I use it daily. It is my principal source of news. I have
it customized. You
can select the edition. You can tell it -
"more of this subject area" and "less
of that subject area",
and furthermore, tell it to monitor for stories in areas
of
special interest to you.
If you mouse over to the right of any
headline you see
you get a button you can click on to see related articles.
That little area of the screen that held the headline and
the summary of the
article will now expand a bit and show
another article on the topic plus a
selection of thumbnails
with the names of other sources under them. There is
also a
horizontal list of related topics. Clicking on any of these
will open a
whole page of related articles.
There were some stories in the past, for
example, related
to international conflict, that were so incredibly
polarizing
it was hard to get an "objective" view from any
one journal anywhere in the
world. Google permitted me to
research the story to many layers of depth and
thereby I was
able to dig up the truth of the matter in the end. Without
Google, I would have never arrived at the view I gained.
I really don't
know what you are complaining about. Once
you learn how to navigate Google
News, it couldn't be
simpler.
However, you do raise a point, that we
must look at the
medium that is delivering the message and see how that
shapes
the message, so you introduce a stimulating topic.
Since I am a heavy Google
News user, you challenge me to
ponder this, and I do have some observations to
share...
Using Google to pursue what I am interested in most, I
tend to
overlook important developments right under my nose
that are less interesting
to me. For example, a few years
ago I stopped watching the traditional "Nation
News" nearly
every one watches (or watched) every night on TV. I always
thought I was well informed, and I couldn't bare to sit
through a whole hour
of what the news editors of that
program think I should see.
However,
from time to time I do catch a bit of the
nightly TV news maybe while clicking
through channels. I
might note something interesting is being shown, and
sometimes I will stay and watch for awhile. Then I discover
how poorly I am
informed about important topics and issues
right here in my own country of
Canada because I am so busy
following the news about developments in far off
corners of
the globe. It is part of good citizenship to be informed,
and I
have been failing in this area. Google would happily
adapt itself to show my
country's news. In fact, that is the
default I think if it doesn't know who is
watching, but I
always set Google for the US and International news by
default.
So the lesson learned is that Google News allows me to
indulge in the delusion that I am well informed, when in
fact from an
objective perspective I am not, and am failing
on basic citizenship.
Furthermore, these days I am telling
myself to watch the nightly news more
often, and have a
little more faith in these seasoned professionals to deliver
information that is important to any citizen of this
country. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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