Meet Dael Jackson. She is 32 and runs the box office at a theater department at a Catholic college. She’s a newly-minted MBA and she loves to travel. In her words: “I find it so relaxing to remove myself from everything I know and love to get to know other cultures. I took a second job a bit over a year ago specifically because it offered me the option to travel abroad sometimes. The job itself is really rewarding and I don’t think I’d give it up now, but the original selling point was absolutely the travel. Most recently I was in South Korea. It’s an amazing country with kind people, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt safer as a women and a foreigner. Between my bad chopstick skills and being a vegetarian, I was really sick of bread and kimchi by the end of the week, though. *^-^* I love to go hiking and read as well, both of which I get to do a bit more since I’m not independently wealthy. They both serve as an escape from daily life, which is something I really appreciate since my job is pretty stressful.”
Dael, who tweets @honestturtle, was kind enough to answer some questions about her news consumption for my series “How Do You Get Your News?” If you’d like to participate, let me know.
1. How do you get your news?
I have a pretty wide number of places I get my news. On TV I watch CBS in the morning before work (local for a half hour and national for a half hour) and The Daily Show & Colbert at night. Driving to and from work I listen to NPR, about an hour of time total. If there’s a particular story I want to learn more about, I’ll use BBC or Al Jazeera online and recently I’ve been turning to Tumblr and Reddit more for stories that I don’t feel like I’m getting the full picture on.
2. Please send me a gif or video that captures your attention span.
After thinking way too long, the best fit I can think of is this video.
3. How do you take your coffee?
If possible, with peppermint creamer. If not, milk and a splenda.
4. Who’s doing it right in news?
One person that’s really impressed me lately on Tumblr is the person who writes I Write About Feminism. Despite the blog title, she’s been doing an amazing job with the Michael Brown shooting. She does a lot of content aggregation from those on the front line and answers a lot of questions from her followers. Also, she loudly and publicly admits it when she gets something wrong, which is something I find amazing in a person and in a media source. The other thing that I’ve recently fallen in love with is bit-of-news. I usually know their top stories, but the second set of longer reads is a must for me most of the time because they’re so interesting and eclectic. (Mel note: See here for more about bit of news.)
5. What’s the first news event that you remember?
The Berlin Wall falling. I remember thinking how strongly those people must feel to literally rip out pieces of concrete.
6. What was the best thing that happened to you this week?
On Thanksgiving I got to feed my 7-week-old niece her bottle. The way she looked at me while she ate was just breath-taking.
7. Where do you live?
Emmaus, PA
8. What do you absolutely hate about the news?
That I no longer feel like anywhere will give me the whole story. Instead it’s what fits in a short segment and is often aimed to confirm their audience’s existing viewpoints. I think it’s so easy to leap to wrong conclusions and the news doesn’t often serve as a balance to that like I think (or maybe just wish) it should.
Thanks for this. Its been really interesting to actually think about how I consume news!