Welcome to my process. 

The news is a subject I’ve been interested in ever since high school. As a communication and media major at the University of Michigan, many of my classes focus on how the news has changed. But even through the many changes, increasing distrust, and a multitude of classes I took about the news — I never seemed closer to the answer to the question, what and where is the best place to get my news?

Ultimately, objectivity is something that may never be achievable. Especially in the bipartisan society we live in today, opinions and subjectivity should both be valued and taken into caution. When going about consuming your own news, take into account that although journalists aim to be as objective as possible, many fall short of this goal. Use your judgment to assess if something is attempting to sway your opinion. Read and understand multiple sources to gain a better understanding of current events or whatever source of news is desired. Take everything with a grain of salt.

As a student in the introductory, or gateway, course to the writing minor at the University of Michigan, I have aimed to answer the above question, “What and where is the best place to get my news?” through a series of experiments and a final, fully realized project. While I give a preface to the answer to that question above, a more naive and easy to comprehend version of the answer is attempted in my fully realized project. The gateway course of the writing minor forces you to think differently and explore the possibility of writing through different genres. For my project, I took an essay I did in my first-ever communication and media class about the news consumption of myself vs that of my dad when he was my age. That origin piece allowed me to look at the ever-changing realm of news and how my own consumption can help me critically understand how to consume and break down news.

Using the frameworks of my origin piece, I looked to answer the question of what is the best way to consume news. My first experiment was an infographic about how news has changed, using many of the concepts and similar research that I did in my initial essay. For my second experiment, I did the introduction of a podcast where I would talk about news with a professor at the University to try and answer my question and provide professional insight to my quarry.

For my fully realized project, I used a combination of the first two experiments. The most effective way I found to answer that question was to easily display the information in a brochure. Through a brochure, I could explain the news and how it’s changed, as well as create a flow chart and analysis to try to answer the questions for students at the University of Michigan. The flow chart on the homepage of the website is a drawn-out version of the physical brochure that I plan to distribute on campus to help University of Michigan students find news sources they can rely on for information.