Tips for Reading the News

As everyone knows, there is a lot happening in the world right now. A lot is happening in the United States right now. It may be a blessing or a curse that I am in a class called News Literacy right now. Here I’m learning about the news, how it works, how to figure out what is credible or not, and also how to read/interpret the news. After being in this class for 5 weeks I have figured out ways to read news and what to look out for when I see it. 

When watching the news, many people have noticed a pattern where President Trump words things in ways he may not mean to, causing misinformation. One of the bigger examples being one where he was talking about the Ukrainian-Russian war. He stated that Ukraine had “started” the war when he might’ve meant to say that they “continued” the war. Unfortunately we can’t know exactly what he meant to say. While this is scary due to the possible spread of misinformation to others, it is good to be informed about his habits. You can actually use this as a tool when reading or watching the news. When being aware that information that comes directly from the White House or Trump has a certain communication style, you can expect it and “suspend belief” at first when you hear something that sounds off or concerning. You will be able to prepare yourself for this misleading language and know when to fact-check this information. This will make you a better thinker of news because you’ll be able to look deeper into what is said, to not blindly listen to what is being told to you from these sources. 

As stated above, it is important to fact-check what you are reading or seeing. If someone tells you a new law was passed, look it up online. News is there for the public to be able to stay informed, so use it! When you read or hear things for the first time, you could misinterpret what was said or read something false (depending on what source you get it from). In order to truly be informed, you need to fact-check. Read 2 different articles, do they say the same thing or are there inconsistencies? A good thing also is to find credible sources to read from. In my class, I’ve been told to read from AP News (Associated Press). Other credible sources are NY Times, Politico, Washington Post, and WSJ. 

Something to keep in mind as well is to read more than the headline from these publications. While the writer might not mean to, headlines can be misleading on their own. Take this made-up headline for example: “100,000 Inmates Released from Prison.” On its own, this sounds really shocking, even concerning. This title can actually spread misinformation if that’s all you read. Instead of just focusing on the number, you should ask yourself: was this in one day? Or in the span of a few months? Where was this? Were these American prisons, prisons in another country, or collective prisons over the world? Knowing the answers to these questions will make the situation make more sense to you, because a number is not a full story.

Looking into news further and fact-checking is important, because, whether you realize it or not, news is everywhere. It is shown to us through the TV, social media, YouTube, TikTok, as well as through the people you talk to. I was able to understand this better after I had an assignment that was a 24 hour news-blackout. Basically, I couldn’t look or hear about any news for 24 hours. This was actually much harder than I realized because there is news everywhere. Even staying offline didn’t completely block me from the news, friends and family wanted to discuss what was going on but couldn’t around me. Also, I’ve been seeing more posts about the news, especially through Instagram Stories. One I’ve recently seen was a Target boycott. But without looking into this further, I would’ve had no idea why this was happening. It is good that we are staying informed through many platforms, but it actually doesn’t do any good if we don’t fact-check it to make sure we aren’t being misinformed. 

The other day I watched a 10-minute clip of the Oval Office meeting with President Trump and President Zelenskyy. After watching it, I had some concerns about what I saw and how to interpret it. So, I emailed my News Literacy professor and she gave me the link to the full meeting and some questions to think about as I watched it. These helped me to analyze and unpack what happened and I thought I’d share these with the HerCampus readers. Some only work for video-news, but I believe they are still helpful regardless:

• What problems did you observe?
• Did anyone use language they might not have intended to use? How could this create misinterpretation?
• What communication problems did you notice?
• Did you see any nonverbal communication that had you thinking, “Hmmm, that’s interesting/weird/concerning!”
• Did you catch any fake news/misinformation?

These helped me to stay engaged with what I was watching and helped me to look deeper into the Oval Office meeting than just the words that were being said. You don’t have to sit down and fully analyze the news everytime you see it, but thinking critically about what you are seeing is important. When you watch or read the news, you could think about just one of these to help deepen your understanding.

With everything going on, it can be stressful to look at the news. There are lots of different people saying lots of things, and it can be confusing to figure out what the truth is. I hope that with these tips, digesting the news will help you.