can be more or less depending on time. I visit the Washington Post, Manchester Guardian, New York Times, and International Herald Tribune. I also read the New Yorker in print, as well as Newsweek.

Sent by scrabblegrrl | 8:30 PM | 10-10-2007

Do any of you use services that give you custom news? I am just exploring one called Daily Me that leads you through a series of questions to try to tailor a downloaded custom news delivery, and it can come whenever you want.

The downside here, I think, is that news once was SUPPOSED to be a virtual town hall. Everyone was supposed to be able to sit down for the news, and then have a common conversation--not the same opinions, but the same basic ground to start a debate.

The more we customize... do we lose our common ground?

Sent by farai | 10:42 PM | 10-10-2007

-- Which news Web sites keep you informed? News and notes, Tavis Smiley, Chicago Sun-Times. I prefer to read the actual newspaper instead of going on line. I like to touch the paper.

-- What TV news programs do you watch? Tavis Smiley, my local news Channel in Chicago CLTV, Chicago Tonight a local news program on our PBS channel.

-- What blogs are your must-reads? non, I really don't read blogs. I haven't gotten into them just yet.

-- What newspapers do you read? Chicago Sun-Times-Daily, Hyde Park Herald-weekly, sometimes the Chicago Tribune too conservative white Male.

-- Do you subscribe to any RSS feeds? If so, which? no

-- How often do you visit Web sites to catch up on the news?
I listen to WVON online-Chicago Monday-Friday 8:30-4:45 and if they aren't speaking to my interest on that day I go to news and notes or Tavis smiley.

In terms of TV news I am very frustrated. It is always violent and it never deals with issues just sterotypes. For example, how do you think mainstream media handled the school shooting in Cleveland. Not nearly the same coverage as other school shootings. I didn't know anything about it until I watched the 10pm news. Had this been a majority white school there would have been an emergency break in during regular programing.

Sent by Niko pronounced nee-coe | 10:33 AM | 10-11-2007

-- Which news Web sites keep you informed? Keith Boykin's blog

-- What TV news programs do you watch?
I hate TV News because, it's so dominated in the U.S. by the NSA, CIA, and Multi-National Pigs, including Halliburton, Chevron, Citi-Bank,etc.

-- What blogs are your must-reads?
Keith Boykin's
-- What newspapers do you read?
The Bay View in S.f., The Post in Oakland.
-- Do you subscribe to any RSS feeds? If so, which? NPR News and Notes, NPR Tell
Me More. news and notes,Pacifica Radio's counterspin, guns and butter, michio kaku's explorations, africa today, your own heath and fitness, about health, and Skeptical rss's like infidel guy, skeptical inquiry etc.
-- How often do you visit Web sites to catch up on the news? Five out of Seven days.

Sent by will jones "cinnabar" | 11:31 AM | 10-11-2007

-- Which news Web sites keep you informed?
I really get my news from the News and Notes podcast. If I must get something from online I go to MSNBC

-- What TV news programs do you watch?
I'm not big on TV news programs because my commute is so heinous. I just don't get home in time.

-- What blogs are your must-reads?
Jack and Jill Politics,Afronerd, News and Views, etc.

-- What newspapers do you read?
I don't read physical newspapers any longer. Unless you count free newspapers. I read a local paper here in Atlanta, Creative Loafing, every week

-- Do you subscribe to any RSS feeds? If so, which?
I subscribe to News and Views, JovanMiles.net, Afrobella.com, Jack and Jill Politics, Reformed Blacks of America, a host of others and of course my own blog www.the-luscious-librarian.blogspot.com

-- How often do you visit Web sites to catch up on the news?
Not often. I more of a blog girl and tend to move from link to link.

In response to Farai's question. IGoogle will customize your news headlines according to your web history. That's as customized as I get.

Sent by Luscious Librarian | 1:45 PM | 10-11-2007

Hello Farai:

I am a new "News And Views" blogger (started just this week) but a steady fan of "News and Notes" though our Michigan Public Radio station, WUOM (104.1 FM) stopped carrying the program. Really bad move.

But to get to your blog on the news access debate, I could not agree with you more that selective news sourcing really does limit people to areas of interest rather than arenas of importance.

Yes, pre-selecting topics and also news sources does "save time" but we are selling our "freedom of the press" souls to those who spin, pre-sort and otherwise manipulate what we then "select."

If some regime wanted to kill the first amendment, bit by bit, I can't think of a better way. And, we are helping the process along. Too busy to care? Or, too uninformed to know the difference?

I have been an education and religion reporter and columnist for a local newspaper in Michigan for 20 years. A variety of news sources were daily bread to me from which to draft an informed commentary.

I gave all that up to start an NGO in Kampala, with my Ugandan wife, called "Grassroots Empowerment Opportunities" focused on doing that - empowering orphan children and those HIV infected with education and career training to become self-supporting when they reach adulthood.

In that context, we do have some pre-selected news sources feeding us daily information from Africa and elsewhere on sustainability programs, HIV-AIDS, vulnerable children issues, and income-generation models. One great source is
the Communication Initiative for Africa found at
:http://www.comminit.com/sustain-
development/

Wouldn't it be interesting for NPR or News and Notes to host a forum on news sources, and compare how each covered specific stories, such as the Jena events, as a way for the general public to see why a diet of multiple news sources is important rather than relying on one, or, equally important, whether one's "pre-selected" news would have even exposed them to the Jena coverage.

Thanks and looking foward to more.

Dale Wamujje Dieleman (see earlier bog on my news sources).

Sent by Dale Wamujje Dieleman | 3:19 PM | 10-11-2007

How do I get my information:

For local info I have a few sources. I read the online versions of several newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Breeze (L.A. South Bay), the Press Telegram (Long Beach), and the Press Enterprise (SoCal Inland).

For national news and information I like the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, and USA Today.com. I also read The Economist to get a more global perspective. As for blogs there are so many that I hit I will not even bother to name them. Generally, I like all things economic, and politically moderate. I avoid blogs that lean to hard to either political pole. The just become too predictable.

Lastly, I listen to NPR in the morning every morning. The only thing I like the TV for is NBA basketball and European professional football (soccer).

Sent by TR | 8:01 PM | 10-11-2007