Action: Make a News Plan.
Sam knows that feeling. Here.
Anyone else feeling deluged right now?
Like: Life in Washington is moving at warp speed, and the only way to keep up is to read/watch/listen to/check in on the news all the time, which is overwhelming—particularly because news outlets embroider the actual information with commentary and speculation, almost as if informing and commenting and speculating are the news outlets' only jobs, but you have, like, six other jobs to do in just the next hour, so you need headlines only, please—and you can't really listen to NPR during the carpool because beheadings, but NPR squanders your precious ten minutes between school-dropoff and work by reporting on the life cycle of Peruvian cicadas (with admittedly stunning audio), and you somehow end the day feeling both overinformed and uninformed as you squeeze yourself into the fetal position on the couch to drink wine and watch Cheers on Netflix?
You know that feeling?
A couple of people have asked me to post about a Sensible Active-Citizen Media Diet, and the suggestion couldn't have come at a better time, because my news-inhalation habits needed to change. So, based on some research, conversations with wise people, and experimentation, I've made a news plan for myself that's deliberately habitual, focused, and balanced.
- Deliberately habitual: I take in news each day, but no more than once or twice a day. None of this all-hours, obsessive scrolling; also, none of this overwhelmed head-burying.
- Focused: I've limited myself to a few (2–4) reputable sources for news. I'm separating my news intake (eg, Wall Street Journal) from my commentary intake (eg, Atlantic).
- Balanced: After a little research on media bias, I chose an even-handed set of sources.
- Personalized: Though I love NPR, I retain what I read better than what I hear-while-driving. As for TV: it turns out that watching our current president speak actually causes me to lose sleep...so no more of that. At this point, reading for a few minutes in the morning works best. These are true for me; you might need something different.
My Sane, Active–Citizen News Plan
There are so many ways to do this, and I'd love to hear your approaches. This one, which relies on newspapers' free email newsletters, is saving my sanity. My favorites are from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Economist. You may need to disable your ad blocker in order to sign up.
First, I signed up for the newsletters; links below. Then, I made a gmail folder called "+ NEWS" (the "+" puts it at the top of my list) and set email filters to send my newsletters directly to that folder. Each morning, I read all of these bad boys while I sip espresso in a silk kimono in my sunny breakfast nook J/K while I mainline coffee, search for The Other Blue Headband No Not That One The Other Other One, and apply mascara.
I've listed them in order of my preference. Though I like the Times, I could easily drop it from this lineup: the newsletter contains recipes, etymologies, comedy summaries (?)—stuff I'd like to omit from my news-only time. And for a 2-source solution, WSJ + Post would be great.
Wall Street Journal Capital Journal newsletter (preview / sign up): thorough, well-formatted
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Washington Post Today's Headlines newsletter (sign up): brief, broad
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The Economist's Daily Dispatch newsletter (sign up): calm, global, very short
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New York Times Morning Briefing: Americas newsletter (preview / sign up): wide-ranging
Google Image Search for "woman coffee newspaper." So perky! So stylish! So informed! See also Women Laughing Alone With Salad.
Seeing an important story in a succession of papers helps cement it in my brain. If I read a particularly interesting headline, I click through (except to the Journal, which has zero free articles); all told, it's ten minutes, and I feel informed for the day.
For genuinely important breaking news, I'm experimenting with push notifications from Bloomberg on my phone's News app. I want to limit notifications to truly urgent things and not be badgered all day with headlines about the president's latest tweet. (How to set it up)
Ditching the Constant News Intake has been fantastic: I'm more informed, focused, and able to TAKE A BREATH. I do still read commentary (I love the Atlantic and the Times for this), but less—and I don't mix it with my "straight" news.
Other Ideas
A lot of people love theSkimm, which reads like a dispatch from the Sex in the City writers' room. I subscribed to it for awhile but grew weary of the snark, because I generate more than a healthy amount of snark naturally. If you go for it, I recommend supplementing it with the WSJ Capital Journal newsletter (preview / sign up).
If you've figured out a great way to make your News app work for you, let us know!
The important takeaways for me: limit exposure, make it a doable habit, keep it balanced.
Oh! And in my travels, I learned some interesting things about media bias; I'll share them soon. And we'll be back to institutional racism soon, too. SO MUCH TO DO.
But for now, today: Make a plan. Subscribe to some newsletters.