How do you filter your news feed? That is the first step to confirming and securing that one will not become burned out or have a news overload. Depending on the site, many have filters built into their search engines. Not only that, there are specific sites and programs that help you do that as well.  

To connect, when reading a journalistic article, there are certain things that you must pay attention to; source (news site and author), subject, credibility, and relevancy. Those are all important aspects because they all factor into the paper that is being written. For example, would you trust a journalistic medical essay written by a lawyer, or vice versa? You also want to pay attention of the article is relevant to you and how it affects you.

You may ask the question, “how do I know if I’m overloaded?” The answer to some may be quite simple. You’ll feel it in your mind, for some their heads may pound, their opinion and thoughts may not make sense to themselves, or they just may not what to do the work/reading anymore.

Receiving multiple sources and papers can become extremely overwhelming, and it is hard to find a balance of staying informed and not becoming burned out. For many, that is something very hard to do. One easy way of doing that is by just taking a step back every once and awhile and rejuvenate your mind by doing other wholesome things. Not overloading oneself everyday is also something to consider; for example, just reading about one story per day or reading from a different news article everyday, etc.

Moving on, there are many positives about having so many available news sites within one’s reach. One of the biggest is that a person can have so many sources and perspectives, they can cover every angle of the story! For example, if one is writing a political paper, they are able to grab sources from CNN (mainly democratic) and Fox News (mainly Republican) to make sure they receive information from both sides in their point of view. Not only that, another positive thing about all the news sources, when being a consumer/reader, you are able to have all the sources with possibly different information and you can have the option of not becoming biased.

In an article, headlines can do two things– one, attract your attention, and two, just take you to a particular place you want to see. For me personally, I find that a headline always catches my attention, whether I go into a journalist paper with a purpose or not. That’s the point of a headline, to catch the reader and draw them into their paper.

To conclude, since there is, as some would call, a “barrage of information” in today’s day and age, it can both help and hurt the field of journalism. An obvious way that it would help is that since journalists have every single news source right at their fingertips, they are able to expand on their articles and get it from every single side. But with that also comes the fact that since they are able to cover every single side, they may become sidetracked, biased, overwhelmed, or miss the original intent of their story.

Freezing temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday, Jan 29 & 30, set new records for Detroit area, according to the National Weather Service. Alex Manion, meteorologist at NWS White Lake Office, said the Detroit area’s coldest recorded low temperature for Jan. 30 was in 1951 at minus 4. Manion said the forecast low for the Detroit area Wednesday is around minus 15.

Many were affected by this Polar Vortex, specifically schools, such as Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, MI. Upon seeing the cold weather about to hit the city, WCC cancelled school both Tuesday and Wednesday, like many schools in the area.

Tabitha Filimon, 19, a WCC student, said “ my car wouldn’t even start due to the weather being so cold, not that it really mattered since my driveway was so icy and had a layer of snow to top it off, I wouldn’t be able to leave for school had I wanted to or not!”

But the weather did not only affect the things outside. Students were having problems in their homes as well.

Andrew Gherasim, 17, a WCC student, stated that he was unable to get to school on Thursday morning, even though it was open, due to his doors freezing him and his family inside their home from the previous two days of cold.

Manion stated that even though Tuesday and Wednesday were the only days to hit record breaking temperatures, the days to follow would be affected by the previous cold. Gherasim is the perfect example of that. Students should be wary when walking around campus in the days that follow, making sure that they dress appropriately for the weather.

Another WCC student, Salome Buzguta,16, said, “ Even though I love school, I was so thankful that classes were cancelled so that I wouldn’t have to brave the cold weather for my education.”