Mar

14

Staying connected…

Filed Under Babbling, Writings/Rants 

Following up my networking entry from the other day, I figured I’d delve a bit into how I stay connected with the world around me…

I mentioned the other day that I just started using a program called Newzie for my RSS feeds, and I can’t believe how much that really keeps me “in touch” with the world around me. Seriously. Not that I wasn’t in touch with the same world before…

But a lot of folks have been coming to me with the big stories recently, asking my take on them. The truth is, anyone and everyone could be up to date and in touch with the news: you just need a half an hour a day.

Just a half an hour a day to know what’s going on in the world? Yup. And here’s how you do it.

Wake up in the morning and choose a website you like from the following three:
MSNBC.com
Reuters.com
CNN.com
Spend about 5-10 minutes perusing the headlines and skim the stories that interest you.
Then, on your lunch break, check out another one from the above, and this time spend about 10-15 minutes heading into a bit more depth onto some of the stories that interest you.
Finally at night when you get home, at 6pm choose a network you like and watch just the headlines from the news report. If you choose to, you can watch the whole thing, but the headlines will give you a good wrap up of the daily events.

Is that how I do it? Oh no no no. I probably take a good 3 hours or so out of my day to keep up with my news, and here’s how I do it.
1) When I wake up in the morning, I skim my news feeds on Newzie, which come from MSNBC.com and a few other sources, including Drudge Report.
2) I watch a bit of Morning Joe to get a sense of what’s going on in the world.
3) After 20-30 minutes of that (unless its something good), I turn on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Daily Show with John Stewart, and The Colbert Report, which I’ve DVRed from the night before. I usually watch all in their entirety, and only occasionally skip out on Colbert.
4) When I’m done with all of that, I’ll watch Mika Brzezinski if she’s still on MSNBC or if their morning breaking news is still relevant, and if not, I’ll usually head back to my computer and see what’s popped up on my feeds. And I’ll admit it here: Mika’s probably one of my only two celebrity crushes. The second one being Alison Stewart. I can’t explain it, there’s just something about their newsperson charisma that I like. Sorry Katie Couric.
5) I’m always refreshing my feeds and reading new stories as they interest me, and when I’m away from my computer, I read MSNBC.com on my cell phone (it transfers really well to the cell, trust me).
6) Election night coverage is the ONLY time that I defer from MSNBC, but its only to CNN for their statistics. Their updates are to the minute, and county by county of who won, with popular vote and everything as it comes in. MSNBC is good, but not that good. Though the team of Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann on commentary as the results come in is what I’ll listen to. Come November, I’ll be watching them on TV and watching the numbers on my computer.
7) I also am a constant force in making very bad political jokes and references over the course of the day, and there are friends and folks whom I run into who I will discuss politics and policies that are going on just to see how things are interpreted. Through open and honest discussion, you can learn and know much much more than just by reading it.
8) At night, the wife and I settle down and watch Chelsea Lately. While its more gossip/Hollywood themed, it still has news pieces of interest in it from time to time. And she’s just funny, enough said.
9) Finally, I’m subscribed to a few news podcasts that I’ll listen to if I don’t have the time to watch my shows. You can get great audio feeds of Countdown, Hardball, NBC Nightly News, and Meet The Press, as well as other network’s news programs too.

Finally, to anyone who reads this and says “Oh fuck, another liberal blogger spouting off all of his anti-Fox sources with a pigeon-holed mindset.” I do watch Fox too for things other than Simpsons and Family Guy, but mostly their “news” and their reporting of said “news” makes me laugh. But, I do understand that I have a liberal bias, and I can look around this to a conservative argument. Heck, most of the people I’m going to school with are conservatives or moderates: it’s the nature of being a business major.

But there you have it: thirty minutes a day you can take to be a better informed citizen. Or, you could take my approach, but I’ll understand if you’d rather the condensed version.

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    About The Site


    Thanks for stopping by, folks! My name is Adam J. Cohen, and I'm a guitarist/songwriter in Champaign, IL, recently relocated from Orlando, FL where I'm a UCF grad. Here, you'll find vignettes on my life, setlists from open mics and reviews, and whatever else crosses my mind. Enjoy!