Outlets I turn to during times of crisis

During times of crisis, people want information. They turn to news sources to find out what is happening on the minute. During these stressful hectic times, people often place a lot of trust in the media to get information across quickly and accurately. The problem that arises under this kind of pressure is that media outlets become so desperate for quick information that they often do not check their sources which results in false reporting to the public. False reporting can have a very drastic affect on the public by causing mass panic and even chaos in some instances. For this reason it is important to get your news during times of crisis from trustworthy and credible sources.


During times of crisis, especially in this day and age, it is easy to turn directly to the internet since that is the medium that gives us the best sense of control of information; we can search for what we want, when we want. Personally, I find that there is so much contradicting subjective information floating around on the internet, that I prefer to turn to a local news station first to understand what details and facts I should be searching for on the internet. Although I am aware that a local station may frame the news story a certain way as to mirror the values of the community, I will at least be able to answer the how, who, when, and where questions. Next, I may search for similar stories from different news sources on the internet. After I have familiarized myself with the situation and the nature of the situation I will turn on a more global, national newscast such as CNN. Because CNN is national and not local, I feel that I will get a less opinionated and more fact based depiction of the crisis at hand. 

The following is an interesting video about bias in the media...in this case during the crisis of the Iraq War.