In this episode of the Radio DePaul Podcast, Sonal and Priya explore news overload: is there a balance between staying informed and staying sane? It’s easy to get overwhelmed by news coverage, especially by negative or disastrous events.
Taking a news break can prevent falling into “doom scrolling.” At the same time, choosing to ignore the news is a privilege; not everyone is able to easily shield themselves from what’s happening in the world.
We talked to professor Alexis Howell, an adjunct professor at DePaul teaching journalism. She is also a zone manager for News Nation at WGN America — a national tv station in Chicago. Working as a zone manager, Howell looks up news stories in various areas of the country for her station to report on. Staying up to date with the news is integral to her job, making her somewhat of an expert when it comes to consuming news.
Howell provides insight on news consumption and how to maintain a healthy balance between staying informed and preserving mental health. We also talked with journalism student, Corey Schmidt, and photographer, Sanjana Stein about their thoughts on news consumption.
Sources:
News Clips – KVUE, WGN, ABC