Being well informed

[MaddLlama]

People here, especially people not in the US say that the US media doesn't always provide accurate, impartial or complete information all the time. I am inclined to agree. However, I have seen the same criticism for other sources of news, such as the BBC.
So, how does one go about being well informed on the subject of world and local events, news and political matters?

This question is, for the most part, why I try to stay away from the subject of politics entirely - I am not well informed, and would rather not engage in debate with information that may be incorrect.

 

[Djamila]

Being well-informed starts with being aware of where your information is coming from. The United States, for example, is currently ranked 53rd in the world in terms of press freedom. This doesn't just imply that journalists in the United States are not free to share all the information they wish, the press freedom index also takes into account context, accuracy, and other protocols.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 19th in the world. Even this is not really much to brag about.

Scandinavian countries always occupy the top places in every list so you should add several Scandinavian news sources, which are available in a wide variety of languages, to your bookmarks or satellite favorites.

A good place to start is simply to search for news stories about Scandinavia through Google. You'll end up finding the online versions of Scandinavian papers in your language, and you can check out their international sections.

You also have some personal responsibility to investigate context.

I remember one story in the American media about attacks on Jewish families who moved to Gilo, a "neighborhood south of Jerusalem". That's all they mentioned, was that several families had been shot at.

BBC mentioned Gilo isn't a "neighborhood", but an illegal Jewish-only settlement built on the rubble of Arab-owned homes just destroyed to accomodate it. The attacks came from the district where these refugees were hiding to avoid their deportation to the West Bank.

al'Jazeera mentioned six Arab residents of what was an Arab neighborhood were killed during the demolition of their homes.

All of this doesn't make shooting at Jewish families okay, but it adds context and you realize Palestinians are not filled with blind hatred but are reponding to very personal, very brutal injustices. Whether or not you agree with the response is irrelevant once you know why the response is coming. It allows you to empathize with them, it allows you to imagine what you'd do in their situation.

The American coverage simply provided no sense of this.

So you have to try to get a little bit of everything.

In terms of which American coverage I always check for stories I'm interested in, the top of list - so much at the top that even mentioning other media networks is an injustice to this one, is The Christian Science Monitor.

That paper is absolutely spectacular. One of the best papers I have ever come across in my entire life. They provide context, they provide sanity, they provide... information free from the lobbying groups that have their hands in other major media networks in the United States.

Just adding that to your reading list will greatly improve your knowledge of whatever it is you're reading about.

 

[Katzpur]

This question is, for the most part, why I try to stay away from the subject of politics entirely - I am not well informed, and would rather not engage in debate with information that may be incorrect.

Well then, you and I can talk about other stuff because I'm terribly uninformed on political issues -- and not particularly interested in them either.

 

[MaddLlama]

Truthfully, neither am I, but I always feel really sub-par around here sometimes because, well, I honestly have no clue what goes on, news wise. The closest thing I get to news is watching reruns of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report when I can't sleep
I feel like I should at least try to be responsible, and I'd rather do it armed with good information.

Anyway, what would you like to talk about?

 

[RevOxley_501]

i use multiple media outlets---and avoid the TV-(because God is in the TV) you cant trust the news if it is overly capitalized on---and amerikan media is.

NPR seems to me the most pro-american unbiased source---however they are PRO american---

not saying i am ANTI america---i just hapen to be anti elitism, illuminati, classism, and mind control---which are all american situations.

one of my favorite, sometimes very incorrect outlets is: www.infowars.com

 

[doppelganger]

This question is, for the most part, why I try to stay away from the subject of politics entirely - I am not well informed, and would rather not engage in debate with information that may be incorrect.

First, consider the source and ask yourself is it a source that's really about news journalism or a source associated with or controlled by an entertainment company. Ever seen the movie "Network"? Be careful of editorializing, but generally, the NYT and Washington Post take their fact-checking and journalistic mission pretty seriously (Judith Miller excepted, of course). So they are good sources for national political news.

Another thing to do is cross-reference. Look for the differences in facts and interpretation between what CNN, BBC, NPR and the Independent (though don't bother with Fox) are reporting on the same story. Read various versions of a big story and compare them.

If you want to get the news selected and filtered through blogs, be sure to read a good mix of them. Be aware of the bloggers' political slant - though it's generally no worse than that of most reporters in more traditional media. In fact, it's often better in some ways because bloggers at least tend to be upfront about their biases, which are always a party of any news story whether the writer cops to it or not.

 

[PureX]

People here, especially people not in the US say that the US media doesn't always provide accurate, impartial or complete information all the time. I am inclined to agree. However, I have seen the same criticism for other sources of news, such as the BBC.
So, how does one go about being well informed on the subject of world and local events, news and political matters?

This question is, for the most part, why I try to stay away from the subject of politics entirely - I am not well informed, and would rather not engage in debate with information that may be incorrect.

I have recently moved from a major city to a small town, and have had to change the ways I get news.

Local TV news is so bad it's laughable. They cover nothing but silly human interest fluff, and valed plugs for various other TV shows. I don't even bother watching it.

The local Newspaper is much better considering it's small circulation (budget). It covers local events pretty well, like crime and accidents and trials, etc. But where the local paper falls short is in in-depth investigating. They just don't have the money to pay a reporter for the time it takes to dig in depth, and as a result local politics, here, is terribly corrupt, because no one is really investigating the politicians.

National TV news isn't much better than local TV news. It's mostly just a few headlines, a quick but shallow explanation, and then a lot of fluff and commercials. So I mostly ignore the TV news from the main networks.

Instead, I'll watch the news on PBS (The Lehrer News Hour). They tend to go in depth on a couple of the top stories of the day, instead of just reading headlines and then moving on to commercials.

And if there are some world events that I am especially interested in, then I'll watch the BBC News. American news outlets just don't pay much attention to world events unless they directly effect the U.S., so checking into the BBC News every so often gives me a little bit of an idea of what's going on in the world that is NOT all about the United States.

When I lived in Chicago, we had the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune both delivered to where I worked, so I got to read some of them every day at lunch. But since I've moved I've had to rely on other sources. I don't have the money to spend on the NY Times. Though I think it would be very interesting to see what people around here think of that newspaper's coverage and perspective.

I also like to watch the Sunday morning talking heads shows. They give a good reading of national political issues and reactions (This Week With George Stephanopoulos, and Meet The Press with Tim Russert).

 

[Yerda]

So, how does one go about being well informed on the subject of world and local events, news and political matters?

Reading as much as you can is a good start. You may get politically skewed sources giving you certain slants, and you may also get downright lies from people with an agenda, but you won't get anything at all if you don't take a decent look at the matters.

EDIT: Generally I trust people before governments. I trust the occupied before the occupiers. I trust human rights organisations before military organisations. I trust everyone before Rupert Murdoch.