Where do you get your news from?

[Ashley]

Facebook has been in the news (ironically) a lot recently for helping to spread fake news stories in the build up to the US election which may have helped influence the result. It depends on your interpretation of how influential it is, but according to a Buzzfeed report fake news outweighed real news on Facebook in the months leading up to it.

 

Part of the debate has also been how social media helps wrap us in our own echo chambers whereby we don't see differing opinions, which is how some people didn't see Brexit/Trump coming and also how politics has arguably become more divisive/vitriolic.

 

So where/how do you get your news? How much do you scrutinise it? Do you go out of your way to see different opinions?

 

Personally I tend to use The Guardian as my main news source (I work in a university after all), but sometimes find them being too Guardian. Also partial to Independent but their website puts me off because of the abundance of OTT adverts.

 

Also get some stuff from Twitter as I follow some politically-minded people so they act as a content filter (although the filter aspect is key).

 

Also find some people from my home town and family members sharing/reacting to news stories or posts on Facebook that I can't help but think "is that really true...?" Not actually checked the credibility of them but they seem a bit too "immigrants do bad things, can you believe what's happening to this country!?!?"-ey to be taken at face value.

 

Obviously you all check N-Europe for your Nintendo news. Obviously.

[Grazza]

A lot of this is to do with how good a newspaper's service is, rather than people seeking to reinforce their own views. The Daily Mail website, for instance, is a masterclass with its interactive voting system and constant stream of new stories.

 

At work I'll read The Sun for entertainment and The Telegraph for news. The latter's website is nowhere near as good as it used to be, as it limits the amount of stories you can view and is highly censorious in terms of comments.

 

If I'm particularly interested in a story, I'm not averse to the BBC or Guardian. As much as I'm inclined to disagree with some of the latter's columnists, its readership is actually pretty free-thinking and the comments section is one of the better ones.

 

That said, I'm more a radio man these days, and most of the time listen to LBC or BBC Radio London. I like the fact you get to listen to ordinary people's opinions, rather than me being swayed by either's political leaning (if there was one).

 

In terms of echo chambers, I'm careful not to take social media too seriously, mainly because they seem more fertile ground for arguments than most places - arguments that I'd rather not get into on a platform I use to keep in touch with people.

 

For what it's worth, I'm somewhat conservative/right-leaning, and I didn't see Brexit or Trump coming. Considering the political climate of the past decade or so, I personally believe conservative-minded people are less enthusiastic about getting into arguments; instead, they keep quiet and make their voice heard in the polling station.

[MoogleViper]

Browse BBC news daily at work. Other than that will get a lot of news from Facebook, but (other than us election stuff) it's mainly weird entertainment type news.

[Nicktendo]

I often read the Guardian online, as well as the Independent and occasionally I'll look at UK news stories on RT, as they often cover stuff ignored by our press, or have a different take to the left or right leaning media. I also read Delfi, which covers the Baltics and Russia in both English and Russian, as well as Lenta RU which is a fairly respected independent Russian news outlet which covers global news well.

 

I agree that the Guardian comments section is usually pretty good and attracts a wide number of people both left and right leaning, usually provoking good discussion. I stay away completely from any kind of Facebook news and/or discussion.

 

My main source of news used to be the BBC and the Guardian exclusively, but as time has passed I've been placing less and less trust in them and now read almost every article with a grain of salt while finding myself identifying less and less as a 'liberal', particularly in a post-Brexit / Trump world. My crumbling faith in them is mostly down to their shocking coverage of Russia and how unashamedly they potray everything that happens in that country in a negative light. And it is constant. Unrelenting, especially if one were to compare that with their coverage of China, who our leaders are conveniently more favourable towards.

 

The straw that broke the horses back, so to speak, was when the BBC ran a written article on the currency crisis in Russia, December 2014, when the rouble plunged to 100 roubles to the pound. At the time I was working just off Nevsky Prospect and the BBC were going on about huge queues and a sense of utter panic at the currency exchange bureau right over the road from my work. It was complete bullshit. There was no panic whatsoever, at least that wasn't confined to a bunch of ex-pat teachers. No queues. Nothing. People simply didn't care. People were prepared to ride it out. After already being unimpressed with their underreporting of the riots on George Square during the Scottish Referendum and (what I perceived to be) bias in the run-up to the vote, they had already been on shaky ground with me. Now I am suspicious of everything they write, but still believe it gives a more rounded and generally more impartial view than other media outlets based in the UK. Plus it's fairly good for sport and local news. I still go there, but mostly as a force of habit.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Nicktendo

[S.C.G]

I don't even watch what's supposed to constitute "News" anymore from the Biased Broadcasting Corporation... they lost viewership in this household a long time ago.

 

It's their own fault for pushing lies, falsehoods in addition to being generally pretty awful and that's putting it mildly.

 

These days I much prefer to support much more independently run sources of news such as http://www.ukcolumn.org/ who do a really fantastic job of telling the news how it is in addition to reporting on the stories you generally won't hear about from some of the larger news conglomerates because they'd rather not tell you.

 

Anyway, check out the site if you like or tune in to their broadcasts live at 1PM each weekday - or catch up on demand - and see what you think, personally I find it rather refreshing. : peace:

 

The only time I bother to read the papers is at work, even then I just skim-read, sometimes I'll find an interesting story "buried" in a page which is mostly adverts, most of the time it just seems to be more bias though. I read the Mirror today but only so I could skip to the game reviews section at the back which is often worth reading on a Friday.

 

Of course I have other news sources on Facebook but I filter out a lot of stuff that comes up and I don't get involved in any arguments on there, indeed I rarely post anything at all.

 

I think in an age where we can have the internet at any time - even though I mainly browse on my PC - it's nice to have a choice of where to get our news from rather than just opting for a "default" source.

[Debug Mode]

Info Wars. I read it every day and assume reality is the exact opposite as described.

 

Facebook has a lot of problems with it, but fake news really isn't one of them. We're passing the buck because we don't want to acknowledge how fucking gullible our species is becoming due to the internet. We're sold the internet as a treasure trove of information resource, yet completely forgot to use our own common sense and intelligence to discern fake articles from reality. It's not like Google isn't just a couple of clicks away for you to do your own investigation which would take you less than a god damn minute.

 

The service isn't the problem, it's what content the users contribute that is and the only way to control that will inevitably require some form of censorship.

[bob]

I read the BBC website, and, if i'm feeling strong, i'll read the comment sections.

[Agent Gibbs]

I read multiple news sources both left and right wing (that don't include Facebook) - The bbc, Huffington Post, The Daily Mail to name a few, because in reality i don't trust any of them to tell the truth on anything, so to find the truth i find you need to read both sides and find the middle ground truth

[Jimbob]

I often read what's on BBC during work, sometimes on my commute to work i'll read the Guardian.

[sumo73]

...but according to a Buzzfeed report fake news outweighed real news on Facebook in the months leading up to it.

 

Obviously you all check N-Europe for your Nintendo news. Obviously.

 

My heart sank when I read...'BuzzFeed'. Sorry but I don't rate them too much especially on the back of "30 questions white people have for xx people" videos on YouTube. I know BuzzFeed News is trying to push itself as a serious new news media organisation but they need to try much harder, the same goes for Yahoo News as well.

 

Anyway I get my TV news from BBC, Sky, NHK, CH4 News and very occassionally RT. I used to watch Al Jazeera in the past too before it left standard freeview here in the UK. It's sad to say that all of those channels have some form of bias in them. Is it too hard to just report the news without fear or favour?

 

There is no point in just watching one TV news channel anymore and I'm interested in how the same news story is shown from different channels. It takes time to do this and most people don't have that luxury. When I can I like buying the 'i' newspaper although I am happy to read most other newspapers. I read the Metro sometimes but I'm not a massive fan of it. It's free however so I can't complain.

 

I don't get my news from either twitter or facebook and have avoided talking about politics on facebook which I think was a very wise move. I read some news from the internet but it's on PC and I avoid reading the news from my smartphone. I used to enjoy the old Wii News channel very much, shame it's gone.

 

I used to listen to radio news a lot more in the past from BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and NHK but I rarely listen now.

 

Also I'm interested in people making comment videos on YouTube about recent news and in particular people who have different opinons of my own.

 

Regarding video gaming news of course N-Europe! There's some other good stuff on the internet but the amount of poorly written click bait stuff out there is worrying however.

Edited November 21, 2016 by sumo73

[Kav]

The Guardian, The Independent, Channel 4 News and RT are the main ones for me.

[Ashley]

Buzzfeed is a weird one. They do a lot of nonsense obviously, but they also do more in depth pieces now and then (they did one detailing the LGTB+ domestic abuse charity that recently lost all their funding, in part due to poor management for example).

 

You can't write them off completely, but I could see why you'd be less inclined to use it as a source of information.

[Mr_Odwin]

No one's mentioned reddit yet, and that's where a lot of major news stories first catch my eye.

[Shorty]

No one's mentioned reddit yet, and that's where a lot of major news stories first catch my eye.

Yeah reddit for me too, that's how we caught the Boston Bomber after all!

 

j/k reddit usually pretty good for breaking stories on the front page.

[MoogleViper]

There's also the onion. A lot of people misunderstand what it is, and write it off as a spoof news site, but it's not. Most news organisations cover news just after it has happened, and try hard to cover it as soon as possible after it has happened.

 

The Onion takes this one step further and covers the news before it has actually happened.

[Diageo]

I get most of my news from Youtube, Podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Google Suggestions and Reddit, probably in that order. I don't go to specific sites for news and basically just wait for someone to talk about it somewhere. To keep from being trapped in an echo chamber I do try to also follow people who I disagree with or don't particularly like, but that's also because I enjoy hating these people internally or laughing at their ridiculous logic. Sometimes though they say something that makes sense and I like to get a view on how other people think so it's interesting nonetheless.

 

The whole fake news thing annoys me. There were some children in Macedonia who were making thousands by just inventing stories related to the US election. They started covering both sides but since they were making much more money targeting republicans, they focused on that instead. The fact that people just believe anything they read is disappointing but it is understandable, especially if they want to agree with the content. I'm not afraid to call out a shared story as fake if I see it on facebook and will happily tell the poster why it is inaccurate. I'm becoming more and more interested in giving people simple information on topics that are rife with misinformation and am working on a few blog posts to share with my facebook friends. Probably won't do anything to change their minds but I enjoy the research regardless.

[Rummy]

It's an interesting question for a world full of information. I don't actively seek news much tbh; it tends to occur and come across my radar. Conversations with friends/colleagues, relevant issues that have imo affected or been related to me, what comes up on social media(facebook, essentially), what comes up here, what I see on The Wright Stuff's daily paper review(sometimes I go work late and watch this...fuck you and your judgement!), what happens to be on the TV news when I occasionally have it on myself and don't change off, or what happens to be on TV news when I'm at my parents'/other people's house, papers on the occasional time I take a train, local news, BBC breakfast on occasion too.

 

I question what I can where I can or take things with a pinch of salt if viable. Normally if there's a news story I find particularly intriguing or interesting I'll google it and read the reporting from multiple sources to try and get an broader idea of the story and what angles different outlets might take as well and trying to see consistency(or lack thereof) in the reporting. Tbh I think when something particularly 'newsworthy' comes up on my radar(which can be from the simplest or smallest of comments from someone) I'll google it then hit the news tab and read 2-5 maybe articles on it to see what they're all saying. I have some 'preferred' news outlets in such a case but I still remain fairly cautious/sceptical about their angles and try to digest things myself with that healthy dose of apprehension towards just the words I'm reading.

 

Assuming any of that makes any sense to anyone else. There's no real need to attempt to try and follow news these days though - the digital age of data and information almost means that news will follow you, whether you like it or not!

[dan-likes-trees]

Godo thread.

 

The thing that I find weird about news in the UK is how few decent right wing news sources there are online. I sometimes feel compelled to balance out my diet of Guardian, Slate, and the i with discourse from the other side; but it's practically nowhere to be found, The Times being behind a paywall and the telegraph, sun etc being obsessed with clickbait or 'entertainment' news.

 

I totally get the idea of the echo chamber on social media - but what sites are people reading on the right?

 

It's like with Brexit - how was anyone that gets their news online coming to the conclusion that it was a good idea? The rise of the far right in the US makes more sense to me given the presence of fox news, Breitbart, and such.

 

Although the Guardian colomnists are sometimes a little too left leaning for my tastes, generally I find their views to be centrist enough (came out in support of Lib Dems in '10, their journalists are constantly critical of Corbyn, etc) to not feel flagrantly biased.

 

Lastly, in regards to people talking about poor reporting - having worked in the news, a lot of this I think is because so much news is outsourced. When multiple sites are reporting incorrect news it's probably when they've bought the stories from agencies, Associated Press, Reuters, etc.

 

I tend to get a lot of my political news from podcasts these days. The New Statesman Podcast, Keepin' it 1600, Guardian politics. Again - any centrist / right wing suggestions appreciated.

[Blade]

I normally get my news from the BBC and also The Guardian. Like it has been said although I do think their columnists are a bit too left wing for a centre-left person like me they're a good read and do offen invoke some decent comments.

[Ashley]

Godo thread.

 

It's a nice restaurant and all but not sure if it deserves its own thread, but feel free to make one.

[sumo73]

There seems to be a lot of love here for The Guardian but I guess that's just reading it online. I read the newspaper version about a week ago at my local library and at £2 it's too much. Some kind of smaller 'i' type paper as The Independent did a few years ago might be an idea otherwise I can see the paper changing how people view it online in the future.

 

[Charlie]

I read BBC News most often during the day. I've found recently their articles are quite lacking and feel rushed. Not a lot of information and just want to get an article out there.

 

For more in depth I go to The Telegraph and The guardian. I really like the Telegraph's money section. I used to subscribe to the app a few years ago when it was only £2 a month. It's something like £20 a month now!

 

Like Odwin, I see a lot of breaking news on Reddit but just read the comments and prefer to go to sources I'm more aware of for the story. There are so many Us papers I've got no idea which one are good and which aren't.

 

I don't go on Facebook that much on a computer so don't see the trending stories often. When I do they're all about celebrities anyway which i couldn't care less about.

 

My Facebook news feed is full of BBC Sport which I'm ok with.

[Diageo]

I agree with dan-likes-trees. If anyone knows any good centrist to right slanted news, podcasts and shows that are good quality, I'd like to get in on that action.

[Agent Gibbs]

I'd echo the request for good more right wing leaning sites to add to my news roundups! since the Telegraph got so expensive i've been resorting to the Daily Mail, but its too much like hard work and at times comes off like a parody news site. I really don't like how most popular right wing outlets are almost becoming TMZ

 

I do also get a lot of news from Youtube, particularly the Philip deFranco show, which i really do find tries to be as centrists as possible contrary to claims by some left leaning MTV reporters who got annoyed when they were called out on hypocrisy

[MoogleViper]

As much as I hate the Daily Mail generally, they do have some really good specialist segments, and have some of the best/widest coverage.

 

Just avoid the front page.