Newsflash: There’s More Than One Way to Get News

The last time I watched the news voluntarily for more than two minutes was the 2008 presidential elections.  The time before was that was the 2004 elections, I think.  I try to read the New York Times more often, but that endeavor usually turns out to be as successful as my sporadic flossing regimens.  To be honest, I usually find traditional news simultaneously boring and overwhelming.  There are a few sources that do keep me in the loop, though.  This American Life and The Daily Show are my two regular media fixes that I can enjoy while keeping track of the world outside my window.         

 

1.  If you’ve never listened to This American Life on public radio before, you’ll think it sounds stupid when I say that I was stirring my boiling macaroni in captivated suspense this afternoon while I listened to a story about a man trying to produce a puppy channel on TV and why guys like Rupert Madoff rejected the idea.  Without encountering This American Life before, you couldn’t understand how this weekly radio show breaks apart the folklore of American life – faith, disaster, love, entrepreneurship, history, and epiphany – and separates it into the tiny, personal stories that created these mega-themes.  This American Life is not a news show.  However, it does spend a lot of time explaining American trends and culture that I hadn’t understood before listening.  For me, the one hour show is the opportunity to reflect about the unique and sometimes absurd directions people's lives can take them and consider the route that I am taking.  Download a podcast of the show for free from itunes and check out their site at thisamericanlife.org. 

 

2.  Okay – it’s not a real news program.  Real news doesn’t make poop jokes or have nearly as diverse a team of reporters.  However, despite the fact that The Daily Show is intended to be entertainment, you still get more truth per minute (tpm) than you would from watching FOX and you can catch quick highlights of the day’s events without having to pretend that you are a current events/world affairs expert.  Of course, The Colbert Report is another legitimate fake news option if a faux depiction of right-wing conservative republicans is what you are after, but I still find Jon Stewart’s satire a more daring attempt to unveil the biased, misleading, and self-serving beast that American news media has become.  

 

Traditional TV news is just not right for me, and for all I know, my methods might not be right for you.  However, I do think that keeping up with the news is important, and should not be painful to injest.  If you need a new method, try reading blogs; checking out local newspapers (which are usually much thinner/quicker to read than The Globe); or reading newsmagazines like Time, which give more in-depth stories once a week, rather than brief stories every day.  Be realistic while you’re looking at your options; if the source bores you on the first day, you’re not going to be able to force yourself through it week after week, so don’t waste your time. 

Even though keeping up with the news seems geeky, it provides many useful skills, like being able to relate history to current events in essays for class, and being better at shouting out answers while watching Jeopardy, not to mention molding you into an informed and engaged citizen.  Once you find a good source, it can be easy to do thoughtful, interesting, and intellectual activities all on your own!          

Playing Tricks on Yourself ... in a Good Way

Those looming essays – “How the Invention of the Barometer Effected Modern Society,”  “Political Trends that Impacted the Renaissance Movement” – always tend to pile up at the back of your head, building intensity until the night before they are due, and then KABOOM!  You remember you have to do them.  You freak out.  You try to start, but you can’t concentrate.  You panic.  You finally resign yourself to doing it.  You take a late dinner break.  You crank out a conclusion in the morning and when you pass it in, you feel like you are getting rid of a slimy piece of uncooked animal fat that has been rolled out and stapled to a works cited page.                

 Procrastination. 

            Everyone puts off work at some point, but the problem with procrastination is that it can be stressful and it can take all the enjoyment of a task that isn’t even that bad.  The truth is that writing essays (or cleaning the bathroom, or balancing your checkbook) can be boring, hard work, but it doesn’t have to be the terrible beast that you’ve imagined. 

            The most common thing that people do to make their homework less enjoyable is to go at it unprepared.  You wouldn’t decide to go out for a 5-mile run, stand up, and run out the door in your jeans and socks, holding a mug of tea.  So why would you torture yourself with spontaneous homework?  Instead, try coming up with a brief ritual to get yourself warmed up.  You might already do a few things naturally, but take some time to think about what you need.  I know that I don’t like to start my work until after I’ve, got 1) a mechanical pencil, 2) a comfortable chair 3) a snack 4) my books and computer within reach and 5) a snack.  What is it that you need?  A 15-minute walk?  A cup of juice?  Some Mozart?  Pamper yourself before you get started, and hopefully you’ll find that it’s easier to concentrate when you have already taken care of all your needs. 

            Another reason that people procrastinate is because the project that they have before them seems so huge and intense that they are afraid of getting started.  This, of course, is an illogical way of looking at a problem, but everybody does it at some point.  One way to solve this is to coax yourself into getting started.  Gather everything you need for a project and get to work, but only for 30 minutes.  Time it.  It will be much easier to concentrate without stressing when you know you only have to work for half an hour.  And once you’ve gotten started, it will be less painful to get to work on it again tomorrow. 

            The final piece of anti-procrastination advice I have is this: get excited, even if you have to force yourself.  Homework is much easier to do if you enjoy it, so when you have to work on something that doesn’t seem interesting, MAKE IT INTERESTING.  Think of a creative way to present your information; choose an essay topic that you are passionate about; bring your own hobbies and interests into a topic that you find boring; and most importantly: be open minded.  Usually assignments don’t turn out to be as bad as we imagine them, so stop worrying and start writing.