Meet Oliver from Cupertino, CA. Right now, he writes software for a network security company, but is making plans to study neurology in the near future. In his spare time, Oliver likes listening to podcasts, editing Wikipedia, reading, and playing pick-up football.
Oliver, who tweets @olzhu, was kind enough to answer some questions about how he gets his news. If you’d like to participate, please let me know. To read the rest of the series, click here.
1. How do you get your news?
I mostly listen to news podcasts on Stitcher or read articles from my Twitter feed. And obviously, I listen to NPR while I commute. Occasionally I skim the front pages of Reddit or Hacker News.
2. Please send me a gif or video that captures your attention span.
3. How do you take your coffee?
Black.
4. Who’s doing it right in news?
Science Magazine’s podcast has perfected accessible science news coverage. I also like to skim phys.org, which is a little more in-depth.
5. What’s the first news event that you remember?
Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and the Kosovo War
6. What was the best thing that happened to you this week?
I just participated in my very first Capture the Flag hacking competition! So much learning, so little sleep.
7. What do you absolutely hate about the news?
I actually happen to be reading Brooke Gladstone’s The Influencing Machine at the moment, and I’m tempted to just defer to Brooke on this question, since there are so many frustrating things about the media. Really shitty science journalism in mainstream media is definitely up there. Narrative bias, which insists that news stories have to fit some narrative structure with good guys and bad guys and causes and effects, is another thing that really bothers me.