News from Who?
I’ve been thinking about how I actually find out about what’s going on in the world recently, and I’ve realised I’m using a lot of different news sources and media. Here’s a (quite probably incomplete) list:
Newspapers (as in the real-life printed variety)
A combination of The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Sun (hey, it’s my Nana’s and anyway it’s often good to see what the “nation’s favourite paper” is feeding the masses), Metro (when I’m travelling somewhere on the train) and The Evening Standard (if I’m in need of a late-afternoon read and can cope with all the spelling mistakes).
Radio
Driving into Uni in the morning, I have a choice of 3 news-ish presets on my car radio: First choice is Radio 4 for the 8 O’Clock News (call me prematurely middle-aged if you like). If the 8:10 interview isn’t of interest, it’s over to LBC to see what Nick Ferrari is complaining about. If that’s no good, it’s the final option: Johnny Vaughn on Capital: his newspaper review is usually hugely entertaining (”What’s in the papers? What’s in the papers? What’s in the papers, Johnny tell us right now!”)
TV
BBC Breakfast first thing. My rolling news channel of choice is BBC News 24 (accurate), although Sky News (fast) is good for an alternative view. In the evening I do my best to stay well clear of ITV and especially London Tonight (although the Beeb’s Six O’Clock News is becoming almost as dumbed-down). The real jewel in the crown of TV news is Channel 4 News at 7pm, then a quick channel hop to The World on BBC FOUR at 8pm. Depending on what’s happening, BBC PARLIAMENT is good for dipping in to whenever.
Mobile
It surprises me how much I actually use my mobile to find out what’s going on. There’s news from Sky on the Orange World portal, plus the BBC’s mobile content is invaluable.
Online
Taking a look in my browser history brings up a huge number of news sites. A few of the more unlikely ones are The Hindu Times and The Melbourne Herald Sun (via Google News no doubt), but ones I visit more regularly include BBC News (well, yah), The Times Online, Guardian Unlimited, Silicon.com, Digital Spy and Google News.
E-Mail
My inbox seems to fill up with Snowmail, BBC News alerts, CNN alerts and MSNBC alerts.
I try to get a rounded view of current events rather than relying on a single source. If anything, the above shows I maybe steer towards the BBC most often, but at least they’re supposed to be impartial. Living where I do, it’s easy to become very London-centric. Recently I’ve been trying to expand my horizons a bit: Things like The World on BBC FOUR help open up the international news agenda, reporting on stories which often don’t make other news outlets.
