The news media holds an important role in relaying necessary and relevant information to the general public. Whether it’s about the weather, matters from the government, current events, or updates for the latest tech, they deliver it all.
In today’s world, the news is distributed through several mediums. Among these mediums, the internet is considered the most popular, next to television. It’s a popular and easy medium of news dissemination that can quickly relay information from one place to another in a second.
But with the world wide web now full of news sites that can be accessed for free, it can be mind-boggling to discern which is which.
To help you out, here are five news media websites you can go check out for starters.
The Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal is an international news media based in New York. WSJ started as a daily newspaper, it was founded in the late 19th century by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser and is published by Dow Jones and Company. It was launched online as a news media website in 1996. Their website has since then grown to have more than two million subscribers as of 2020.
If you are interested in the world of business and finance, then this site is for you. The company has always meant to write mainly about business and finance and was created through a company aiming to write about finance in a fresh but logical manner. Until now, The Wall Street Journal keeps making just that, writing commentaries on the economy in markets, stocks, and just business in general.
What’s great about the site in general is it’s quality take on today’s economic movement, which is an achievement for a company that also gives different kinds of news daily. If you want to look upon financial insights, this is where you should go. It has won more than 30 Pulitzer Prizes for its 131 years of service.
Reuters
Reuters is an international news media company based in London. It is one of the biggest news agencies worldwide, with the company having more than 25,000 employees in more than a hundred countries. The agency’s name derives from its founder, Paul Reuter, who established it in October 1851, 169 years ago. It was known as one of the first news agencies to place value in writing about finance and international affairs. As of 2018, the website has over 35 million visitors every month.
Since several journalists are working for the company, Reuters makes sure that they follow their writing standards: it has to be fact-checked and unbiased. This means that they have to ensure that all the information they relay is purely factual and written neutrally, siding with no one. The company has been praised for being factual in their writing and being unbiased, citing reliable sources like local papers, and writing facts as it is, avoiding biased emotional language.
For over a hundred years and almost seven decades of public service, Reuters has been given several awards, including five Pulitzer Prizes on their accounts of international affairs and awards for innovation, technology, and having a diverse workplace.
The Economist
The Economist is a weekly international newspaper based in the United Kingdom. It was founded by James Wilson about 177 years ago in September 1843. While it is technically a newspaper, it is printed in magazine format. It has offices worldwide in Europe, Asia, The Middle East, and the United States. As the name suggests, The Economist focuses on the news on economy and business and covers several other topics such as politics and international affairs. The company currently has 1.7 million print and digital circulations.
The company’s way of writing is to write as if a single person made everything written in every single issue. Their writings’ voice often involves the proper use of language but with wit, expressing different kinds of wordplay to convey information as much as possible. You also do not need to be informed about several related terminologies in business or finance. They have written it in a concise and easily understandable way for someone with little knowledge about it.
Another way of expressing their uniformity invoice is the fact that they publish their editorial anonymously. This has been company practice unless for a few conditions: such as when the written article was on the date of the editor’s departure when notable guests are to write on opinions, special reports, and the like. The Economist also has its fair share of awards, often acknowledging the recognitions received by its journalists.
Associated Press
The Associated Press is a daily news agency based in New York City in the United States. It is a non-profit and a cooperative association with various journalists, both for newspapers and TV broadcasts. It was formed in 1846 by four daily newspapers seeking to provide news on the Mexican-American War. Since then, the association has grown as one of the biggest news agencies in the country, with 3,300 employees, writing over 2000 stories daily.
In terms of how it operates, the Associated Press collects information through various newspapers around the United States and around the world. This helps with certain fact-checking information the association wants to confirm with the stories they want to cover. As for political topics, the association has its journalists do the work themselves to avoid a biased political influence from other news media companies.
For more than 170 years of service, the Associated Press earned several Pulitzer Prizes, which are 54 in total, with 32 of them for photography.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation, more commonly known as the BBC for short, is a popular news media from London and is also considered the world’s oldest and biggest broadcaster. Unlike the previous news media, it relayed news and announcements (plus additional entertainment forms) utilizing radio when founded in 1922. It is also a publicly owned company as it is easily accessible to the public. Its online platform was launched in 1994.
There are several topics the BBC site discusses which you can easily look up. You can browse articles and watch videos on recent news and some discussions you might find interesting. As for news writing, they have their guidelines on writing their stories, something that they teach on their website.
BBC news’ scripting is based on three C’s: being clear, concise, and correct. Impartiality also matters in their writing. BBC’s content is mostly center, though have tendencies to lean to the left at times.
It earned several awards throughout its broadcasting service, most of which are recognitions for their aired shows on TV and radio (with the BBC being one of Britain’s best radio stations), and quality technology utilized in their broadcasting. They also host awards themselves.
In a nutshell
There are several ways where you can subscribe to news. But when doing so on the internet, always make sure to visit verified sites, have factual figures, and have the least amount of bias to a certain party. It is always crucial to stay factually informed to help you deal with today’s issues.
