Sometimes it can be hard to know where to go for trustworthy news. And I’m not going to lie, there aren’t really any easy answers. But I do have some rules of thumb.

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Rule 1: Do not watch news. Read it! People read news to be informed. They watch it to be entertained. Don’t believe me? Look at what inevitably gets played in waiting rooms and break rooms. Network news. Are we really supposed to believe people are seeking out critical, challenging material on their breaks? Somehow, I doubt it.

To go further, it’s much easier to emotionally manipulate you with video than with text. I admit, I don’t have hard studies to back this up, but I strongly suspect the critical-thinking parts of our brains are far more active when reading than when watching.

Local, hometown news isn’t so bad on this point, but I advise staying the heck away from watching national network news. It’s just not worth it.

Rule 2: Avoid any news source with a business model that encourages spreading fear, anger, hatred, etc. It might be good for their ratings, but it’s rotten for society at large and people’s mental health.

This also goes for stuff from social media. The social media companies’ algorithms are geared to push poisonous nonsense. At the very least, be very skeptical of any posts seemingly designed to generate knee-jerk outrage or fear. This nicely segues into the next rule:

Rule 3: Keep track of who violates your trust! If one of your “friends” on social media keeps sharing the click-bait nonsense from rule 2, it might be wise to ignore the stuff they post. If a news source frequently minimizes or outright denies the existence of a problem you can observe with your own eyes, ditch them. They’re abusing you.

Rule 4: Diversify your sources! All news sources, despite their best intentions, will have inherent biases. These can be cultural biases, political biases, commercial biases, or all sorts of kinds.

I say go international! Compare the news from inside your home country to the news outside it. This can prove very illuminating. There’s no shortage of English language news sites around the world. And if you do know a foreign language, this is a wonderful way to practice and stay sharp.

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In closing, these are 4 good, reasonably techniques for protecting yourself from nonsense and staying informed. I have a few more rules I might elaborate on later, but just these 4 do wonders for boosting the signal-to-noise ratio.