How Do You Get Your News?

Guess which DC museum is my favorite. 

A very smart but ill-informed friend told me earlier this week that he feels disconnected from the world since he doesn't have a regular news diet. 

He asked where I go to keep up, and what outlets he should check out on a daily basis. 

Because he works in finance, I recommended the Wall Street Journal (duh!). Even though I'm not particularly business savvy (yet), I'm especially interested in the health, media & tech industries. But I also like the WSJ for its multimedia website, stellar foreign reporting, and crazy A-heds.  


Also, look to the leaders of whatever industry you're in and read what they read. This is a great clip of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger & Bill Gates discussing their news consumption habits. (Buffett reads five: his local newspaper, the Financial Times, WSJ, the New York Times, and USA Today; Munger likes The Economist.)   

Since I've been in grad school I haven't been able to keep up with the news much, so I rely on my ever-evolving Twitter newsfeed & lists to give me the headlines from 1,000 or so of my favorite journalists, like Tampa Bay Times environmental reporter Craig Pittman, Canadian public health reporter André Picard, and Sarah van Gelder of Yes! Magazine. 

I like NPR's app because I have several favorite member stations, like DC's WAMU, Seattle's KUOW, and the small but rad WPSU out of Penn State. 

Since it's summer break and I have more time to read, I use my school subscription to browse a gazillion newspapers via Library PressDisplay.

It's like my own private Newseum. 

But my favorite source by far is Washington Journal, C-SPAN's daily call-in show. Every morning its hosts go through the big stories in the major papers, and the guests always include a slew of journalists.

This morning one of the guests was Yahoo! News political reporter Chris Moody. He spoke about the business of web reporting (seriously, who needs j-school? Just watch a ton of C-SPAN). 

 

Another topic of today's show asked viewers how they get their news. A caller commented that C-SPAN is her main source because she doesn't have to worry about a bias or slant. She can watch and "hear it from the mouth of the individual” politician or public figure, and make up her own mind about what's happening. 

Same reason I like C-SPAN. I stream it online almost every day, several times a day, and listen to the app during my commute or workouts. 

My friend's inquiry made me curious about where my most informed friends get their news. I started with Creative Loafing's news & politics editor Mitch Perry, one of my first editors back when we were both with the WMNF Evening News. 

Mitch does the work of three people, never sleeps, and his weekly recycling bin could fill a small library. He sent me his reading list via email: 

I begin my day (actually in the middle of the night) by reading as much as possible. ALL of the New York Times; US, World, Arts, opinion, sports.  

Then at my front door in the morning are copies of the Tampa Tribune, Tampa Bay Times and USA Today. Occasionally I'll pick up a Wall Street Journal, and a couple of days a week, a New York Post (guilty pleasure).  

At work before I write I read the Sayfie Review (an aggregate of Florida political stories), the Drudge Report, Salon, RealClearPolitics. Later in the morning I'll go check out Slate and JimRomenesko, with occasional searches on The Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, National Review, The Hill and Roll Call (depending on how busy I am). 

I don't subscribe to New York Magazine so I go online on Monday to download my favorite stories there. I also subscribe to the New Yorker, Time, Sports Illustrated, New York Observer, Columbia Journalism Review, The Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly...and I think that's it. 

Also following Twitter, which often sends me to places unknown.....Sometimes I don't reach all those places either, depending on if I'm at my desk all day or not.

Slacker! On Facebook I caught up with Caitlin Constantine, the senior web content editor at Bay News 9, (and a former CL intern) who can give Mitch a run for his money: 

Pretty much every morning I scan the front page of the NYT website and I listen to NPR's All Things Considered and/or Morning Edition. If I am running late to work, I will also listen to the BBC. 

As part of my job, I read the Tampa Bay Times and CNN.com. I also check out the Bradenton Herald and the Ledger. I rarely watch TV news even though TV news is my job, although sometimes I do watch more opinion-oriented shows by Rachel Maddow, Melissa Harris-Perry and Chris Hayes.  

While doing research for my blog, I check out the front page of the following sites: the Atlantic, Salon, Slate, Huffington Post, CNN, MSNBC, the American Prospect, the Nation. I also read major woman-oriented blogs like BlissTree, the Gloss, the Frisky, and sometimes Jezebel. (But not xoJane*, I hate that site.)   

Finally, I regularly check in on tumblr, where I follow a lot of people who might be considered social justice bloggers, and on Twitter, where I follow a bunch of other journalist/opinionator/media types.  

Plus I follow a ton of blogs, usually about feminism, gay rights, trans rights, fitness, health and wellness and skepticism.

In her spare time, Caitlin runs marathons, competes in triathlons, and chronicles it all on her blog Fit and Feminist. 

*However, we both continue to hold a candle for Sassy. 

The Delivery

The only Mother's Day gift my mom wants from me is to beget a few little do-gooders. 

That's not happening anytime soon, so I gave her this as a consolation prize. She was not amused. But I was, and this project was an amazing learning/bonding experience for me. 

The Delivery from Matthew Lucas on Vimeo.

Brought to you by the producers of Ray Cyste Beer.

The Anti-Commercial Commercial

This semester is wrapping up, so I'll finally start posting some of the video work I've done thus far in film school.  

For this one, the assignment was to produce a commercial. Being the conscious consumer that I am, of course I had to make a statement. 

It was inspired by a Caps game I caught on TV earlier this spring. All the commercials were for Coors and cars - all white male oriented. The friend I was watching the game with mentioned that the Coors family & company had a dirty past, so I did my research. 

Ray Cyste Beer Commercial from Matthew Lucas on Vimeo.

And while this commercial is a play on all I learned from a single hockey game, my intention is not to call out any specific corporation.

There's plenty of companies that have shoddy business practices, abuse human rights, shun worker's rights, etc. And it's going to take quality policy makers along with talented, thoughtful business people & shareholders to right all that. But that's turning around the Titanic. 

It's easier to change us, the consumer. I believe the most important vote an American makes is not at the ballot box every four years, but how we spend our money on a daily basis.