How To-51: "How to Stay Informed About Current Events"

How to Stay Informed About Current Events

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Today's world is becoming more volatile than ever before. With so much at stake, it's a good idea to stay informed as to what's going on in your country and the World.

Steps

1. Watch the news. This seems simple, but it often isn't. News is becoming more and more biased to all different interests. The safest way to make sure you're getting the whole story is to watch several different stations. Don't limit yourself to the nightly news, watch 24 hour news stations as often as you can.
   
2. Make sure you get a paper. Reading your local paper is great for staying current on issues close to you. Try to also get a paper from your closest metro area, as they often report on your state. Finally, subscribe to nationally accepted paper like the New York Times. With these you can get updates on whats happening across the country and often around the world.
   
3. Subscribe to News Magazines. Once you're up on all the issues, it's nice to get a broader idea of them. A great way to do this is by reading news magazines, like Time or Newsweek. These have many opinion essays, and articles that go into issues in more depth.
   
4. Stay balanced. Try not to close your mind to other sources. Even if you think the information you're getting is skewed, pay attention to the spin in order to understand more.
   
5. Read books by top officials, pundits, and those in the know. Now more than ever the figures you see on the news and in politics are writing books. These are great to get their side of the story and an inside view of what they do. They may not always be riveting, but they're great for keeping informed.
   
6. Check news sites as often as you can. News sites are constantly being updated and usually have many more stories than you get on TV or even in a paper. Again, try and stay balanced with these. You can also sign up for tickers that pop up on your computer screen that show you the top stories. Email alerts are also good.
   
7. Talk with other informed people. Debate is a great way to test out your opinions. You can always learn something from a good debate, even if your opponent's views are completely different from yours. If you can't find people around you, join a forum to discuss issues. Most news sites offer forums or blogs that you can join and debate with other users. Reading blogs of regular citizens is also a great way to see other sides of the issues.
   

Tips

• If you can't afford to subscribe to papers or magazines, your local library will probably have all the latest issues. If not, bookstores often let you read on the premises.
  
• Make sure you have a good internet provider. Checking the news can be very frustrating on a slow browser.
  
• Get a good television package. Most offer several news stations that play all day and all night.

Warnings

• Take everything you see in the media with a grain of salt. Remember that most news stations have a bias and what they report may not necessarily be fact.
  
• Make sure you're actually interested in staying informed. If it's boring you, you're wasting your time and probably not getting everything you can out of it.
  
• Don't act like you know everything once you're informed.

Things You'll Need

• An open mind
  
• All 5 senses intact.

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