When it comes to understanding what is happening in the world around us, whether it is global news stories, national politics, economics or other current affairs issues many people today suffer from one of two problems:
The first problem is information overload. There are so many different news sources out there, often portraying world events from a very different perspective as well as highlighting different issue and supporting (either explicitly or implicitly) a particular political stance that it is almost impossible to know where to look. Faced with this many people can become cynical, or simply close themselves off from all this information altogether.
The second problem is reinforcement due to social curation and niche media. Perhaps you have your favourite sites which see the world as you do, and perhaps you also read stories which are recommended to you by friends. In this case you may find yourself only reading stories which confirm your world view, and only coming into contact with facts and arguments which support your own political opinion.
Between these two things it can be very difficult to get a clear, reliable, concise and accurate picture of the big news stories of the day or the big issues which the world faces.
If you are concerned about this and would like to form an accurate and unbiased view of what is happening in the world and in the news then the most important thing to do is to recognise which of these problems you are most likely to suffer from, so that you can take steps to solve it. You should also remember that no single news source can be 100% unbiased. Some kind of bias will always creep in, even if it is not deliberate. This may be simply because of space – there is no way that an author can include every salient fact in an article and no way that an editor can publish every story, so the choice of facts and stories will always introduce some form of bias. Also many news stories will in some way contain the political opinion of its writer.
The next step is to steer clear of news sources which are explicitly biased or which are well known for supporting a certain political bias. If you can find a couple of news websites, television programs or newspapers which are at least trying to be unbiased then that will serve you well – and you do not need to read both every day, or read the same story in each. I think that just switching between news sources every now and then can really help you to gain an objective view of current affairs.