Consuming news is responsible and necessary – and potentially stress inducing.
I write as a former news business insider. From that experience, and my newer status as a lay consumer, here’s how I recommend getting news while staying sane.
Consume news, both local and national.
Choose carefully. All news reports are subjective, because humans are. Favor independent outlets that put fairness and accuracy first. Avoid those that masquerade as news but are partisan warriors, primetime cable hosts included.
Get news from multiple sources, to hedge against unintentional bias and occasional errors.
Pay for digital subscriptions. News outlets with traditional news values are more likely to sell subscriptions. Truly ideological media outlets usually don’t.
Read or view news on a schedule – once or twice a day and no more.
Turn off smartphone notifications from news organizations. Breaking news seldom demands immediate attention. Consuming on our schedule, not the whim of events or of websites ginning up page views, avoids interruptions and ensures we get more complete later reports.
And remember: News is but a subset of media. Social media is not news.
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