This piece is prompted by two things. One, this report from PEW Research on "how Americans get local political news" and two having read the book Avoiding the News (link to my review). The book is based on a series of interviews the authors did with people who both enjoy following the news as well as people who avoid the news completely. In one of the appendices the book includes the interview questions they used. I decided to use some of the questions to help me reflect on my own news engagement and how I was socialized into reading news and keeping up with news and current events. As the title of this blog post states, these are some random thoughts. Questions from the book are as provided. The replies are my own.
"What do you see as the most important issues in your life day to day?"
Pretty much making it to the end of another day and hoping Trump and his administration do not make things worse but knowing he will. While I am not in as bad a situation as other people out there, I certainly am vulnerable and there but for the amusement of the Cosmic Joker go you and me. It is not just one thing. It is really the overall sense of dread wondering what will happen next in the current clusterfuck. I am also concerned about things like inflation, price gouging, so a bit anxious not to spend money on non-essentials. Better to save that money just in case.
"How about in your community? What kind of things are your neighbors worried about? What about your coworkers? What about friends /family?"
I have no idea what the neighbors worry about, but given that they are all pretty much Trump and GOP people they probably do not worry much, including the one neighbor with the cutesy sticker on her SUV of "God, Guns, and Trump." I am sure she is feeling fine as long as someone else is getting the shaft. I could not care less what the neighbors worry about or not.
These days what remains of my family, outside my immediate family at home, does not talk about politics much if ever, and I am good with that.
At work, my coworkers in varying degrees worry about current events and the regime, but once the first few days of the 2024 elections in the U.S. passed on, they sort of quieted down and settled in.
"Do you feel like you have all the information you need to know enough about what's happening in your community? Where do you turn to for information about what's happening in your community?"
I feel that there is enough in terms of local information. Not a lot, but what there is suffices. Locally, the Berea Citizen weekly is pretty much the main source. It is not that great, but it is what is available. I try to give it a quick read when I can though not as often as I used to do when I moved into town. Some city agencies here use Facebook of all things to make announcements, etc.. I've mostly stopped using Facebook, due to various reasons up to and including their horrible ethics, but I find I do not really miss it. If I need to find some local information, I know where to look and who to ask. I know one or two local people who are connected to the local networks I can ask if needed.
"Do you feel like you have all the information you need to know enough about what's happening in the United States [and the world]?"
In terms of overall news, I have a variety of news sources lined up on my RSS reader. I scan through the sources once a day during the work week. On weekends, I mostly disengage from formal news reading, although as we all know by now some news always makes it to your social media, and my social media, mainly Bluesky and Mastodon these days, is no exception to that rule. In addition, I am an academic librarian, if I need to find additional information sources, I either know the sources already or know where to find them or who to ask.
"Would you say it is important to stay informed about the news?"
For me, yes, it is important to stay informed and at least have a sense of what is going on. A big issue in the United States is the large amount of uninformed citizens who vote. We'd probably not have as many problems as we do now if people actually bothered to read news, be informed, and also evaluate the news they get. If all you do is watch Fox News, you have no advantage over someone who just does not read nor watch news at all. If anything, the uninformed person may have a slight advantage over the Fox News viewer. I know staying informed is not easy, but if you are going to be a responsible and decent citizen you need to make the effort.
Being informed is also important to be able to navigate the world we live in. For me, as a librarian, being informed helps me do my job better, which enables to help others get the information they need better.
"Growing up, did anyone in your family read the newspaper or follow the news?"
I remember at home growing up we had at least one newspaper, often two or three. My dad was the one who read the newspapers regularly, often at the end of the day when he got home. Mom, who was a stay at home mom, would read them during the day. At the time, in Puerto Rico, the main two newspapers were El Nuevo Dia, which still operates today, and El Mundo, long gone. There was also El Vocero, which still exists also though it seems to have changed over the years. At the time, El Vocero was basically the local crime sheet. It was known for taking the worst crimes, picking the most gruesome one on a given day, and splashing it on the front page with a headline written in red letters. Mom would often say on seeing it that the newspaper would be bleeding. They basically had "click bait" and "rage bait" before they was the thing it is now. Once in a while we might get an edition of El Vocero if a headline interested my parents.
At the time, there was also an English language newspaper, The San Juan Star, which my dad began a subscription when we started learning English. He was likely hoping it would help us learn the language, and for me at least it worked since I did start reading it here and there.
Finally, in terms of newspapers, there was Claridad, which still also operates. Claridad was the socialist party pro-independence newspaper. Mom would buy it once in a while; she was independendista. However, my memory of reading Claridad comes from one of our neighbors at the time. We used to share carpooling to go back and forth to school. Dad would take us and a kid or two from the neighborhood in the morning, and often one of their parents brought their kid and us back home. One of those parents was also independentista, and he read Claridad regularly. He put a copy in my hand one day telling me that it was important, essential for me to read and be informed, and to read it all, not just what the major mainstream news published. When Claridad was at home, I'd do my best to read it too.
While I was not a huge news reader, I read enough to know what was going on. I particularly liked science stories. This was the time when Voyager spacecraft were making new discoveries in the Solar System and NASA's Space Shuttle was the new wonder of the time. I found those stories fascinating, and I even would clip a few of them, especially the photos.
These days, I still read, or at least glance at news sources from back home. El Nuevo Dia and Claridad have RSS feeds, so I have them on my feed reader. I usually check the headlines of the former, may read an article if it interests me, but I do read from Claridad more often. There is also a new to me newspaper, La Perla, that also has an RSS feed, so I read that one too. When it comes to news from Puerto Rico, I read just enough to have a sense of what is going on. I have not lived in the island for many years now, and my return looks unlikely, so I don't feel a need to have a depth of knowledge. However, if I needed that depth, I can likely catch up with ease.
As for other news sources, dad often kept the radio in the car on the news station. Keep in mind this was before AM radio became the right wing talk wasteland it is now. The radio news station mostly provided headlines and a bit of information on the headline every hour on the hour, which could get a bit repetitive. On Sundays, the station did have a political talk program-- the program featured local political pundits, but they did make an effort to somewhat balance the politics unlike today-- that dad also listened to, at least until mom got tired of it and told him to change the station. As for television, you got news during the week in the morning, around 10am if I recall, then 6pm and 10pm for the late viewers. If you did not catch one of the broadcasts you missed it that day. Things like VCRs did not come until a bit later, so you had to make the effort to watch the news if you wanted to do so. However, if you missed the news broadcast, you did have the option of reading the newspaper the next morning.
Even though news sources were accessible at home, to be honest, my parents and family did not talk about news very much at home or with other family when we went to visit or they came to visit our home. Part of it I think was the old rule of "things not spoken in polite company," which tend to be politics and religion, news often gets included in that.
Anyhow, that is how, in a nutshell, I got socialized to reading news and keeping up with news.
"Was news ever talked about when you were in school?"
To be honest, not really. I remember there were some school programs to provided newspapers in schools for students to read, but I never was in a school that offered it. Teachers just stuck to whatever the curriculum was at the time. High school seniors had to take a year of Puerto Rico history, and no, nothing current was really taught nor discussed. Given that pro-independence sentiment is on the rise on the island now, I wonder if that has changed any in schools, but at the time, no, not really. And my peers pretty much could not have cared less about news or talking about news. Someone like me who read a lot, news and books, was seen as the nerd type, so I did my reading on my own, and talked about whatever else it was kids talked about in school at the time.
"Have you ever felt the need to take a break from the news? Deliberately changed your media habits?"
After the 2016 U.S. elections, given the results, I felt a need to take a break. I declared a self-moratorium on reading anything related to politics, social issues, and activist topics. Before that, I used to read news, and other things, in those topics regularly to stay informed as well as keep learning. Also, I did it to stay informed in order to be a good reference and instruction librarian. After the 2016 elections, I just got burned out. While I did not totally tune out those topics, I made a conscious effort to minimize my exposure. I read and skimmed just enough but I did not share any of what I was reading as I usually do on social media. In fact, I had a small penance where if something I read in those topics moved me enough to share it on social media, I would post pictures of kittens right after to cleanse the social media feeds. It was a bit of light humor in the Hard Times.
For the most part I managed to keep the moratorium going fairly well. However, with the results of the 2024 U.S. elections, I have found myself drawn into the politics, social issues, and activist materials news cycle, so I have been gradually phasing out the moratorium. One, there is way too much stuff, most of it bad, that I DO need to know about so I can stay alive in the Hard Times. Two, again, in order to help patrons I feel the need to be informed so I can answer their questions. And three, completely tuning out is not a viable option, not if you are going to try to survive and help others do the same as well. So I am reading more news in those topics, and more importantly, reading books on such topics again, which I then write reviews on this blog. For me, reading and reviewing those books is a small way to provide reader's advisory, to inform others, and hopefully help others be educated and informed so they can do the work. It's my small form of doing the work.
"Do you TALK or SHARE a lot of news with others?"
In person, not much. Online, yes, I do share a bit of what I read through my social media. Sometimes it is serious. Other times I just share the news item with a bit of humor and/or snark. While I appreciate if others respond to it, politely, I do it mostly for myself to remember and/or entertain myself a little in the Hard Times. For the most part, people on my social media feeds react positively. Part of it I am sure is I have my social media fairly well curated, including blocking as needed, so the explainers, pedants, hardcore partisans, and other assorted fuckbagels get little to no chance of coming in my feeds to bother me and others who may follow me. For anyone who wants to say some bullshit along the lines of needing an open mind or listen to others, I say fuck you. I do not owe anyone my time and my space, and I sure as hell do not owe anyone a "debate." You can take yourself elsewhere with that crap.
Sometimes folks do ask me for information, and I am happy to help out where I can. However, one thing I stopped doing long ago was any form of fact checking in social media. Given people online really are not interested in facts, I found it is not worth the effort trying to provide those people with accurate information if they do not want it. Some folks are just beyond any redemption, and I am not bothering with them.
And there you have it, some random thoughts on how I get my news. I ended up writing a bit more than I planned, but I needed to write it out. How about folks out there? Feel free to share how you get news, your experiences, so on in the comments below. If you have a blog, and you write a longer piece, you can share the link in the comments. I will do my best to check it out when I can. If you read this far, thank you for stopping by.
