Sunday, September 15, 2013

My News "Hobbits" Are Changing

Thanks to the Boston Globe app, the NPR app, and the Flipboard app, I am staying current with my news. My news habits (I referred to Hobbits in my title because it sounds like an accented version of habits, and I'm also in the middle of reading LOTR) have changed a bit since the start of the school year.


I still find myself lacking when it comes to certain news happenings that other people are talking about, and I'm Little Red Riding Hood lost in the woods. But for the bigger stories, I am trying to stay current. The smartphone is a great way to not get lost in boredom. It's my means of being productive even drenched in a downpour of un-productivity. 

So if I am waiting somewhere for an interview, or trying to pass the time while I'm not doing my homework, I click open an app. I typically use Flipboard for entertainment news. I love knowing about what's going on in the film industry, though I can't say I always love the articles they have.



Before I got my Boston Globe subscription back, I used NPR as my main source of news. I like the writing style in NPR typically, but I discussed NPR with a colleague over the summer and he said he didn't like the way NPR is so subtle about their bias. 

It got me thinking, hey, is NPR subtle about their bias, or is this guy a fruit loop? 

It turns out, they're subtle. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is kind of deceptive. I like knowing the FoxNews is almost too-conservative in the way it presents things, rather than believing an article is fair and factual and actually has some twists in it that could eventually turn into something ugly. 

I do find myself getting a lot of my news in a surprising place, though. 

Facebook. 

Who knew? I unsubscribed to a lot of my acquaintances' posts. Then I followed different news organizations, like: 



So between LA Times, NY Times, Boston Globe, and NPR, I get a lot of headlines just on my news feed. And I like it that way because I'm on Facebook anyways, I might as well read some of the stuff they post. They post breaking and interest stories. And then when I scroll down, I get to see some meme a friend posted, and the balance is quite perfect between news and entertainment.



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