News Sources

Overall, my news sources are fairly similar to my classmates'. I rely heavily on the internet for my news-gathering needs, especially websites that happen to be integrated into non-news-centered sites that I frequent, namely Yahoo and Google. The internet partiality struck me foremost in reading the comments of my classmates.
Many of us claim never to read the newspapers anymore, and I would be in that boat if it weren’t for one particular section I love; I save the newspapers for reading Annie's Mailbox, an amusing slot on the Features section of the C-J in which emotionally distressed people complain about how conflicted they are by cheating on their husbands, after which the authors, two middle-aged women, retort with very predictable comments. Whether or not this could be considered news is questionable, but it could be worth a discussion. I learn from it, and it comes out periodically, but it is probably not “necessary” to read such an article in order to be a responsible, involved citizen.
Before delving into the topic of whether or not we are capable of being considered “civically literate”, I want to say that to deny anyone from our class of this title does not make much sense to me. Being capable of carrying on the pressing discussions we find ourselves discussing in class and in these blogs is enough for me to overlook the possibility that we aren’t civic literates.
From our behavior, as we have blogged about it, I believe that we are not in nearly as bad of shape as Hedges might make out our age-group to typically be in. If someone were to walk into class and drop a topic on us, we could almost certainly discuss it intelligently, cite historical connections, etc. There’s nothing illiterate about us or our activities.