# informed.now Blog | Rethinking News

> Essays from informed.now on SMS news, news fatigue, AI summary accuracy, how news gets chosen, and why text beats email for news.

Source: https://informed.now/blog

## SMS News

- [News by text message: how it works and what happens before it lands](https://informed.now/blog/how-does-sms-news-work) (May 23, 2026): A text lands each weekday morning, and a lot happens before it does. What goes on between a story and your phone, who decides what makes the brief, and how the format stays useful.
- [What's SMS news?](https://informed.now/blog/what-is-sms-news) (May 18, 2026): Email is crowded and apps are exhausting, so a few services now send the day's news as a plain text instead. What SMS news is, who it suits, and how to pick a service that respects your time.
- [Why text beats email for news](https://informed.now/blog/why-text-beats-email-for-news) (May 18, 2026): Inbox zero is a myth, and email newsletters know it. Why a daily text gets read when a daily email doesn't.
- [Text newsletters vs email newsletters: which one actually gets read?](https://informed.now/blog/sms-news-vs-email-newsletters) (May 18, 2026): Marketers have compared text and email for years, but a daily news briefing is a different job. How the two formats compare in 2026 on open rates, fatigue, depth, and fit.

## News Avoidance

- [How do you follow the news without it following you?](https://informed.now/blog/how-to-follow-the-news) (October 19, 2026): Most people no longer follow the news; The news follows them through feeds and alerts with no end. A fixed time, a short list of sources, and a stopping point put you back in charge.
- [Can you get the day's news in five minutes?](https://informed.now/blog/5-minute-news) (October 12, 2026): An hour of news delivers the same few events told again, plus the anxiety that comes with the volume. Why the day's real news fits in five minutes, what five minutes can't do, and a six-step habit that works with any source.
- [How to read the news in ten minutes and remember it](https://informed.now/blog/how-to-read-the-news) (October 7, 2026): Most news advice covers what to read. How you read decides what you remember. A six-step, ten-minute method built on research into headlines, memory, and how professional fact-checkers work.
- [Fix your news diet: a 7-day plan to read less and know more](https://informed.now/blog/fix-your-news-diet) (May 23, 2026): Most people who feel buried by news don't need more willpower, they need a different setup. A seven-day plan: how to spot overload, what to cut, what to keep, and how to stay informed without reading everything.
- [The case for reading less news](https://informed.now/blog/the-case-for-reading-less-news) (May 23, 2026): The Reuters Institute's 2026 report found 42% of people avoid the news on purpose, many of them rationing it to cope with information overload. They may be onto something. Why reading less can mean staying better informed, and how to do it well.
- [News fatigue is real, here's what the data says](https://informed.now/blog/news-fatigue-is-real-here-is-what-the-data-says) (May 18, 2026): The Reuters Institute says 42% of people actively avoid the news, and most of them still think it matters. What the surveys found, why avoidance reads as coping rather than apathy, and why the fix is less volume with a hard stop rather than more willpower.
- [What is news avoidance, and what exactly are people quitting?](https://informed.now/blog/why-people-are-quitting-the-news) (May 18, 2026): Four in ten people now skip the news on purpose, and most of them still want to know what happened. What they're quitting, who they are, and how to quit without going dark.

## News Curation

- [What is news literacy, and how do you practice it?](https://informed.now/blog/news-literacy) (October 15, 2026): Most people can't reliably tell a factual news statement from an opinion, and a one-time lesson on spotting false news fades within weeks. Three daily questions turn news literacy into a habit that lasts.
- [What is a news digest, and what makes one worth reading?](https://informed.now/blog/what-is-a-news-digest) (October 13, 2026): A news digest promises the day's news in one sitting, yet two digests of the same day can share almost nothing. Judge one by what it cuts, whether it ends, and where it links.
- [Are there any unbiased news sources? How to judge one yourself](https://informed.now/blog/unbiased-news-sources) (October 7, 2026): Every outlet chooses what to cover and what to skip, so no source is unbiased. What drives slant, why each side sees the same coverage as hostile, and five checks that work on any outlet, including ours.
- [What is media bias? Seven types, and the ones readers miss](https://informed.now/blog/what-is-media-bias) (October 7, 2026): Most people check news for a left or right lean, and that's one of seven kinds of media bias. The seven types, what the studies found about each, and six checks that work on any story.
- [What's the best news app? Six questions that pick yours](https://informed.now/blog/how-to-choose-a-news-app) (October 7, 2026): Ranked lists of the best news apps compare features. What decides how an app treats your attention is who pays for it and who picks what you see. Six questions that work on any news app, including the ones you already have.
- [Curated news vs algorithmic feeds](https://informed.now/blog/curated-news-vs-algorithmic-feeds) (May 23, 2026): Whether an editor or a ranking model picks your news decides what reaches you each day. What each one optimizes for, what the research says about outcomes, and a two-week test that shows which one serves you.

## AI News Quality

- [Can you trust AI news summaries?](https://informed.now/blog/can-you-trust-ai-news-summaries) (May 23, 2026): In the largest study of its kind, the BBC and EBU found 45% of AI assistant answers about the news carried at least one significant issue. Where they fail, where they hold up, and what a sane 2026 news stack looks like.
- [How accurate is ChatGPT on today's news?](https://informed.now/blog/chatgpt-current-events-accuracy) (May 23, 2026): "What happened today?" The question people want ChatGPT to answer most is the one it answers worst. Where it fails, where it holds up, and a test to run before you trust it.

## Psychology of News

- [What is doomscrolling and how do you stop it?](https://informed.now/blog/doomscrolling) (October 7, 2026): Doomscrolling is reading bad news on a feed long past the point it helps. What the word means, where it came from, what the studies found it does to mood, sleep, and anxiety, why quitting the news doesn't fix it, and the four-step method for stopping.
- [Information overload: Why more news can leave you knowing less](https://informed.now/blog/information-overload) (October 7, 2026): More information than your attention can handle makes decisions worse without making you less sure of them. Letting the news find you backfires too, so the fix is choosing the volume yourself.
- [News anxiety: what it is and how to ease it without tuning out](https://informed.now/blog/news-anxiety) (October 7, 2026): Most of the events that make people anxious never reach them directly. The coverage does. What news anxiety is, what the research ties it to, the signs to watch for, and six ways to ease it without tuning out.
- [News addiction: The signs, the research, and how to cut back](https://informed.now/blog/news-addiction) (October 7, 2026): Most compulsive news checking starts with you, with no alert involved. Researchers call the pattern problematic news consumption, link its severe form to worse mental health, and point toward cutting back without quitting the news.
- [Why your brain keeps the bad news and drops the good](https://informed.now/blog/what-is-negativity-bias) (October 5, 2026): Bad news feels larger and more pressing than good news, and evolution is why. Everyday examples, what the research shows about negative headlines, clicks, and shares, and how to stay informed without surrendering your optimism.
- [How to stop doomscrolling without quitting the news](https://informed.now/blog/how-to-stop-doomscrolling) (September 27, 2026): Infinite scroll is built to keep you going past the point you'd have chosen. A four-step method that sets your stopping point while you're still calm, so you stay informed without the scroll.
- [What's doomscrolling, and what does it do to you?](https://informed.now/blog/what-is-doomscrolling) (September 27, 2026): The scroll starts with one headline and ends an hour later, and you feel worse without knowing much more. The word's paper trail, who does it most, and the size of every effect the studies found.

## News Industry

- [Rolling news vs nightly news: Which one keeps you better informed?](https://informed.now/blog/rolling-news-vs-nightly-news) (October 16, 2026): A 24-hour channel and a 30-minute bulletin start from the same day, and the difference is which one decides when you're done. What the extra hours cost, who still watches the nightly news in 2026, and five steps to get a newscast that ends from any source.
- [The true cost of a free news app: Data, attention, and accuracy](https://informed.now/blog/free-news-app) (October 14, 2026): No money changes hands when you download a free news app, but you still pay with your location, your device data, and your time. Read the four checks to run before you download the next free app.
- [Do most news companies just copy the same source? Yes](https://informed.now/blog/news-wire-services) (October 10, 2026): One reporter's story can run on ten sites and still be one report. How news wire services work, how much of the news is wire copy, what the studies found, and how to trace a story to its first report.
- [How news gets chosen](https://informed.now/blog/how-news-gets-chosen) (May 19, 2026): About seven criteria, mostly unchanged since 1965, decide what becomes a story and what doesn't. The framework editors apply, who runs it now, and why it explains what's wrong with most news diets.

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