My News Diet.

              As a college student, I sometimes can find myself reading less and less and partying more and more. However, as a Communication major, once I started interning at major TV news stations, I was forced to read more than just textbooks and casual reading books. Now, as my Senior year starts to wind down and where I am enrolled in a few classes and interning for a place that has actually encouraged me to read more newspapers, magazine, etc. and now, my reading list has become much superior. As a result, my current news diet has grown somewhat “healthy” and I have learned valuable knowledge from the many different publications I have been forced to read. Additionally, I have grown fond to those forced publications and now read them on my own for pure entertainment, curiosity and to see what is going on in the world around me.

While it seems that most people don’t anymore, I still do read printed newspapers at least once a week. I started reading newspapers roughly around the age of 13. I was bored one day waiting at a doctor’s office and picked up The Boston Globe. Since then, I have had an interest in reading newspapers as much as I can. While I do not currently have any subscriptions to newspapers, I make it a point to stop at the machines to pick one up as much as possible. The most common papers I will pick up are The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Standard Times and the Metro. I feel that newspapers are valuable for news information and even though some say that they are “dying”, I will always make sure I read a newspaper at least once a week.

However, having interned at FOX25 and currently interning at 7News, part of my role is to look through newspapers to see if there are any interesting/breaking news stories in which we can show during the live news shows. I am at 7News 3 times a week, so I am currently reading magazines at least 3 times a week. The Newspapers that I frequently read while at 7News are: The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Standard Times, Cape Cod Times and the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. These are magazine that are actually delivered to the assignment desk at 7News. In addition to those magazines, it is my job to also go through the list of online newspapers from hometownnews.com to check for possible news stories to add to the news shows. So, I am also reading several other newspapers online. Learning of hometownnews.com has also created more interest for me to browse around the many other online newspapers that Massachusetts has to offer. I feel that I have become much more aware of current events around Massachusetts for this reason. Interning for 3+ years at major TV news stations has certainly kept my interest in reading newspapers—not because I am forced to, but, because I actually see just how truthful, valuable and informative they are. I plan to continue reading newspapers both online and hardcopy once I am done interning.

Another publication that I read is many different Magazines. These are probably my favorite’s forms of reading because they go beyond news, politics and weather. The magazines that I am currently subscribed to are my biggest interests. My subscribed list consists of Time, National Geographic, ESPN: The Magazine, Car & Driver, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and Men’s Health. I have subscriptions to these magazines because they include topics that are not necessarily news; but, still also very important and informative information that I can use in my life. I have been reading magazines since I was a little kid—even before I began reading newspapers. In fact, I started reading magazines even before newspapers. My very first subscription to my own magazine in my name was my sophomore year in high school. It was a subscription for Car & Driver. As I got older and my funds grew bigger, I then picked up National Geographic, Time, Rolling Stone, ESPN, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and Men’s health. I currently still have a subscription to all of those magazines today. I read those magazines on a weekly basis and will continue to subscribe to those magazines as long as possible.

One of the major publications that I stay away from is Books. As bad/sad as it sounds, I can never get myself to read a book from beginning to end. I have never liked to read these kinds of books for pure entertainment or what-have-you. I was never one of the kids who were obsessed with Harry Potter or Goosebumps. The only books I would like to read growing up are I-Spy or books with a lot of pictures in them/big font. I find myself getting headaches from reading these books. The only time I do read books is when I have to for a class. I was always one of those kids who dreaded Summer reading and to be honest, somehow got by never actually fully reading the books over the Summer. I am not really sure what it is. My parents and teachers constantly encouraged me to read more; but, I just never listened. In fact, the only time I ever read books and textbooks fully is for classes—and even then, I sometimes would take the lazy way out and google, spark notes or ask around for information I may have missed from not reading. My hope is that this will change sometime soon, since I realize that I am missing out on some interesting books.

As for Blogging, I have never followed/had a blog until this semester when a very interesting and wise professor made it a requirement for class to blog with fellow students. I was never amused by blogging and thought it was a waste of time. However, since I was forced into blogging as a requirement, I have now actually found myself enjoying creating posts on my blog and also reading and commenting on my fellow classmates’ blogs. It’s a cool and unique way of writing about my thoughts, venting and anything interesting I feel like sharing. I now blog a few times a week, which will sometimes turns into everyday when I have more free time away from work, interning and classes.

Perhaps the most amount of my news diet comes from the Internet. I have so many different bookmarks, sometimes it is so hard to keep track. My bookmark consists of news websites, newspaper websites, entertainment websites such as facebook, gmail, etc. Some of the news websites that I have bookmarked are: whdh.com, boston.com, bostonherarld.com, myfoxboston.com, etc. These are websites that I checked every day, many times a day. I find these sites to update regularly and are (in my opinion) fairly accurate. Not a day goes by where I won’t check these websites out to see what’s happening in the news on that particular day. I am also a frequent user of facebook and gmail (both also bookmarked); checking both many times each day as well. Facebook and gmail are the two most common ways in which family and friends can get in touch with me via online.

As for Broadcast News Sources, I am an avid watcher of broadcast news. Whether it is local (7News, FOX25, or Newscenter5) or National (CNN, FOX, or MSNBC), I am glued to broadcast news. Part of this is because I want to get into the field as a Broadcast Journalist; part is because I find it easier to gather information and current events by watching and listening to it on the TV. The channels that I watch the most are Newscenter5 and 7News for local news, weather and sports and CNN for national news, weather and sports. I tend to flip from station to station, however, because I like to compare to see if a certain station depicts a story differently than another station. Sometimes, I do see a difference, other times I don’t.

So, even though Broadcast News is perhaps my favorite way of gathering news, I do understand that it may not necessarily be the most accurate way and I do check and compare to make sure. I have been enthusiastically watching Broadcast News everyday morning and night since I was around the age of 10 years old. I have always been a “TV news junkie” since then and continue to be so. My goal is to become an Investigative Reporter in the future and hope to report on stories that people want and should hear about. Furthermore, I hope that in the future, Broadcast News changes the way they are run and focuses on more important and positive stories versus negative and off-topic stories that do not have any affect on the audience watching.