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Eva Longoria sat down with former CNN Chief White House Correspondent, Jessica Yellin to discuss healthy news habits. During the conversation on the actor’s podcast, Connections with Eva Longoria, part of iHeartMedia’s My Cultura Network, the award-winning political journalist shares her expert opinion on how we prevent the spread of fake news on social media platforms like Twitter.
According to Longoria, she succumbed to the 24/7 news cycle during the Trump administration. “After the Trump administration, I had to put my head in the sand and turn off the news. I was addicted to this 24/7 cycle of breaking news, and I had to watch everything and listen to everything,” she revealed.
The actress and businesswoman said listening to the news all day became an unhealthy routine. “I would have it on when I would get up in the morning. I would get into my car, and it was what I listened to when I was streaming; I would get out of the car, and I would listen to a podcast, and then I would get home – it was just this cycle,” she said. “I realized I was having so much anxiety about it, and I turned it off, and I haven’t really gone back to it… I just want the facts; I just want to know what is happening in the world. I don’t want opinion news – I don’t want your opinion on it.”
Yellin, the Founder of News Not Noise — an independent news outlet with the slogan, “We think the news should give you information and not a panic attack” — advised Eva and listeners to detox from the news.
“My ‘News Diet’: first, turn off your notifications. I am a reporter; I need to know the minute things happen; you don’t. If you find out 5 hours later that President Biden made an announcement, you’re fine,” Jessica assures. “In advance, pick times of day and discipline yourself to not check at other times. Decide in advance what the sources are that you will go to and how much time you will spend on it – you give yourself that ten minutes and you go to your three sources, and that’s it.”
According to Yellin, following those steps “prevents you from going down the Twitter rabbit hole where all of a sudden you’re reading about World War III from some blogger you’ve never heard of, and you have to go to bed.”
“If you feel like it has caught you, you are panicking a little bit, literally put your phone down and close your eyes and remind yourself, that is the news, and this is me.”
Eva also asked the expert about the epidemic of fake news on social media and how concerning it is that people believe in conspiracy theories. The Mexican descent star questioned if there is something that news consumers can do to avoid believing and spreading misleading information.
“There are a couple of things – one is to pause before sharing information,” Jessica suggests. “Separately, pay for journalism. These newspapers are doing God’s work. If the Washington Post wants ten dollars from you, give it to them. If you can afford it, support journalism and don’t look for the workaround. If you’re not paying for it, you’re the product. I do think letting the people who run these networks know that you don’t like what they’re doing does make a difference – it adds up. You can Tweet it, and you can support organizations that are trying to correct them.”
Longoria said that she began to listen to the news again thanks to Jessica, and now she is more careful with what she reads. According to Eva, her news system of keeping herself informed is more curated and factual.
Quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity. Listen to the episode here.