My morning starts off with the trusted Apple alarm in the tone my husband and I call the “abandon ship” tone. After being startled awake at 3:30 A.M. I negotiate with my dogs the much needed additional nine minute snooze and then my media consumption begins.
I turn on the HomePod to a classical channel in the hopes that today, it will help quell my dogs barking at all moving objects in the neighborhood. I’ve been doing it for over a year now with little impact, so clearly this is all for me.
The first thing for me is the Facebook app on my iPad. The first store is my local CBS news feed which tells me about another random attack that occurred in Queens last night. I also take a peek at the weather because it felt pretty cold when I just took the dogs out so I need to confirm my suspicions that it is in fact freezing cold right now. I then click on two CNN stories about the impeachment process shared by friends, along with a Dodo post about a koala bear and a Samantha Bee post about last night’s debate.
Next it is on to my email, where I check and respond to my husband who is away on a business trip. We are in the final stages of the home buying process so it is tedious details that seem never ending this week. Next it’s on to deleting all the nonsense but not before clicking on a US Weekly link about how Megan and Harry are doing up in Canada. Then I look at the NY Times daily briefing to see if there is anything I missed, there isn’t, I am fully engaged with the news today.
I spend the next 9 hours at work with only a quick check of Facebook and my emails on my lunch break. Once I get home, I look at all the emails from the day and check Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to help decompress from the day.
I squeeze in an hour of homework, then turn on the local NBC news in the background while I am making dinner. I finally sit down to eat and the articles of impeachment are being delivered to the Senate. It feels so formal that I watch the full process. After which Lester Holt’s Nightly News is on telling me about the team chosen for the impeachment trail. Since it’s an early day tomorrow after the news I shut off the T.V. to spend time with the dogs before going to bed. In bed it’s my usual standard of Facebook to browse before nodding off to sleep.
I consume a lot of media but do not really create any. I believe I am pretty savvy at determining what is credible and what is not. While I do sometimes click on links that are questionable from sites such as Mother Jones, I understand that they are heavily skewed. Today was a neutral day because there was so much to consume on my normal media sites. For the media today, I would list the news programs of CBS and NBC at an 8 for credibility. I would also place the New York Times there. I would give CNN a 7 because I believe they get a few more things wrong. Dodo is animal interest and I would like to believe it is at a 10 but they are probably closer to that same 7 ranking. Samantha Bee is satire for the most part, but her actual news reporting I feel is a solid 8. Oh and US Weekly is low, probably around a 5 but that only helps to make them interesting.
