A current affair- Keeping in the loop on the move

Once again welcome globetrotters to our regular convention on all things travel. As news items seem to arise and reach global media sources at a faster speed than ever before, your GTG this week has nominated to discuss various ways of keeping up to date with current events, specifically those that may affect you, your home area, where your friends/family may be, and where you may want to travel to (after all if Ricky Martin was about to be touring nearby wouldn’t you want to know about it…?).

• Ex-pat newspapers– Newspapers are always a fabulous excuse to appear busy in a café while really taking in the locals and the atmosphere. As we also include long-term travel and re-location in our discussion, ways of maintaining connection with previous homes may become even more important over a longer period of time. Countries where immigration has been a significant contributor to the current culture such as Australia, Canada and the US have specialized newspapers facilitating this continuum of connection. Examples in Australia include the Irish Echo, Scottish banner, various Chinese language newspapers, Serbian, Bosnian, Arabic, Polish, Greek, Italian and Croatian language newspapers. If you’ve gone through all your local and world news, why not give them a whirl, even as an anthropological experiment to see what reaction you get while reading them.

• Online news– Undoubtedly this is the quickest and most up to date way to check in on the news. This said anyone who has spent one night away from home can vouch for the varying degree of ease with which internet can be accessed and the number of things that need to be attended to while online. This article was generally written without smartphones/Iphones in mind but your GTG knows how quickly the battery in those things can be used up. For English language news the GTG recommends www.bbc.com/news/, www.guardian.co.uk/, and  www.abc.net.au/news .

• English newspapers– As a sort of sub-category of ex-pat newspapers, English speakers are privileged to have access to newspapers in our own language covering local and world news. This applies to those English speakers living in non-English speaking areas. In Japan, the daily Yomiuri and the Japan times are two major examples of papers that will break down the local news (which is tough to follow unless of course you read Chinese characters, if so, kudos) alongside world news.
  

• Facebook– As tacky (and by tacky of course I mean awesome) it may sound, facebook seems to be the best way to stay in the know when it comes to your favourite bands, venues, and sporting teams. Sporting scores, the latest tour announcements, the latest to leave your favourite terrible reality tv show, and social events are amongst the many worthy events perfectly suited to this kind of news feed.

• Independent publications– These are the kind of publications that keep you in touch with a particular group or with a particular aspect of life such as going to live music events. Examples of this include Metropolis in the greater Tokyo area which covers all kinds of events, exhibitions, and local/world news with the added benefit of humour and cultural interpretation. In Edinburgh, one publication to watch would be the skinny which is a guide to live music and other events.

• Your GTG– far be it from yet another shameless plug, this blog alongside many, many others can be a great way to get brief updates on things and let others do the time-consuming research.

• The Metro-  This one is particularly great because it’s free, regular and in easily digestible doses. The Metro is a daily magazine masquerading as a newspaper. It has a delightful balance between ‘real’ news events, sport, and pop culture. The daily horiscopes are of particular value and news specifically relevant to the city you’re in gives a great sense of community. Look for your Metro weekday mornings in many major European cities such as Dublin and Edinburgh.

Many of you will have additions to these ideas and your GTG loves your input. Other ideas include heading to a local café and seeing what reading material is up for grabs. Hostel foyers, newsagents, train/bus stations and airports are all other places you may come across the relevant headlines. Also check your travel guide before setting off for specific methods of getting your newsey bits in a particular destination (such as a radio frequency broadcasting in English in South America specifically for gringos). Well as always it’s been a pleasure, happy reading, happy globetrotting, stay informed and till next week.