4-Ways to Filter 24-Hour Cycle Breaking News and Still Be Informed

Good Day World!

Breaking News stories don't just happen on a daily basis in the 21st century... they burst hourly on social media platforms, and news organizations.

Keeping up with rapid-fire headlines is impossible for the average American.

Heck! It's even difficult for a hardcore blogger/writer, like me, to have a good grasp of what's happening in the hourly news cycle around the nation, and the world.

That doesn't mean it's necessary to spend endless hours researching like news devotees to be well-informed about the world around you.

Filtering Out The Bullshit

Unless you enjoy living in a tribal bubble, the alternative is to open your mind and make decisions based upon facts, not partisan rhetoric.

1. When getting your news from TV, choose media outlets that aren't blatantly partisan. I recommend PBS, but CBS and ABC also do a fair job of presenting news. There are others.

2. Like TV, radio/podcasts can be partisan creatures that call upon people to suspend reality in favor of an ideology. PBS and other relatively neutral platforms are available.

3. When it comes to the print media (a pleasant surprise that people are still subscribing to newspapers and magazines), I recommend looking for a local newspaper, and a national one like US Today, to get a good overview on what's happening in the world.

4. To avoid responding like a puppet to hourly bombshell reports limit your daily news-gathering time to no more than a couple of hours. Less time, is probably better. 

As a journalist, I've always felt it was important to inform the public of news events around them, and the world. We all should have a basic knowledge about our government and the laws of the land.

However, there's nothing better than living in the here-and-now, and interacting with family and friends. 

(Photo: My wife Shirley and I)

Time for me to walk on down the road...