By Advaita and Hasini
Newspapers are essential in influencing the decisions made by people and in spreading awareness about certain topics around the world. News can be found in a variety of ways, such as social media, newspapers, newsletters, and more. However, not everyone reads the news (this can lead to new avoidance) and it can be for many different reasons. We interviewed Ayush, from Grade 12, Karthik, from Grade 8 and Meghana, from Grade 9, who all gave interesting insights on their relationship with the news.
Ayush, a student from grade 12, follows the news at least once every week and views the news on online websites. He doesn’t usually pay attention to the news. When reading the news, he feels disappointed, amused, and interested due to all the information that is being received. According to Ayush, in a time where news is accessible to almost everyone very easily, something should be done to ensure that fake news being spread is kept to a minimum. He struggles with getting the most out of information from financial news since most studies are not easy to understand to a reader.
Meghana, a 9th grader, doesn’t follow the news very often and reads news on online websites. She enjoys reading the news since it is a platform to learn about the world and events everywhere. However, she doesn’t enjoy reading national news as it is always filled with negative headlines. Other sections, such as sports and education, have interesting headlines that grab the interest of the reader.
Karthik, from grade 8, follows the news once every week or more and gets news mainly from online websites. He likes that updates spread quickly and the news spreads very fast. However, with reading news online, subscriptions are required, and for someone who isn’t entirely interested in the news, the subscriptions are not necessary. Karthik usually skips those articles, bringing down news consumption.
In conclusion, news on online websites is accessible to many people and gives a variety of useful information about the world. Nonetheless, some articles can be difficult to understand, and sometimes the headlines themselves cause readers to avoid the article; this is usually the case with articles related to politics and COVID-19. The news can cause readers to have different feelings and can also change their opinions entirely. This is why avoiding the news has become a common thing among youngsters.