Who Knew All of This New News?

Often times, while we are engulfed in our daily routine of checking social media, we see snippets of current events. The most notable sites that many young users get their news from are Snapchat and Instagram. Unfortunately, users can post whatever they want from here, and truly reliable sources are scarce. I fall victim to believing in a fair amount of fake news on the Internet, especially some on social media. Here are five reliable and consistent sources that I look to when I need to stay informed.


1. The Wall Street Journal

For as long as I can remember, my father has ordered the paper copy of the 

WSJ. He wakes up with a cup of coffee and walks down to the driveway to get his newspaper. When he's finished, and I am bored while eating, he will recommend a few articles for me to read. The organization has traditionally been an outstanding neutral site. With current events causing news sites to polarize, WSJ has stayed mostly nonpartisan. Historically, the site is largely business focused (hence the name), but it also covers daily breaking news.

2. NPR

National Public Radio is a very well known and accessible source of news. They cover a wide variety on their website, but I prefer to listen to the radio. I first started listening to NPR in the car on Saturdays on the way to soccer games. Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me was always on in the mornings, and I remember them cracking jokes about current events. Currently, it is a more left leaning source, but I tune in to the more neutral BBC live updates hosted on the network.

3. BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a public broadcasting service that is popular in Europe and the United States. This news company is often hosted by NPR. It was founded shortly after WWI and is currently gaining popularity because it is a very non-partisan source by modern standards. Aside from the appeal of their accents, I grew up listening to the British network during breaking news breaks on NPR.

4. Al-Jazeera Media Network

Al Jazeera is a state-owned news broadcaster based in Qatar. It is a popular Middle-Eastern current affairs and events site. Most describe the network as a site that provides a moderate Western face compared to most Islamic news sources based in the Middle East. My experience with the site comes from using it to research and find cards for debate cases. Specifically, my team used many of their articles to support arguments under the "Two-State Solution" public forum debate topic.

5. The Economist

I have many good memories from reading The Economist, particularly using the graphics for school collages and eventually rooting through the magazines to find funny comics. The Economist is an internationally popular weekly news journal. As the name suggests, The Economist covers primarily economic and business events, but it also has many articles covering weekly news.

This has been my top five news sources. The main trend here is that I was introduced to these sites at a younger age and have continued to check in with them regularly (especially the cartoons). Hopefully these five stay credible and non-partisan.

This has been Mac, please come back!