reading news and current events

[ellaminnowpea]

Do you read the news and current events? I've heard both sides of the "issue".

Is it just a personal choice and not necessary? Or should it be our responsibility to be informed; to keep up with current events? What do you think?

[bryzee86]

I personally check bbc news and local websites every day, as well as the crappy free papers every weekday. I enjoy doing it and I personally cannot believe when some people don't! The fact that some people are willing to shut themselves off from current events (even just some) leaves me incredulous.

[Andy]

Yep, obviously different news organisations will have different takes on events, the more interested I am in a story the more I will look around, even checking out the views of the times or the independant lol
I usually enjoy reading the comments more than articles though. I dont see how people can form opinions just listening to one side of an argument.

But i dont think its a persons responsiblity to check out current affairs. With all the hyper sensationalism you have to take most of the media with a rathe large pinch of salt anyway.

[wildcatstrike]

It depends on the person. I like to catch some news and see what's going on and i don't mind watching bits of question time or newsnight etc, but because in my spare time i'm involved in charity and campaign work, for various different subjects, i don't feel bad about flicking channels if there's something depressing on the news that i just can't be arsed listening to at that moment. There's only so much reality a person can take in a day. :P

what's annoying is people who don't take ANY interest in the outside world, or aren't interested in changing it or improving it. people who think "news" means Wayne Rooney's wedding, for example.

[cobweb]

i avoid the news like the plague and only read the local 'paper.

the only way i hear the news is accidentally, on the radio.

i can't do anything about the stuff i hear on the news (mostly) and it upsets me, so i don't bother with it.

[snivelingchild]

I don't simply because it's either watching local news on TV which is nothing important (what show is on next or celebrity news or some cajun culture story) and I don;t like newspapers since I think it's a waste of paper. Other than that, I don't really have free time to go looking up news stories, so I'm never on top of anything. I just occasionally catch international news or politics on PBS, and read articles on treehugger.

[horselesspaul]

people who think "news" means Wayne Rooney's wedding, for example.

Oh the humanity!

I have always been a news and current affairs junkie. I used to have a tiny transistor radio to listen to the World Service on the BBC when travelling at home and abroad.
Know your enemy and all that jazz..

[Qaxt]

I don't, mainly because I can't stand how much propaganda and biased crap I see in the news.

[Fungus]

I generally avoid it completely voluntarily ..
I usually visit wikipedia etc most days and it has the 'current events' tab on the front page so thats usually where 'interesting/important' news would come .. just too tired of all the media speculation and propaganda and stuff ..

[horselesspaul]

just too tired of all the media speculation and propaganda and stuff ..

This is the problem as I see it. It is hard to find careful, balanced journalism these days. People are put off in droves.

[twinkle]

i avoid the news like the plague and only read the local 'paper.

the only way i hear the news is accidentally, on the radio.

i can't do anything about the stuff i hear on the news (mostly) and it upsets me, so i don't bother with it.

Ditto

[veganlinda]

I'm a bbc news website junkie. I still only ever have a rough idea of what is going on though.

[buttons]

I'm a bit of a news junkie! I read the news form a lot of different sources. The Age, The Guardian, New York Magazine, The New York Times and The Independent. I used to be resistant to reading the paper online, but now it's a daily habit.

I do have times when I just can't handle the doom and gloom and opt out of reading/watching the news for a few days.

[BlackCats]

I do have times when I just can't handle the doom and gloom and opt out of reading/watching the news for a few days.

(Me too.)

I do look online at the news headlines daily and I buy the local paper each week and do sometimes watch the news on television but I find it quite depressing most of the time. Also the London news on TV seems to follow the same pattern, there is usually a youth gang/stabbing story, then another violent crime story, the Olympic Games financial overspend story, an arts/culture story and a "feel good" end story. The news feels very manufactured half the time.

[AnneCE]

I do have times when I just can't handle the doom and gloom and opt out of reading/watching the news for a few days.

I find myself having to do this more and more. It is not the 'bad' news but the bias etc. which I find so upsetting. I rarely watch tv so usually get my news via internet, which does make it easier to take in without getting so stressed.

[Risker]

I use google news, once I've found a headline that interests me I'll try to pick one of what I consider to be the better news agency's article to read - Reuters, BBC, Independant.

[veganlinda]

I get a couple of reuters daily email feeds too which are quick to amble through and only pick hte ones I am interested in / haven't already found on the BBC. One of htese isn't mainstream news though it's the tchnology stuff for work.

[Maisiepaisie]

i avoid the news like the plague and only read the local 'paper.

the only way i hear the news is accidentally, on the radio.

i can't do anything about the stuff i hear on the news (mostly) and it upsets me, so i don't bother with it.

I'm with Cobweb and Twinkle on this one. Although I must admit I do like to read the celebrity gossip, what the stars are wearing and who's been photographed with a less than perfect body etc

[Jippia]

I used to watch the news every day, but the last couple of years I have seldom watched or read anything. I do not really get to watching it. I have always believed it to be important and I still have that opinion, but that is how it goes these days. Maybe it is because my daily job is about children in poverty and I get to read internal e-mails about hurricanes and outbreaks of diseases in the countries we are working in. I do not have the time to read all of those either. Maybe I should. As for newspapers, we do not have any and we are not going to have one either for now. There are four free newspapers here in the Netherlands that you can obtain at the railway stations and I sometimes read those when I am on the train to work or back home. You can leave them in the luggage rack for the next passenger.

[cobweb]

I'm with Cobweb and Twinkle on this one. Although I must admit I do like to read the celebrity gossip, what the stars are wearing and who's been photographed with a less than perfect body etc

ha-ha, i do that too even though i annoy myself for doing it - i don't do it to scoff at the 'celebs' or to admire them, i do it to remind myself that they are way less than 'perfect' and that often their money and looks do not bring them happiness .