Junior Garrick Nate reads an article on an online news website. Photo by: Shelby Harrell
By Shelby Harrell
As the world has many events occurring, students try to keep up with current events by watching the news or reading the newspaper.
Junior Clayton Lenig described his feelings about keeping up with current events. “I primarily receive information through articles via new sites like National Public Report or report videos.” He also occasionally watches the national news networks. Agreeing that news networks are a good source, Junior Ryan Mac Clain said, “I typically get my information from T.V.” With all of the news sources out there, it is easy for students to pick an event that interests them.
Junior Garrick Nate said, “Syria, North Korea, and the return of professional and college football,” interest him the most. Agreeing with Nate, Senior David Walsh said, “The Syrian civil war, and all of the chemical warfare,” have triggered his interest. “The U.S. is going to get involved and that is something we don’t need in the U.S,” said Walsh, “because it will put a lot of civilians in danger and bring more debt to the U.S.”
According to Lenig, the numbers of current events reported in social media are rising. “Social media is better for creating uprisings in third world countries,” said Lenig. Junior Ryan Gibbs agrees with Lenig. Gibbs also said, “The social media can consist of many people who like to watch the news.” While students’ opinions of social media vary, there is one thing that they still have in common; that it is important for students to keep up with current events.
Nate discusses his opinion by saying that it is important for people to know what is going on in the surrounding world. Mac Clain said it is also important to know what is going on around them “because it is a great way to have a better understanding on what is going on in our country and other countries as well.”
Juniors Clayton Lenig and Ryan Mac Clain read news magazines to keep informed about global current events. Photo by: Shelby Harrell
As part of a growing population, many must wonder about whether or not the amount of students interested in keeping up with current events has increased over the years. Nate believes that rather than simply not caring, students just do not understand current events. “I don’t believe that students understand the depth of the major issues that our country faces on a daily basis,” said Nate, “I think for the most part that people are just more focused on what is going on in their own lives.” Whether interests have changed or not, the things that have changed are students methods of reading up. From reading the ink on the fresh printed newspaper, to reading the text that has been posted on the CNN website page, students’ methods of keeping up on their world events have changed over the generations. When giving his standing Gibbs said, “Yes, we have went from sacrificing poor defenseless trees to being able to find any specific topic of news online.” Corresponding to Gibb’s comment, Lenig said, “The changes are pretty obvious, such as social networking, blogs, online articles, forums, websites, podcasts, and the list goes on.”