My Top Five News Sources
For my first blog post, I'd like to share my top 5 sources of news. With the quick and simple accessibility to pretty much every media outlet in the country, the bias in today's new has skyrocketed astronomically to the point where multiple media sources are more than necessary just to clarify one story. Unfortunately, the major political divide in the United States has completely diminished the authenticity and reliability of many news outlets as I will be covering in my blog today.
Below is The Media Bias Chart found from Com Library. I'll be referencing this in my blog in order to show the reliability and bias of each source that I obtain my news from. This model is quite popular and is known for its helpfulness when comparing the reliability of different news outlets.
NBC, in my opinion, is one of the most politically neutral major media outlets. As seen in the chart above, NBC is within the green square (neutral) yet slightly left leaning. One of the many reasons why I like using NBC as a primary news source is because of its wide spread of information on a variety of current topics like Covid-19, the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, Tech Safety, and Severe Weather Updates for storms like hurricane Ida which is predicted to make landfall today, August 29th, 2021.
NBC's online website is also very user-friendly and well-organized. With frequently updated information tabs, the site is extremely easy to navigate. NBC also uses a color-coordinating system to show the viewers and readers what is opinion-based and what is strictly analytical. NBC provides a multitude of different forms of news including articles, interviews, news streams, and visual graphs.
Fox News, though farther down on the Media Bias Chart, is still considered to be meeting the reliability standards according to the chart. Fox is known for being right-leaning, there is no getting around that. Even with Fox's bias, there is no denying the fact that they provide great news articles and updates on most topics. Personally I choose not to get my news surrounding controversial topics like U.S. politics from sources like CNN or Fox because the writers make it quite difficult for me to differentiate between fact and opinion. I usually choose to use Fox news for their entertainment and business sections and when I read a left-leaning article that seems biased, I usually go to Fox to be able to pick out the facts from both articles.
The New York Times lies between "mixed reliability" and "most reliable" on the media bias chart. Although TNYT publishes well-written articles written by established writers, it is heavily left-leaning which decreases the reliability of the pieces due to the high integration of bias. I use The New York Times to compare the reliability of right-leaning sources like Fox News to the sources provided by TNYT in order to pick out the facts in each article as I stated earlier. TNYT is set up like their paper copy of their newspaper, full of text and important information. Though it's based out of New York, TNYT covers world news, video news, style sections, and much more including but not limited to news from the N.Y. region and opinion-based pieces.
Another mainly central source of news that I use frequently is The Wall Street Journal. Although the media bias chart notes WSJ as leaning just a tad right, that could be due to its heavy association with business and economics. I used WSJ in high school for my AP Seminar class when I was writing my independent research report on the use of DNA databases by the FBI and the police force. WSJ has great information on a variety of topics varying from sports, to stocks, to politics, to real estate. I would recommend WSJ for people who aren't very tech-savvy. Like The New York Times' website, WSJ's website is a little busy but it reminds me of the front cover of a newspaper with it's set up and small blurbs about what the article is about.
Youtube is not featured on the Media Bias Chart because it is not specifically made for news but it was one of my most used platforms to get information on more social issues. While I don't suggest using Youtube to get your political updates from an 11 year old who took their mother's phone, I do highly suggest using it to hear your favorite influencers' and celebrities' opinions on current events. Youtube is a great platform for hearing opinions, not facts. Because there is no way to test for reliability or bias (or lack thereof) it is very risky to use Youtube as your sole outlet of news. On the other hand, many news stations and shows upload their less current videos to Youtube which is a great way to reflect on our country's past and is even better for aiding you in writing retrospective pieces.
