What other news sources you use ?
1. It's weekly. "World this week" section is more than enough to have a summary of what has happened throughout the globe and I can get this information in less than 5 minutes. If you are interested in being more up-to-date, you can also try Economist Espresso, which is daily.
2. It's not only about world news, but also has different sections such as Technology, International, Book & Arts which gives me a wider range of topics to digest on a weekly basis.
3. This is, in my opinion, the most important bit: Because I'm digesting a wider array of topics but only spending an hour or two every week, I have observed a surprising benefit on human relationships as well:
Kick-starting a conversation with a person I don't know.
As a not-so-social person I have always struggled finding a topic to chat about with a person I have met recently. Now, first thing I do is to ask this person where he/she is from, or what their hobbies are, and all of a sudden I make a connection with an article I have recently read on the magazine and try to learn more from that person. This is a wonderful way of building a relationship as well as learning quite interesting facts about the culture or the hobbies of that person.
I know it's offensive to claim it's merely entertainment but in concrete terms there's no material difference resulting from tuning into daily banter that's any different than watching some serial drama on television.
My tip is to read a (or more) actual (read: printed) newspapers:
- they are printed daily or weekly (e.g. The Economist), keeping you out of the "Breaking News" loop every 60 minutes; - they have more weight within the news organization because they are the primary driver of revenue; - are therefore written by actual professional journalists in a proper journalistic process.
I recommend just picking up any news paper and comparing that to the online presence of that news paper, you will notice the tremendous difference.
In my opinion, a lot of the "media mistrust" comes from the constant barrage of so-called "news" articles with the primary goal of being shared on social media and bubbling up in Google News. Just check how many news articles are 1:1 copies of AP or any other news conglomerate.
Due to the nature of the medium and the BBC's generally more serious and composed disposition these podcasts tend to be about actually relevant information rather than the outrage-inducing, largely irrelevant rubbish commonly fed by "Now ... this" media.
English: https://theintercept.com/ https://www.democracynow.org/ https://phys.org/
In the US, the NYTimes and the Washington Post are the best sources.
To ensure you're exposure is 'fair and balanced' I would add the Economist for a more conservative, but not xenophobic or straight-up nonsensical viewpoint. It has the nice additional bonus of being more global.
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy are excellent journals for, well, US foreign policy. Finally, the New Yorker has fantastic longer-form articles on American politics.
No paywall. Relatively fast loading, not too annoying site. They're heavy on news, light on opinion, agenda and propaganda. They generally cover anything of consequence globally.
It has an english version.
I'm actually reading it in french. It's a well documented monthly newspaper. Articles aren't here to create some bullshit buzz, but deep articles on many subjects mostly politic, economic, geo politics but ther topics are covered (internet, healthcare, ...)
I glance at the headlines to make sure I am aware of current affairs but only go further to reading articles if I need more information or the headline/summary is interesting enough.
I don't appreciate news sites that don't have Atom/RSS feeds.
Some sites: http://www.sci-news.com/feed http://itweb.co.za/rss https://sdtimes.com/feed/ https://cms.qz.com/feed/edition/africa
https://twitter.com (follow the right people)
https://reddit.com (follow the right subs)
I'm not in the habit of checking in on individual media outlets, but when I see content from WSJ, Bloomberg, or The Information on any of the above aggregators, I generally like what I see.
However it failed spectacularly a few years back - A political enemy of the UK prime Minister David Cameron had written a book claiming Cameron had put his (Cameron's) penis into the mouth of a dead pig for a university prank. This had been banned from being repeated in UK media but twitter and non-english sources were full. So satirical programs were simply full of jokes about pigs, oink oink noises and more. They got hilarious reactions from those in the know but I simply had no idea why - it was weeks before the explanation broke somehow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
It's as close as can possibly be to unbiased, only lists significant events, and it covers world news rather than only focusing on America.
My secondary sources are reddit's /r/OutOfTheLoop, and the chyrons I see whenever I happen to walk by a TV that is playing the news (I learned of the Trump impeachment this way). If something doesn't come up in one of these three sources, it's probably not important enough to be worth the stress/anxiety that following the issue would cause.
Bonus feature - they show you an estimate of reading time for each message too. That can be helpful when planning your time.
That said, I will tell you the main lesson I have learned in my obsession for better understanding of the big picture; don't follow outlets, follow journalists, no matter where they go. So I was reading Greenwald long before The Intercept, and if he published somewhere else or gave an interview or talk I'd watch it. The same for others like Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk, Nassim Taleb, Chris Hedges, Matt Taibbi, Aaron Mate, Whitney Webb et al.
Find the ones that hit hard and keep their integrity. Disregard outlets. Use RSS/atom to avoid the crappy websites that often accompany the content.
- BBC news (I try to listen to the daily podcast in the evening). I've a radio too.
- Sham Jaff's https://www.whathappenedlastweek.com/ every week.
And then there are friends who never let you miss any event of importance or otherwise.
PS. HN, for me, is other things but not at all a news source.
If you want to do good in this world, work on technology, or art, or building something beautiful or durable, like a family. Good comes through these things, not from the political churn, not from quests for power.
If you want to keep up with things, keep up with technology (hi HN), keep up with real people who are doing stuff. It doesn't have to be hyper impressive stuff, just living and making things. Twitter is the most intellectual, and underrated, social network, because people follow too many political accounts and celebrities instead of other people, so if you're looking for an action item that's a good start.
Follow real people. Do real things. Try to inspire and be inspired. Leave the news behind.
- https://morningstaronline.co.uk/ (UK Left news)
- https://www.theguardian.com/international (Int. News)
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world (Int. News)
- https://taz.de/ (German left newspaper)
- https://www.sueddeutsche.de/ (German centrist)
- https://www.theregister.co.uk/ (For IT news)
- https://techcrunch.com/ (For Startup News)
- https://www.nytimes.com/section/smarter-living (For Lifestyle articles)
Economist for world news. First-class politics coverage. I always laugh at their briefings. It's like, OK, here we go. "Briefing: Climate change". I wouldn't be surprised if we get "Briefing: World peace". Weighty and substantive.
Stratechery for tech news. It's great. I also read AVC (Fred Wilson's blog), Jason Crawford's new "Roots of Progress" from time to time. Less often I check out Remains of the Day or Wait But Why.
If I'm really feeling ambitious I read foreign affairs. Straight from the US council on foreign relations (CFR). That's the real deal.
I don't pay much attention to US national news. I don't care what nonsense Trump said. I do care intensely about local issues like transit, schools, pensions, and land use (zoning).
The news and business reporting is amazing. The editorial board is very “Fox News”, but as someone who’s fairly liberal I get to see outside the bubble.
Edit: Oh, and Dan Neil’s car reviews every Saturday are one of the most relaxing reads of my week.
To the original question, I explore Reddit subs of my choice.
sciencedaily.com
lobster.rs
a little less technical science news - newatlas.com
I get access to pressreader.com via my local library a/c
while it's definitely pro china, I still find it to be by far the most valuable news television.
It focuses on Africa and Asia, which I otherwise hear very little about. The value of the news for me is mostly not whatever the news is, but the facts surrounding the news.
For example when they covered the election in Senegal, I learned a ton about Senegal as a result. The news about the election was not the important part in this case, it was learning about the country.
I wrote longer about CGTN here: http://mathiasbonde.com/?p=96
i narrowed my interests since I lack time, previously used to read about architecture/buildings and science sites, but it's just too much information and if there is something really important it will go to regular news sites, otherwise it's just stuff with application in years/decades, which I don't care
Now most of my time is spent reading local newspapers, newsletters from local publications, and issue-specific publications (climate change).
I'm choosing to care about fewer things and deferring to rest of the world to care about others.
- The UI (especially mobile) is pretty terrible so it's hard to get hooked
- It generally only reports global news that means something rather than talking heads or identity politics
- They have published some articles critical of themselves or affiliates, which in my opinion demonstrates objectivity
Also when I'm commuting to work, I'll listen to the local NPR station on the radio which covers some local topics.
Like the "avoid it" answer, I also like to read criticism instead of news, whether it be book reviews, movie reviews, album reviews, video game reviews. Partially to increase my literary skills, and partially to help me notice more around me as I consume entertainment. A&LDaily New Book reviews in particular. I read a lot more book, film, and game reviews than I read, watch, or play.
Longform and Longreads are great ways to find more magazine like researched stories, instead of daily infotainment style "news."
Full List
The aldaily media list (https://www.aldaily.com/media/) and redef sources chart (https://redef.com/charts/sources/total) are also good pages.
For film specifically https://letterboxd.com/ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/ https://www.metacritic.com/
(Am I supposed to post the OPML file for the tech news?)
Together with that I like to read the free news site from my home country to keep up-to-date what's happening over there.
[1] https://embit.ca
Today? Hard to find any "news" that isn't slanted. The weather perhaps? "News" has become propaganda.
Because twice daily it lists several outrageous stories from all sides of the political spectrum. I truly believe every news source today is biased, the only way to get any kind of balanced view is to scan them all and triangulate.
Summarises news (mostly from a US perspective) concisely with options to dive deeper
However, there was one news source that their network analysis had found to be read widely by both conservatives and liberals: the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
I don't know if this is still true, but its worth a browse.
Other than that, I agree with the sentiment here that NYT and WaPo at least go through the effort of fact checking.
Here's a good list of different newsletters: https://github.com/zudochkin/awesome-newsletters#technology-...
Newspapers.