Five Sources I use

 

It should come as no surprise when a journalism student or an established journalist says they're never willing to trust a single source of news. Currently, I'm a first-year journalism student with heavy involvement in news casting. On Mondays, I work my role in a broadcasting club as part of cast, the talent, for international news. One of my responsibilities as anchor is to find stories, verify them, and write a script. My minimum number of sources to verify is three different writers and from different news stations. I don't trust any source as individual sources, but I trust the same story across different writers and stations.

For now, out of the sources I've used, some are listed below:

1. CNN
2. BBC
   
3. Euronews
4. NPR
5. NBC

CNN: Cable News Network

Headquartered in Atlanta, CNN was founded in 1980 as a 24-hour news network. CNN has been subject to biased writing and reporting like so many sources, so it's a source I prefer to use more like journalistic Wikipedia. It's a start to searching what story I may be more interested in investigating and/or reporting on international news for Monday broadcast. The network provides a quick story one can skip through and provides images related to the story. Much of CNN's headlines are also the same headlines to other networks, which is why I call CNN a Wikipedia of journalism. It provides a start in networks based in the U.S.A.

BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation

Founded in 1922 Central London, London, BBC provides anything between World News to Business and Technology. CNN provides a little less than one of its European, specifically UK, counterparts. I use the BBC because researching and reviewing international news isn't really international research if its all done exploring the story exclusively from an American point of view. While the BBC provides more information and an alternate understanding, its website is a little busier and harder to skim through than CNN's website. However, it's a good beginning to cross reference information. Additionally, since the BBC isn't an American publication, the BBC provides an external view into the United States and other Americas.

Euronews

Euronews is set up a little differently than the previously mentioned sources and a fairly new publication, as it was founded in 1993 in Lyon, France in order to provide a European view. It accounts for general European news, world news, sports and travel-based stories, like culture. It's a blend of BBC and CNN in its set up as well. The headlines are organized with large images like CNN organizes their stories, but the writing is similarly broken up like how the BBC writes and places images. Euronews is also like the European journalists' Wikipedia: general, short, sweet, and a starting point for European news. I find some stories on the front page of Euronews that I have to dig through to find in American or more national-based publications.

NPR: National Public Radio

NPR is a non-profit broadcasting station with private and public funding going into their East Coast HQ (in Washington DC) and their West Coast HQ (in California). The East Coast HQ is the main headquarters and was founded in 1970. Unlike a majority of sources, NPR sorts its stories through News, Culture, Podcasts and Music. Live updates are on the primary home page. NPR shares most of its top headlines with CNN and is another research starting point to cross reference. I usually opt not to use NPR as a main source, but rather a base to find stories off of and grow from there with other sources.

NBC: National Broadcasting Company

Lastly, NBC, based primarily in NYC since 1926, is a rather popular news station, reporting from international news to entertainment both in broadcast and print. It's another American publication sharing much with other American news stations but with a slightly bigger amount of stories and writers on similar stories. While I do like using NBC as a more credible source than CNN, it doesn't provide as easy access to stories without having to specify "X news" in a search engine. Providing live updates and a multitude of stories, NBC is one of the main sources I reference to verify a publication I don't trust as much (like CNN). 

Trust but verify every source.