Following on from the Hotel Rwanda thread I wonder how people feel about the News... Here are a load of questions that might help us get a feel for posts that ask us why we know or don't know what we do or should. Please answer as many as you can (even if it's only one or two), and you can be as short or as liong with your answers as you like. I'd like to debate the findings / issues raised after I've got at least 5 replies. So here goes:
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1. Where do you reside?
(don't be too specific here, this is a public board)

2. How do you get your news, and how frequently?
(TV, Newspaper, Radio, Internet, Other : Daily, Weekly, Monthly, hardly ever)

3. Do you want to be / do you consider yourself well informed?
(Yes or No or Maybe)

4. What news do you want?
(Local, National, Global, Other : Business, Current Affairs, Politics, Human Interest, Social Commentary, Law&Order, Entertainment / Celebrity, Sports, Weather, Specialist, Other?)

5. What news do you get, and do you feel you're getting enough?
(Does the news cover the stories you want in enough detail, or conversely do you feel you have to wade through too much spiel to get to the few grains of information that you want / need?)

6. Do you feel you're being manipulated through what news you (don't) get and / or it's coverage?
(Is the news you're getting politically biased? Are you being lied to? Are stories getting covered fairly? Do you feel you're viewpoint is being set by what you are exposed to in the Media?)

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7. What is your understanding of the following story:

Alberto Gonzales, currently the US president's chief legal adviser, has been accused of giving the green light for violent treatment of detainees, after dismissing the Geneva Conventions as "obsolete".

I choose this as it's topical, and being reported differently in the UK by different newspapers (etc). Do you feel that Gonzales is to blame? Do you feel this is another Liberal smear campaign hounding the President? Do you know about these allegations, do you know who Gonzales is? Does you news provider give opinion on this - or just report fact?
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My answers (which aren't the best or the right anwers, they are just to get the ball rolling):

1. Where do you reside?
UK

2. How do you get your news, and how frequently?
TV: BBC, ITN / Channel 4 - each day;
Newspaper: either:- The Guardian / Observer, The Independent or The Times - twice a week and at weekends, Legal Journals - monthly;
Internet: BBC Online, Reuters, Legal Journals - each day
Radio: BBC Radio 4 and World Service - every other day(ish)

3. Do you want to be / do you consider yourself well informed?
Yes, and yes(ish).

4. What news do you want?
National and World: current affairs, politics, social commentary, legal.

5. What news do you get, and do you feel you're getting enough?
I do feel that there is enough information (for what I want) out there, but it takes time to get to all of it, and I end up getting frustrated with stories that I couldn't care less about (sports and entertainment especially). Sometimes I will have to look at different papers / websites before I get the whole story, though the Beeb and the Guardian usually cover enough.

6. Do you feel you're being manipulated through what news you (don't) get and / or it's coverage?
The news is politically biased. Though to varying degrees. I find that the BBC are teh least biased of the news providers I've seen, at times I feel they could be far more critical, though that would lead them off their impartiality path. I have read articles from other papers (in particular the Mail) and I have been stunned with what I see as politicisation gone mad. Some providers even fabricating stories for political gain, and others (like Fox News) providing highly biased opinion as impartial reporting of fact. I'd like to think that I can see when I'm being manipulated, and certainly if I am, then as far as I can tell - it's more subtle than the approach taken by other providers.

7. Alberto Gonzales for Att Gen.
So far the BBC has tried to give it's hallmark as impartial as it can reporting on this matter, also the Guardian gave a fairly tame report. Though my feelings on this matter (as undoubtedly influenced through my own political bias and that presented by the likes of Alan Berlow of Salon.com) are that the Neo Cons wanted the war badly enough that Gonzales was only too happy to provide them with the loopholes (by discrediting the Geneva conventions) which did lead the way for Abu Ghraib... So here I'm actually going far further than my usual providers would in terms of political statement... perhaps I need a more radical provider?

1. Where do you reside?
The Northeastern US

2. How do you get your news, and how frequently?
The television (CBS, NBC, FOX, a particular show on Comedy Central, and sometimes BBC), 2 newspapers (sometimes 3), magazines occasionally, online (Yahoo!, MSN, Verizon, government web sites). I'll also occasionally tune in on the radio if I'm in the car or my cable is out. I read news stories for approximately 3 hours a day and listen when I am awake.

3. Do you want to be / do you consider yourself well informed?
Yes, but I do not always trust the media so I look to many sources to get the most accurate information that I can. When I don't hear about something, I get very upset (see the Rwanda thread)

4. What news do you want?
Firstly global, then national, regional, and local. I want to hear mainly about social affairs and politics, arts and humanities, weather everywhere, science, events, and food.

5. What news do you get, and do you feel you're getting enough?
I want to know about a wide range of things, so I find most news interesting, but there does seem to be a lot of 'Who's Brittany Going to Marry Next?!?' stuff I have to go through, as well as sports, which really don't mean anything to me. I really don't feel that the information that I do get is really in depth enough, I usually still have questions when I read an article or hear a story and can't seem to find enough about a topic.

6. Do you feel you're being manipulated through what news you (don't) get and / or it's coverage?
After writing for a school paper a long time ago and just writing a lot in general, I understand that it is hard to remain unbiased. I think that the media these days has a certain agenda. I am not a very trusting person and I have been called a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in '1984'. I do think that if I do read and listen enough, I will get a fairly good view of what's going on, although like I said I do want more than I am getting.

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7. What is your understanding of the following story:

Alberto Gonzales, currently the US president's chief legal adviser, has been accused of giving the green light for violent treatment of detainees, after dismissing the Geneva Conventions as "obsolete".

Alberto Gonzales, for start, scares the Hell out of me. He was some really crazy ideas about how America should go about things. As for this being "another Liberal smear campaign," I am very liberal. We do not smear, we want the best for everyone and freedom. I think that Alberto Gonzales is a masochist and he wants to dominate everyone that isn't a Christian, Republican, or American. It just kind of feels that way to me anyhow. As far of the Geneva convention, I believe it became obsolete after Abu Ghraib (spelling?). I think it was America that broke their promises and shouldn't have anything to say about violence against our soldiers. We are detaining people who had commited no crime that we have no evidence for, no due process which is guaranteed by the Constitution, and plenty other really terrible things. Just because someone is a)Muslim, or of Arab descent, does not mean that they are a terroist. It seems like the blacklisting of communists during the Cold War. Well, I am a Socialist and I feel for those supossed Communists who are my political cousins. I also feel for those that are being mistreated by the US government. Now, if the FBI reads this I am probably going off to jail to be tourtured, so I'll miss you guys.

1. Where do you reside?
Also Northeastern US (NY)

2. How do you get your news, and how frequently?
I don't generally watch the news on TV, except for occasional CNN, but I read the NY Times and my local paper daily, Atlantic Monthly for political commentary, The New Yorker weekly for the rest of it, NPR on the radio every day, and the headlines on AOL when I'm waiting for my mail to load. Jon Stewart and The Onion provide me with tasty fake news.

3. Do you want to be / do you consider yourself well informed?
Yes.

4. What news do you want?
All news, besides sports and human interest. I have almost as low a patience level for Timmy the waterskiing squirrel or Mr. Prickles caught in a tree for a year as the latest escapades of *insert sports star name here*

5. What news do you get, and do you feel you're getting enough?
This depends on the source. I believe the Times gives me the news I want, but things like aol.com are not exactly known for their journalistic integrity.

I feel like I do get the news I need, but sometimes certain events cause newsworthiness of other things to drop. For example, I read that the deaths in Iraq were at an all-time high during the tsunami, but no one reported it becasue they were busy counting bodies.

6. Do you feel you're being manipulated through what news you (don't) get and / or it's coverage?
I'd like to think my news is fairly balanced, but most of the things I get my news from are accused of having a liberal slant (Times, NPR, New Yorker). No, I don't find myself feeling manipulated, but that could just be what the subtext is controlling my brain to think.

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7. What is your understanding of the following story:


I found out about this originally from a New Yorker quiz (September, I think) asking about reader's awareness of the Bush administration and was surprised. Donald Rumsfeld has said some pretty terrible things about Abu Graib as well, and frankly, I don't believe they should be in the White House. The Geneva Convention was set in place for a reason, and to simply dismiss it shows more of the current administrations' growing disdain for the UN and for national allies in general.

1. Where do you reside?
Southern UK

2. How do you get your news, and how frequently?
On the radio most days.

3. Do you want to be / do you consider yourself well informed?
No (but at least I know I'm not)

4. What news do you want?
I just listen to stories that catch my attention.

5. What news do you get, and do you feel you're getting enough?
I just want to say that the news is one of the funniest shows on TV for me.

6. Do you feel you're being manipulated through what news you (don't) get and / or it's coverage?
No (but the possible manipulation is the reason I don't really watch/listen to it)

1. Where do you reside?
Seattle, WA, US

2. How do you get your news, and how frequently?
TV sometimes, Radio when the TV drives me batty, Newspaper when the headlines pique my interest or when we get a freebie.

3. Do you want to be / do you consider yourself well informed?
Yes, I want to be, but no, I am not.

4. What news do you want?
Politics, Global, National, Business, Weather, and Local, in that order.

5. What news do you get, and do you feel you're getting enough?
The news generally does cover everything I'd like to know, but I have to go to multiple sources to get the story in full without bias. TV is especially bad because the 5 minute blurbs they give don't give enough and are generally swayed to one side. Radio is almost useless in this regard.

6. Do you feel you're being manipulated through what news you (don't) get and / or it's coverage?
I'm absolutely certain that I'm being manipulated through the news. Every TV station these days has a bias, and many of the newspapers do, too. Frankly, it's so hard to get an informed, unbiased opinion that I'd rather ignore it all altogether. Not a good thing, and I don't like it, but they all just tee me off so much....

7. What is your understanding of the following story:

Alberto Gonzales, currently the US president's chief legal adviser, has been accused of giving the green light for violent treatment of detainees, after dismissing the Geneva Conventions as "obsolete".

I knew of the allegations, though I did not know who they were aimed at. I did not know who Alberto Gonzales is. My news barely even touched the subject. There's so much cr@p going around about how "questioning the president is un-American" that stuff like this is usually glossed over in a two line blurb. My opinion is that once we get this country straightened out, Mr. Gonzales, President Bush, and all other advisors and members of the cabinet who were behind this should be handed over to the UN to be tried for war crimes. And just think, if it was THEM being given this treatment, what would they be screaming about, hmmmm? Hyppocrites.