Blog #1 - Where I Get My News

 As a 20 year old female who is attending college during a pandemic, finding quality and reliable new sources is very important to me. I like to keep up-to-date with current events that are happening in the world, and luckily there are many websites and apps today that provide updated news stories daily. A few of my most used apps for news sources are Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, and Spotify. 

Instagram

Instagram is a very popular app among people of all ages. Instagram is a great way to stay connected and share photos outward to friends and family whom you may not see daily. Along with a fun platform that is used to share personal photos, Instagram is also a great platform that can easily be used to find current news stories. Many news companies, like CNN, Fox News, ABC News, and more, have popular Instagram accounts that are used to post news stories and updates as they come. I personally think that it is more convient to get news from reliable Instagram accounts, like CNN, rather than watching it on television because if you have your cell phone within reach it is easy to quickly log onto Instagram and read the caption of the latest news rather than sitting through a 30-60 minute television episode. 

TikTok

Another popular app among all ages is TikTok. TikTok recently became popular around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with over 1 billion users, TikTok is a form of social media that produces a wide variety of information and videos. On TikTok, users are given the option to make a video between 15 seconds and 3 minutes of whatever content they would like to produce. With TikTok being such a fast growing and modern day platform, it is a great platform to obtain news from. Similar to Instagram, on TikTok there are also a variety of news companies that have accounts and share videos about current events. 

Twitter

Twitter is an application that I use daily. Along with being a funny social platform, Twitter also does a fantastic job of sharing news and keeping up with the current events that are going on in the world. On the Explore page of Twitter there is a News tab. It is easily accessible and it is updated everyday. There is also a separate tab for Covid-19 news on Twitter. I like this aspect of Twitter because it makes finding the news and current events so much easier when there is a direct tab to click. Similar to Instagram and TikTok, many news companies also have their own accounts on Twitter where they can tweet about the pressing news and current events going on. 

Snapchat

Whether you have an account or not, Snapchat is an application that almost everybody knows about. The app came out in 2011, and now it has 293 million active users daily. It is a fun platform that makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family; however, it has also become a great source for news. Snapchat has a "Discover" tab that allows users to scroll through and find anything from fun stories to current events. It also allows users to subscribe to others Snapchat stories and turn on notifications to see when something is posted on the story. This is a great way to stay updated on current news events. 

Spotify

Another great way to stay updated with current news is by listening to podcasts or the radio. There are many podcasts that have to do with news and events going on in the world. Spotify is a great app and resource that allows users to listen to a wide variety of podcasts that are updated daily. Some great podcasts that include current news events are The Daily, Up First, and Global News Podcast. Podcasts are a great way to get news because you can listen to them from anywhere.