No Stupid Questions
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
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I've been getting back into RSS lately, after following some advice from somebody elsewhere on Lemmy. I've been using Inoreader, which has a pretty decent interface. They also have mobile apps which sync with each other so you can keep your reading progress across devices.
Yes, but what sources? I feel like finding a way to consume things is less difficult than actually choosing sources. It's so much easier when you are using a link aggregation service that simply feeds you things selected by other users.
Inoreader has a bunch of preconfigured news sources you can subscribe to, and it also lets you add direct RSS feeds for and other sites you want.
Most of mine is gaming, tech, and world news. So things like IGN, Ars Technica, Wired, Verge, Polygon, Rock Paper Shotgun, Slashdot, and feeds to a few subreddits I still keep track of.
Just roll your own lists, that way you know where exactly the info is coming from, less risk of fake news. Kinda like making your own food at home vs eating out!
I like Axios for news, and News Minimalist which uses LLM to de-sensationalize news articles. Ars Technica for tech stuff.
Feeder is a nice RSS reader that works well for me.
I'll check out Axios and News Minimalist.
I've used RSS a lot in the past, but what I've found is nowadays RSS feeds deliver way, way too much content for me to consume. I do subscribe to the New York Times, which at least gets me major headlines.
I use Google news but i know it's feeding me what it thinks i want. For real news i use AP. I like Axios because they give "Go Deeper" or "Why it Matters".
For interesting, well-written, and in-depth articles I recommend:
The New Yorker Harper's (not Harper's Bazaar) The Atlantic New York Times Magazine
Can't rely on who publishes the article, usually. And cannot read just one thing. Have to rely on the sources cited in the article.
Are they nobodies or are they learned professionals? If they are anonymous, is the author a serious, professional journalist?
Another good place to dig into stories is in court records and legal filings. Cuts through the bullshit.
Now, you'd be out of time if you tried to dig into every story. There is too much going on. Pick a thing you know and care about. Filter not by source but by subject.
RSS. I use Feeder which provides me with a social media like feed of the RSS I subscribe to. So find news sources you like and try to add the rss link if there is one.
You can also use Google news to get rss of sites that don't have a rss link https://www.aakashweb.com/articles/google-news-rss-feed-url/
Do you want information or rage bait?
For information, go to AP and Reuters. Maybe the BBC. That’s what’s left. Everything else is “entertainment “.
CBC NEWS is pretty unbiased IMO.
I almost listed CBC, but most USians would consider CBC to have a liberal bias. Then again, many USians think math has a liberal bias.
What's USians?
People of the United States. Some take exception to calling them Americans when the entire continent is named "North America"
BBC and AP are great sources. Newsnation is a newer organization, but they have really good unbiased reporting compared to most stations nowadays.
Here's some handy charts regarding reporting bias and factual reporting reliability. It's a very handy site.
I used to use the chart from AdFontes - I preferred its granularity, but they have gone to a login wall. I don’t need more accounts and tracking.
Your information must be my rage bait.
in word: RSS
explanation: I looked into some RSS apps time ago and some apps (found a lot open source in F-droid) just need to search what your interest or keywords and it will find you source of news
I use feedly pretty much every day. The Times for reasonable news. Bloomberg because it's the closest thing to right-wing news that isn't batshit crazy. Lots of international sources for other perspectives.. BBC, Al Jazeera, Japan Times, etc.. Then lots of tech industry news just because that's my field.
The subscriptions are going to seem high when you first look but this is the reality of the current news landscape.. If you want legitimate news it's going to cost money. If you want legitimate news that isn't completely dependent on advertising, it's going to cost more money.
RSS
I subscribe to different news websites using a RSS app, or follow their Mastodon accounts, or get newsletters to my email. I like the news coverage from The NY Times, WaPo, Axios, NPR, The Guardian and The BBC. I don't check all the time, just when I feel like checking the news. I more frequently find news on link aggregator sites or forum type sites. You have to look around and build your sources.
Check out the Ground News app. I've been giving it a try on recommendation from a friend, otherwise I just use the same rss feeds I've always used.
If you're new to news, start with AP, Reuters, and Ars Technica, then add local stuff if you have it (BBC, CBC, Indigenous outlets as applicable, etc) and carry on with sources you like.
When you say you're getting your news from social media, you're really getting your news via social media. It's still published somewhere, ideally after having been written by a human journalist. What are the sites whose links you like to follow from reddit or mastodon? Subscribe to those.
And you've got yourself a news app!
RSS feeds... but if I had to pick one site to make sure i’m not missing anything of global importance, Wikipedia’s Current Events portal serves.
Get an RSS reader! I use NetNewsWire on iOS and Mac but there’s a huge variety out there to choose from. Once you’ve made your choice, you can add RSS feeds from different websites (Reuters, NPR, etc.), so you can have one feed that aggregates articles from all the news sources you’ve selected, or customise different feeds focusing on politics, economics, cars, whatever you want. I can even add in different substacks I’m subscribed to. Once upon a time you could also add your Twitter and Reddit feeds, but with the API shenanigans that’s not available anymore sadly
Consult one of these two media bias charts and this fact check bias chart. Decide for yourself which of those sources you want to follow.
One of the media bias charts is put together by AllSides, I donate a yearly subscription to them for their website which is great.
Shows all the important news stuff from left, center, and right sources so you can see the headlines and how things are spun, make up your own mind.
Here is a site that rates news sites that may help you pick what sites to follow via RSS. I am sure there are other pages like this if this one doesn't seem accurate to you. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
Awesome, I'm not the only one sharing this! Such a useful site.
An rss feeder is probably best but some effort required. Ground.news is also pretty decent.
For most stories it'll show you a few different sources for it.
The trick here is to use incognito mode while logged out to avoid being put in a filter bubble.
I usually use the AP or Reuters apps for general/world news and apps from either newspapers or TV stations for local(ish) news.
the first thing you have to check are owners of said sources and keep that in mind while you're reading.
in english there is the guardian which uses tags that help with following subjects and it doesn't belong to a businessman (bezos, murdoch &c). Some of my friends hate their opiniated articles but, for news, they seem to be reliable.
today in focus and science weekly podcasts from theGuardian also are an easy way of approaching actuality while doing mindless tasks
what other languages do you use?
Just english
There are daily news podcasts if you like consuming information that way. Apple News , AP News and Ground News are good news aggregates. Reuters has a cool app where you get to pick the amount of time you have (5 minutes to 30 minutes I think ) and it shows you the top stories in video format. RSS feeds of your favourite news sites with a RSS app like Feedly.
Good suggestions - some I have, but not ground news. My reader got it from openrss but didn't bring back any items.
Can you supply the source please?
This page is a nice way to see headlines for various topics.
https://brutalist.report/?limit=15
You can make an account and choose the sources you want and how many titles to show. That link will show 15 titles from each source. The titles refresh often, so it stays fresh.
Edit: Actually, I just compared the page before and after I logged in and I'm not sure if you can customize the sources. I'm not sure what the account actually does. If you want to specify your sources, I like using this online RSS reader: https://theoldreader.com/
I've been using since Google got rid of their reader. This one is sort of a copy. The site holds the RSS feeds that you enter, and there is an Android app that will let you sign in an view from mobile. I think the app is called gReader.
I highly recommend readtangle.com. I subscribe to the daily newsletter, and whether you lean left or right, it gets you out of your news bubble.
I dunno if you consider news aggregators separate from social media, but if you do then FARK is still alive and kicking. Pretty good coverage of mainstream news from a huge variety of sources, plus some occasional coverage of the less mainstream stuff (usually mocking it if it's really out there). Doesn't have anywhere near the volume of content that social media has, but the quality is typically a lot better.
Semafor
Propublica
Slate
Vox
I have used RSS before and didn't like it felt like I was wasting my time scrolling through I kid you not thousands of news topics just to read through only a couple of them that I found interesting now I use Twitter, YT, and a little bit Lemmy as a news source I don't care that much about being up-to-date with the latest news I read whenever I feel like it
I always have subscription for physical newspaper.