by The Cowl Editor on November 15, 2018
Opinion
by Katherine Belbusti ’22
Opinion Staff
Within the past few weeks, the news was filled with stories about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting tragedy, the Thousand Oaks shooting in California, and the midterm elections. With all these major news events happening so close together, it is so important for the public to stay informed.
For the average college student, that task can be difficult. At home, one can easily turn on their own TV and watch the nightly news for about five minutes to understand what is going on in the world around us.
At college, some students do not have TVs in their dorm rooms and even for those who do, the nightly news is most likely not the first channel they would think to put on.
So what does accessing news mean for some of our fellow students here at Providence College?
For Kerra DiPippo ’22, she receives her news from the news app that comes with all Apple devices. When asked how often she checks the news, she replied, “I rarely ever check and read full articles, but I get notifications about stories all the time so I usually just read the headlines to stay informed.”
DiPippo likes getting the news this way because the notifications she gets for news stories enable her to quickly gather an understanding of current events without having to read a lengthy article.
She also said she doesn’t have to read full articles if she doesn’t want to. Another beneficial part about the news app is that, “you can filter what kind of news you want to see so if you’re not interested in business or pop culture, for example, you don’t have to hear about those subjects.”All things considered, DiPippo seems to have a very reliable and reasonable grasp on news and receiving information.
Another PC student, Shannon Maguire ’22, also explained how she receives her news, why she likes getting her news this way, and how often she checks the news.
“I get my news from Snapchat. I subscribed to one of the news channels on Snapchat called Stay Tuned so that I can easily see the news headlines. The school weeks are so busy that I don’t go on Snapchat that often, but I try to check at least twice a day. I like to get my news this way because it seems pretty convenient, considering we all go on Snapchat. It gives you all the major news in 2 minutes or less and they update it throughout the day as they receive more information on developing stories. This is how I’ve gotten my news for a while and it makes sense for me,” says Maguire.
This less traditional approach to accessing news is very modern and helps show how the millennial generation is straying away from paper news and even from traditional news channels.
At the end of the day, staying up to date with current events is just one more thing that becomes more difficult for college students. Day to day life at PC can be a whirlwind, with so many events to go to and so much work to finish, news can become one of the last things one thinks about each week, let alone on a daily basis.
Staying informed is one of the most important things for our generation to do and it is easier to do than you might think.
If you are interested in a comprehensive summation of news events from the week that’s even entertaining, try watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. If you would prefer to read rather than watch, simply searching “this week’s news” into the Google search bar will result in many articles and top stories.
Next time you have to wait in an annoyingly long Dunkin’ line, scroll through the articles that are on the news app on your phone and see what’s happening in our world today.