My Top Five News Sources

 

My Top Five News Sources

News sources are far and wide to choose from and this poses the question, "where should I get my information from and why?" Times have changed since the 1900's in which news sources had to handle topics in a delicate and conservative manner. With so many options to get your news from, news sources are able to publish articles that are oftentimes biased and misleading. What does this change mean for you? It means that you have to carefully fact check each piece of information and form your own personal beliefs about the information you read. I encourage you to take a look at my top five news sources.

The Pour Over Website

#5: The Pour Over: The Pour Over is a politically-neutral Christain based news-source that covers controversial topics happening in real-time. This source is refreshing and a breath of fresh air for those who don't enjoy the political drama that follows most news sources. The Pour Over is sent directly to your email every few days and provides food-for-thought without the name-calling, profanity, and headaches that most news sources bring. Best part about The Pour Over? It looks to scripture for answers and focuses on guiding readers to answers instead of looking for what's right and what's wrong. Downside to The Pour Over? Not widely recognized and doesn't provide in-depth information -think of it as the Cliff Note version of the news world. 

TikTok Emblem

#4: TikTok: The tried and true source for many young Americans to receive their news. TikTok encourages young Americans to take a role in their government and to become politically and economically aware. The one issue? It is as if you're playing telephone with information. TikTokers create videos with false information and it spreads like a wildfire. Countless individuals have been doxxed, "cancelled", or simply run around spreading information that would not even pass the giggle test. Yet individuals rely on half-truths and commenters for updates. As a whole, the platform relies on influencing gullible individuals to purchase less than decent quality items, participate in cancel culture, and to blindly trust anyone on the internet. However, when used properly TikTok videos inform viewers of information they might not know and encourages them to do further research. 

First Edition of the New Yorker Cover

#3: The New Yorker: The New Yorker is visually appealing and has articles on anything you could ever imagine. The one downside is that it leans pretty far to the left. A good way to see which way your news source leans is by checking the All Sides Media Bias Chart. The website ranks news articles by political content in one of five categories: Left, Lean Left, Center, Right, and Right Lean. This is not to say that The New Yorker does not contain accurate information or that it is a bad site to obtain information from. In fact, it's a very popular choice for its artistic and simplistic approach in discussing events occurring. My hugest issue? The need for a subscription to read a full article. The New Yorker offers a free plan capping users at 6 articles per month and a variety of paid plans: 4-Week Digital ($10/4 Weeks), Annual Digital ($130 annually), and Annual Print + Digital ($169 annually). With the rising costs of living and the abundance of sources to take in your news from it's difficult to justify spending money when you can easily access the same information for free. What gives it the number 3 spot? Well, that's easy! I love their magazine covers and would own every one if possible. 

The Free People Logo

#2: The Free Press: The Free Press leans a bit to the right according to the All Sides Media Bias Chart, but it prides itself on encouraging Americans to think for themselves. The Free Press offers a vintage newspaper style in an online format and allows for users to directly comment on articles. Unlike other media platform, there's not an instantaneous push to subscribe or donate money to their cause. The subscription is around the cost for a Starbucks coffee, at $8 a month -which adds up to $96 annually. However, most of their content is free and still $34 cheaper than The New Yorker's cheapest subscription option. 

#1: The Guardian: The Guardian allows you to read up-to-date, interesting articles, at no cost! The Guardian believes that "democracy shouldn't require a paywall". Truthfully, the source that you choose as your favorite depends on your political views, the information you're looking for, and how aesthetically pleasing you want your information to look like. The Guardian takes a more generic website approach compared to the other options listed above. But unlike most big-name news sources it's run by a trust instead of by a large corporation or an advertiser. According to the All Sides Media Bias Chart, The Guardian leans a little bit to the right, but I even this out by taking in a variety of sources -which I encourage you to do as well.