As many people know, GOOGLE READER is dying on Monday. This has basically thrown my world upside down as it is where I check my news every single day, but it also has me thinking about WHAT news I read daily. I try to maintain a balance of global and local news, with a quality mix of hard-hitting journalism and hilarious lists of “things that prove I grew up in the 90s”. But like always being on the hunt for new music, I am always looking for ways to hone my media consumption and read more quality news.
Therefore, whenever I meet someone famous, or a person I admire, the number one question I ask them is “what are your go-to news sources?”.
I first learned this trick from my friend Jenny while working at Adbusters. We went to see a taping of The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (now called George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight), and in between takes he would take questions from the audience. When Jenny asked George what news sources he reads daily, he seemed a bit stumped, but only because it seemed like he had never been asked that question before and wondered why we would care about what he reads with his morning coffee. But just like we ask artists what inspires and influences them, asking a media personality about what media they trust is a fascinating look into what shapes their work. George then happily rattled off a list of reliable sources for his go-to news (as I recall it was mostly other CBC streams, as well as The Guardian).
So when I went to go see New York Times writer David Carr speak while he was last here in Vancouver, when they started taking audiences questions, I stepped up to the mic (the only woman to ask a question I may add – how’s that for LEANING IN Sheryl Sandberg!), and asked this:
“As we are all well aware, people are FLOODED with endless media to consume these days with the internet, twitter, 5000 tv stations, print, magazines, etc. And with this exciting time of everyone having a voice and being a media outlet, it also means that people cannot even begin scratch the surface of it all and therefore rely on FILTERS for their news more than ever. Now Mr. Carr – can I call you David? (just kidding I did not say that!) – myself and I’m sure many others here go to YOU as a trusted source and filter for important news. But my question is, who is YOUR filter? Where do you get YOUR news that you trust?”
David Carr thought it was a solid question, and got a bit side-tracked talking about everyone being a media outlet – but then he did go on to list a few places he checks every day: The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and probably his most trustworthy sources are other writers and people on Twitter to point him in the direction of a good story to read.
So I am genuinely asking you, not just throwing this at the end of a blog post to hopefully score some comments, where do you get your news? For instance a good friend of mine swears by the homepage of Wikipedia for having the best news of the day! Reading a more varied, boundary pushing, quality selection of news will not only make me better at my job as a woman of media, but also a better person in general. So PLEASE! Share with me (specific people on twitter, traditional news outlets, magazines, blogs, ANYTHING) that you enjoy and trust, and here is an abridged version of my current list of go-to news sources:
