How do you get your news?

[Alan]

Hi,

How do you find out what's happening in the world/in your world? Do you regularly buy newspapers or read them online? Or do you get your news from radio and TV?

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Molly]

I watch the BBC News, Sky and use the BBC website. How about you?

[Alan]

Hi,

Always radio at the start of the day. I used regularly to buy daily newspapers but found you had to wade through so much junk before you got to any informed opinion that I now read newspapers on line. This site is useful for world press: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx and this one for UK press: http://www.wrx.zen.co.uk/alltnews.htm

Alan
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[Jamie (K)]

I seldom buy a newspaper anymore. I read the Wall Street Journal online, and I briefly check my local newspaper online every couple of days, if I think something is happening. Other than that, a lot comes from radio, and believe it or not, YouTube, because YouTube has some good documentaries from TV stations I don't have access to.

I generally find that I get better information within commentaries than I do from straight news articles. If something doesn't seem quite right about the commentary, or I want more information, I search the subject on the Internet. I also read foreign news, for example Der Spiegel, L'Express, Le Figaro, La Crónica, El Universal, Mladá fronta, Lidové noviny, and some of the English-language papers in various countries.

I used to listen to the BBC every morning, but I stopped trusting it a few years ago. I'd heard a report or two on a subject I had direct experience with, and the BBC reporters were blatantly lying, so I decided the network wasn't very reliable. (It wasn't a matter of my opinion differing; they were very obviously lying.)

The most interesting thing is to read the news about my own country in foreign media. Some of them, such as L'Express, do some pretty good reporting and give me perspectives I would never have gotten from the US media (perspectives, not necessarily information). Other foreign media get their information all upside down and backwards, and some of them have reporters on the US who appear to be paid propagandists for one political party or another (usually the Democrats).

One of my most interesting intercontinental news experiences came when Israel occupied a Palestinian refugee camp for about a week in order to root out some terrorists. After they were done, they let the media back in. CNN and other US and European media were showing video and talking about how brutally the Israelis had destroyed the place -- blowing up houses, blowing up dead bodies, etc. Then I looked at newspapers from Arabic countries, particularly Egypt, and they contained articles that had Palestinians bragging that they had booby trapped almost anything they thought Israeli soldiers would touch. They set houses to explode if they thought the Israelis would enter them, and they set corpses to explode because they expected the Israelis to pick them up and remove them. So the US media were blaming Israel for the destruction, and the Palestinians were telling Arabic-speaking people that THEY had done it.

[NinaZara]

I listen to both CNN and BBC for world news and for news from Malaysia and Japan, I read them online. For political news in my country I like to compare the pro-government ones with personal blogs or blogs of the opposition.

Before, when I was a student I like watching Cartoon Network while eating breakfast, for some reason I find it very calming but now I prefer news, and on CNNj it is always Business news every morning. Also, I like Hardtalk on BBC but I seldom get to watch them.

And do you guys notice the difference between the sound effect on both CNN and BBC? I find CNN's montage too distracting and not harmonious. BBC's sound is more soothing to the ears. I guess CNN does it for the "drama". I think they ought to do a research on this.

On the other hand, I like the colour on CNN better than BBC. Do you notice the difference? I don't know what to call it, but it's something like the difference between colour quality in the 70s film with the colour that we have now. I don't know how true this is, but I see a slight difference between CNN's and BBC's. (I know, I should really pay attention to the news! )
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[Molly]

If one is an ESL student wanting to develop one's vocabulary, one might do well to read both tabloid and broadsheet news.

Here's an example of some the different adjectives on may expect come across in each type of newspaper:

tabloids

ADULTS-ONLY
SLUMP-HIT
MONTJUIC
SHAMED
GLOBE-TROTTING
TEENY
ROLY-POLY
SIX-NIGHT
HUSH-HUSH
K-REG
EAGLE-EYED
BOOZY
BALL-TAMPERING
ONE-NIGHT
JINXED
BREAKY
BAD-BOY
TINIEST
VINNY

......

broadsheet

CONSTITUTIONAL
DEMOCRATIC
CONVENTIONAL
PROMINENT
PARLIAMENTARY
PRE-TAX
HISTORICAL
MARGINAL
CONTINUED
ADMINISTRATIVE
PSYCHOLOGICAL
FEDERAL
SOVIET
CONSERVATIVE
UNCHANGED
GENETIC
MEDIEVAL
NOTABLE
EXISTING
URBAN
LITERARY
RETAIL
WORTHWHILE
ISLAMIC
INCREASING
HUNG
STRATEGIC
REGIONAL
OVERALL

http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/

[Molly]

[Jamie (K)]

[Najlaa]

Hi ,

I use Reuters website because i think they are telling the truth and deal equally with both sides of the issues especially The Arab-Israeli conflict.

[Molly]

[Molly]