Tips for Navigating the News

FMC Fast Chat takes you inside the news so you can be in the know in 30 minutes. Hosted by Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement, Fast Chat features notables in news, media, and business.

Hi, this is Jaci. Thank you so much for joining me today with this special episode of FMC Fast Chat. Today we're going to give you some tips for navigating the news. And the reason for this is simple: it's a really complicated media landscape out there, isn't it? The work of the Fair Media Council, if you're not familiar, advocates for quality news, and we also focus on creating a media-savvy society. So these tips fall into that media-savvy society category, and basically what we want is for you to be able to navigate the media landscape with ease, to find the information that you need and want so that you feel smart, savvy, and connected to the world around you. I should tell you also that the only agenda we have with giving you these tips is to help you navigate the landscape to find information that is important to you in your life and your beliefs. And we are not here to try to influence your beliefs at all or direct you to a particular news outlet. We leave that up to you. What we're here to do is to give you the behind-the-scenes information of how news works so that you can make smart decisions. Alrighty then, so let's get to some helpful tips for you. First up, you want to set some limits for yourself, and by that I mean you want to put together kind of a schedule to check the news throughout the day, but never for more than 1 hour at a time. The reason for that limit is because the news can have an impact on your psyche. It can put you in a bad mood. It can depress you. And this is especially true if the news happens to be very severe, such as, you know, the war in the Ukraine and really heavy news like that. So setting that time limit for yourself is very important. Now, this may take you a few days of kind of keeping track of how much time you're devoting to news to begin with. Maybe you want to keep a little journal, write down some notes. It doesn't have to be anything formal, doesn't even need to be for a full week, because usually people tend to go back to the same news sources and they tend to kind of gravitate toward a schedule without even knowing it. So if you can just become cognizant of how you're spending your time That is our first tip. Now secondly, we want you to be able to use news like a pro. Now what do I mean by that? News professionals know that newspapers are the ones that give you the most background on a story. They'll explain the why, as in why is it important that you know this information and how the information impacts you. So you want to be able to check news newspapers, whether it's print or online, first thing, and then turn to radio, TV, and internet news throughout the day. And why is that? Because newspapers will give you that important information and deep background, where TV and radio are basically there to give you updates throughout the day. They have a different format. Their stories are much shorter. There's not much information. They they could put in those very quick reports. And that's the reason why you want to do your reading before you do your watching or your listening. Okay then, moving on. This next tip is really about owning your own mind. So what do I mean by that? We want you to give priority to news stories and news reports. Only then should you turn to commentary and things like talk shows, are filled with people providing opinions on what's happening in the news. So to understand why this is important, it's because if you turn to commentary first, those people can very easily make up your mind for you because they're only giving you the part of the story that they are trying to emphasize. They're not there to tell you both sides. They're there to tell you their side of it. And that's why you need to turn to the news stories and the news reports first so that you get a look at both sides of the equation and even 3 sides of the equation, as often stories are pretty complicated today. So again, give priority to news and then turn to commentary and opinion. It may be helpful to you to look at the labels and on-screen menus to help guide you from sections of news to sections of opinion. You will see if you're looking online, you'll see in the navbar news, and next to it is normally opinion. And the reason for that is those are 2 very distinct things. They're not interchangeable, and you can't just go to one without the other to get the full look at what's happening. Okay, but we do want you to know that you need to prioritize the news first and the opinion second. Otherwise, other people's opinions will influence your decisions. And here's a little tip about breaking news, all right? We really want you to treat breaking news the same way you do the 1.0 version of any app you've ever used. Expect it to be full of bugs that will be sorted out later. And that's exactly what breaking news is about. Whatever it may break, whatever it may tell you up front, may change dramatically as the story unfolds. So just kind of take breaking news with a grain of salt. Know it's out there, but don't get too invested in it. Give it time, see what happens. And here's another thought while we're on the topic of breaking news. When news breaks, your phone probably starts to ping like crazy. Your email inbox starts filling up with alerts. You may have alerts going off on your laptop. Don't panic. All those pings are going off because it's just different news outlets filing basically the same story. They're all competing for your attention, and they're all trying to compete against each other to see who can bring you the news first. It does not mean that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, which is usually what the news consumer thinks at that point. So you want to pay attention to what the news is saying, but don't pay attention to what the pings are, are telling you by going off. Okay, and again, breaking news, take it with a grain of salt. All right, and here's a tip for all you cable news watchers out there. I know the 24-hour cable news networks, they bill themselves as 24 hours of news, but that's not actually true. Much of that time is devoted to talk shows, which again, as I mentioned previously, talk shows are opinion-driven. It's people sitting around giving you their opinions about the news. Not reporting on the news. So you want to look at the 24-hour channel lineup of shows on those news channels to see which is news and which is opinion. You know, your time is important. Divide it up the way you want, but be cognizant of how much time do you really want to devote to someone else's opinion. And again, we're not going to tell you what to watch. We just want you to know what you're watching. Here's a tip: if you have children in the house, maybe they're your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, or even if you have friends with small children, you always, always want to protect the children. Things adults don't realize is that small children can actively absorb news that adults ignore as background noise, and when the news is severe, children can end up feeling scared or afraid. But they're unable to articulate their feelings. Be sure to monitor all the news in the house, and you want to talk to kids to reassure them that they are safe. If the news is being heavy or bringing them very dramatic images, maybe war in Ukraine, they're seeing bombings, maybe they're seeing children crying, you know, things like that upset them, but they don't have the ability to explain that to you. And you want to keep in mind that even though you know the news is coming from the television in the living room, very small children see that news is coming and happening right in the living room, and that makes them feel scared. All kids should feel secure in their own homes, so please remember to protect the children. All right, we've got one more tip for you here, and that is in regard to social media etiquette. Now, when it comes to social media, this is very important. Please, please, please do not share a news story unless you've actually read it. There's a lot of shenanigans going out there in the social media space. There's a lot of content out there that masquerades as news, and it's really not. A lot of times there's a headline that doesn't match the news article itself, and there's other things that go on. So please make sure you read something before you share it, and if someone shares something with you, please read it, and if they have shared something irresponsible, please let them know so that they can stop. We all want to practice good social media etiquette, so please be on your best behavior when you're online. Okay, so that rounds up our tips for today, but There's always more tips coming from us on how to navigate the landscape. And we also have an episode coming up on how to create a healthy media diet, which you should find very helpful. So please, if you haven't subscribed to our podcast, do so. If you think this information has been helpful, please share it with people you know. And if you have any questions or ideas for me that you'd like information about or answers to, Please feel free to send me an email at jaci@fairmediacouncil.org. Thank you so much and have a great day. Thank you for listening.

The Fair Media Council is a 501 nonprofit organization advocating for quality news and working to create a media-savvy society. For more information about the Fair Media Council and upcoming Fast Chat shows, check out fairmediacouncil.org. This podcast is a part of the C-Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-suite-radio.com.