WEEK 6 TOPIC 1

I get my local news mainly by word of mouth. I don’t watch the news and I try to stay off social media whenever possible. I mainly hear people discussing current events or my mom will talk to me about something she saw on the news. If it is something that interests me or I feel like I need to find out more about then I will do research on it or I will go to the website for a local news channel to watch the specific story I heard about. I don’t count on anything I hear via a third party to be accurate, which is why I take the time to look into these news stories and other information on my own instead of just taking it and running with it as if it were factual.

I actually just purchased a 3 month subscription to USA today for my best friend in federal prison. He likes to stay current on news and it makes him feel like a part of society still despite his situation. Along with the paper being delivered daily to him, I also get a membership yo theor online version. I haven't even checked it out at all because I just paid for it last night, but I think I will take advantage of this perk since I have already paid for it. Altogether the promo price for USA today paper/online is $18. This is only a promo price, after the first 90 days the price is $90 for six more months. This seems ridiculous to me. It just seems so expensive and I feel like being at that price point a lot of families and people who would like to subscribe will look at that as a very unnecessary expense.

I know I am out of the loop on current events. I just don’t have cable and I don’t take the time to check the news stations websites on a regular basis. I would rate myself at a 2 only because I do hear things in passing and from people that I talk to. It usually is very important to me to be informed, but when I was watching the news daily I found myself getting worried, stressed out or disgusted. I feel like the media just beats things to death and thrives off of a fear and consumption model.