People need to be far more cautious than ever before when reading the news and believing what they read. With the growth of the internet, it has become easier for many different sources to provide news to the people, anyone can have a website or blog and post information to it and anyone can “tweet” on Twitter. It is harder to control what is written and who reads is so it is important for people to remember that news can be biased or simply inaccurate. What is the best way to find reliable, credible, factual news today? Digital media is my go-to for getting information on current events and news stories. I get all my news online. My top choice for all types of news, including entertainment and political news, is Twitter. With over 260 million subscribers, Twitter is a very popular source for, not only me, but many people, to go to get their news. But the information that I read (and the other 260 million subscribers reading the tweets) on Twitter is only as good as the person that is posting it. Therefore, it is important for me to recognize who is “tweeting” and be able to determine whether or not the source is accurate and reliable. Tweets that I read can come from reputable institutions like the United Nations, reputable newspapers like the NY Times or from a journalist and it is these tweets that I put more value or trust in. But part of the fun these days is actually reading some of the “fake news” that is posted which may be opinionated, exaggerated or just plain false. As long as you remember it is fake as you are reading it. Instagram is another way for me to become aware of top news stories for the day. I can quickly scroll through, view the images and get an idea of what might be important or happening that day. Instagram is my source for entertainment news. And often, I am viewing photos and comments posted by the actual person so I know that the information is credible. YouTube is another digital media source that provides news. YouTube pulls videos from top news sources on its network into one area they call a “megachannel”. This makes it easy for me to quickly get news. Once I review and select the specific source that has credibility and that I like to watch, I can subscribe to them and then easily return to them on a daily basis to get my news. YouTube also pulls in videos from major broadcast networks like ABC, NBC or CNN or even sources like the New York Times now have a video news channel on YouTube that I can view. And if I am curious and would like to know more about something, I visit The New York Times website to get more in-depth information. The New York Times is a newspaper that has been around for many years and has standards that their writers must adhere to and I can be certain of its accuracy. Their site is easy to navigate and provides accurate news in various areas including politics, business, technology and entertainment. Their quick summaries allow me to get an overall understanding of what is going on in the world without having to read too much. Believe it or not, a final source for me is through posts and conversations with people on gaming message boards while I am playing a multi-person game. While this might be one of the more frequent sources for me, I am listing this one last because it is clearly the most unreliable source of gathering information. However, it is a way for me to find out current events and it provides me with a variety of views and ideas about each topic. I can then go back to one of my other 4 sources, which have far more credibility, to review the topic and get a greater understanding.
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