Strategies for staying informed?

Hello folks,

I find watching the news quite upsetting. It's inherently biased and can paint a very grim picture of the world by only reporting the very worst things happening in society. At the same time, I also want to have a good sense of what's occurring in the world....including some positive things. Here's my question: has anyone found a way to stay informed without watching the nightly horror show that is "the news?" I should mention that I live with depression and also fall higher on the empathy scale...I am sometimes prone to negative empathy. I realize that some folks might watch the news and not feel overly troubled by it....this is just my own personal reaction.

Any ideas?

intead of watching the news what about finding your news websites. then only clicking into the stories you want to read about. thats what I do when I am in a very triggering place. I go to my local news websites and be very choosy on which articles i want to read about. also news websites have more than what they broadcast. they dont have time on live tv to show everything so they show the key headlines that are of interest to a majority of their audience. my local news has not only the headlines around the world but the good things too even contests and goings on in my community.

I just check out the headlines on the internet and read what I'm interested in--and read my local newspaper. I don't watch the news on TV.

I find that one of the best ways to stay informed about positive things is to try to find a website that deals with what ever it is you want to know
for example, I know a woman who subscribes to a website about cats and often shares with people in her email addressbook positive cat stories

also, their's google alerts. if you google alert the right thing, you can get some good stories.

one of mine is "weird news", some of those are pretty cool

another thing (slightly weirder) is finding a news source for children

kids news outlets tend not to dwell on the deeper stuff as much (A because kids won't understand, B because it's a kid audience and they want to share things kids are interested in).

just some ideas

I tend to avoid the "top stories"

it's usually the top stories that are the sad, usual, doom and gloom

I try to find some of the other, more happier news stories

one thing you could try is looking for local news, rather than national

I try to avoid video newscasts in general, as there's a high probability of encountering imagery that I won't be able to get out of my head. A couple of times a day I check the headlines of a couple of news websites, and read a handful of articles on issues that interest me.

There's very little chance of completely missing out on an important news story, because if it's that important a lot of people will be talking about it. Unless there's something that you yourself have to do immediately (for example, finding shelter because dangerous weather is coming), even the top headlines can wait.