As a 20-year old that hasn’t yet found a love for news, I don’t consume much digital journalism. Finding an interest in reading books has been difficult in itself since the majority of my age group doesn’t read (thus it is difficult to share this with others). A lot of people my age (myself included) do listen to podcasts which I think can be helpful in staying up to date with current events and sparking critical thought. Would love some recommendations on how to start mindfully consuming digital journalism!
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Thanks for chiming in @SamuelCarr – that’s a useful perspective. I think podcasts share a lot of good properties with email newsletters. They provide a focused, edited scope of information provided by a trusted source. I’m curious – do you think something email based stands no chance with your peers?
Thanks for pulling together these thoughts, Lydia! And as you and I have discussed in person over the years, the firms you mention here are, as far as I know, doing the most interesting things re: digital journalism and worthwhile content production. 
What I’m not seeing mentioned so much, is where/how the habits of consuming digital journalism have evolved as technological habits have evolved. It seems like organizations are starting to figure out how to suitably monetize and support long-form content (paywalls and newsletters) but what seems harder is finding a model around short-form content. I wonder if either, 1. Twitter handles this so well there’s no need/opportunity to do it differently; or 2. Short-form/quick content is just not appreciated enough to ever merit a new approach.
You can see the reason I wonder this: if Twitter fails to adapt to a better way of operating, where/how will we be able to thoughtfully find, consume, and discuss short-form and breaking news? Seems like an interesting opportunity/challenge.
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I have never used social media for news, but then I stopped using social media in much of any meaningful way besides blogging about 10 years ago. Part of me feels I am not well directly informed by experience for what 2/3 of the online population does to get their news and information. On the other hand, there is a kind of sigh of relief that I managed to dodge all of that for years.
My news diet mostly consists of Medium, the BBC, RSS readers (yes, feedly!) and surprisingly Flipboard… the latter of which I have liked because I have the option to tweak what I want to see more or less of, including outright blocking news sources. Interestingly, those controls have allowed me to winnow out news sources that are completely bogus or irrelevant… and while also allowing alternative viewpoints to come through to otherwise challenge my information bubble. It’s also allowed me to tweak out most of the minute-by-minute alarmist anxiety attacks over Trump tweets that serves no real purpose in my life.
I am sure I have holes, gaps, and some glaring problems in my media diet. But I can at least say that it hasn’t felt like it has completely disrupted my health and life. Interestingly, all of those news sources are on a pull and not push (notification) basis, which also helps.
And probably dating me as a pre-millennial dinosaur, I can’t do podcasts nor video news anymore than I like to listen to voice mail. Passive, serial-format media generally doesn’t do it for me compared to reading. Funny how the old formats can still stick with you. The thought of listening to a podcast makes me think of being stuck in traffic, so I try to avoid both.
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